Wikipedia acts against consiousness, claiming that latifundia, or huge land plots in property, can only be found in Latin America. It turns out that there are huge latifundia in Russia, in particular in the Voronezh and Ryazan regions. These treasures belong to the same family, a large and friendly family of the governor Alexey Gordeev, who was in the recent past the Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation.

But here's what the Voronezh citizens observes: the more the governor's family business expands, the dreary life becomes in the region he heads. Probably, it was after Mr. Gordeyev controlled the immense agriculture of vast Russia, and he obviously got accustomed to the taste of work in vast territories. And just can't abandon his habit now. As a governor, Mr. Gordeev has served since 2009. At the same time, in the MIA Russia Today's rating of regions on the standard of living of, the Voronezh region ranks 36th. A Voronezh family with two children after minimal expenses has only 16 thousand rubles. Thus, there is a certain paradox: a successful, rich regional leader and, to put it mildly, not very well-off ordinary people. Marvelous are your deeds, Lord!

From the manager to the ministers

Let us recall some noteworthy facts from the glorious biography of Mr. Gordeev: after graduating from the Moscow Institute of Railway Transport, specializing in the construction of railways, track and track facilities, Alexey Gordeyev served in the Railway Troops, took part in the construction of the Baikal-Amur Railway, and then worked as a manager of a Moscow agrofirm, managing the distribution of packaging. We can assume that his further career path would have been long, hadn't it been for his majesty the chance: an unexpected acquaintance with the future Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation Viktor Semenov. After Semyonov became Minister, Gordeev very quickly found himself next to becoming his right hand. However, Semyonov was forced to leave his grain office a year later, after a scandal erupted in connection with the verification of the minister at Interpol's request. As a result, Mr. Semenov had to get down from public office. And the minister's seat was given to his first deputy Alexey Gordeyev.

Under Gordeev, scandals shook the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation constantly. So, since 2001, he personally oversaw the activities of the scandalous (now) Rosagroleasing company. This company had to buy equipment from domestic producers using the public funds, and then sell it in installments to farms. Gordeev appointed Elena Skrynnik as the head of Rosagroleasing. With this exotic lady, who now has her own hacienda on the Cote d'Azur of France, Gordeyev turned out to be mates at the Academy of National Economy. What ended the activities of Rosagroleasing? Complete collapse. Billions of budget rubles were plundered.

War with pigs

But we will move from Moscow to the Voronezh region, to the present patrimony of Mr. Gordeev. During his work, the Voronezh region, as once the Ministry of Agriculture, has also become a supplier of scandalous news. For several years, probably under the direct order of Mr. Gordeev, pigs are being destroyed in the region. The "Pig War" has been going on since 2013. The official reason is the allegedly outbreak of the epidemic of African swine fever (ASF). At first, due to the regional budget, pigs were bought from the population for their destruction. But then the orderlies began to just come to private farms.

The Internet edition "Meat Gazette" tells how they fight allegedly with the pig plague: "Veterinarians came with the police, showed Gordeyev's decision, threatened a fine of 50 thousand rubles. Against the backdrop of all this, a certain Agroeco company (the ultimate owner of the asset, apparently, is the son of the Governor of the Voronezh Region, Nikita Gordeyev) started the construction of two pig-breeding complexes, an elevator and a mixed-feed plant. "The project is being implemented with the support of the regional government, within the framework of development programs of the agro-industrial complex and social and economic development of the region. The volume of investments, including state ones, is 13 billion rubles. In this case, the sole founder of Agroeco is the Cyprus ECO Agribusiness Holdings Ltd." Everybody is free to make conclusions.

The Union of Pig Breeders reports

And the war with the pigs continues. Often even perfectly healthy animals are slaughtered. So, since July 2014, 10 thousand healthy pigs out of 40 thousand have been sent to ZAO Agrokombinat Nikolayevsky of the Anninsky district of the Voronezh region. Again because of the ASF! In the meantime, in spite of the pig plague, the cost of the meat factory put up for sale, located in the Anninsky district of the Voronezh region, suddenly increased from 9 to 20 million rubles. The people wrote on blogs that the analyzes did not confirm the plague in Nikolayevsky, and the whole slaughter could simply be an operation to destroy competitors.

Now people affected by the authorities' swine abuse, united at the forum fermer.ru. Stories they tell are heartbreaking. "We have a young man hanged up in the village of Dyachenkovo in the Boguchar district. More than 100 his pigs were slaughetered, and he took a loan of 2 million rubles...". In January 2015 Voronezh summed up: the war with pigs reduced the number of pigs from 485 thousand to 55 thousand heads. The biggest damage was suffered by farmers and private traders: their share in the total number of pigs in the region fell from 30 to 7.6%. And the prices for pork have grown for a year by 55%!

In April 2015, decrees of Governor Gordeev in Nizhnedevitskiy, Repyevsky, Semiluksky districts of the region were again quarantined. The fight against pigs continued in March 2016. And in April 2016 it suddenly became clear: the Voronezh region entered the top-five of the leading regions for the production of pork. In general, in Russia in January-February 2016, the growth was 12.5%, and in the Voronezh region - 74.6%. This was reported by the Union of Pig-breeders of the Russian Federation.

Andorra milk

And now let's take a close look at the economy of the son of the governor, Nikita Gordeev. Under the management of Nikita Gordeev there is a huge plot of land of 458 square kilometers at Oka Agro. In size, it is almost like the state of Andorra (467 square kilometers). The site is located in the Ryazan region. This is a kind of a "family" nest of Gordeevs. Oka Agro Holding was established in 2009. The owner of it, according to the Federal Tax Service, was initially recorded as Nikita Gordeev (at that time he was 23 years old). The young Gordeev by that time had just graduated from the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University. And even worked a little as an assistant investigator in Gagarin inter-district prosecutor's office in Moscow.

According to the SPARK-Interfax system, the revenue of Oka Agro in 2015 was 47 million rubles. Agrofirms "Shatskaya", "Sarayevskaya", "Oka Moloko", "Vozrozhdeniye" earned more. Their proceeds amounted to 286 million rubles, 364 million rubles, 402 million rubles and 32 million rubles, respectively. Today, Gordeev, Jr. is also a deputy of the Ryazan regional Duma.

And it becomes quite clear why the family of the governor Gordeev is so rich, and the families of farmers and private traders are being squandered. And why Voronezh villages are dying so rapidly. As reported by the same Union of Pig-breeders of the Russian Federation, the Voronezh group pf Agroeco in 2015 rose six places in the ranking of the largest pork producers, from the 20th to the 14th place. A good business for Voronezh latifundists?

BTW

In the Soviet Union, African swine fever (ASF) was recorded only once: in the late 70's. And they eliminated the plague quickly then, despite the fact that the density of pigs was then ten times higher. In Russia, the ASF virus first appeared in 2007. Since then, the Rosselkhoznadzor has recorded more than 400 outbreaks of plague in 26 regions of the Russian Federation.