However, the deal raises many questions. Rostekh and Minpromtorg have been long trying to sell somebod the shares of Russian Helicopters. Back in 2011, at the peak of sales growth of Russian-made helicopters, shares of the holding were attempted to be sold on the London Stock Exchange. But the attempt to conduct an IPO failed miserably. The shares of the advertised "the only Russian developer and manufacturer" didn't attract any buyer. 

Further attempts to realize this dubious asset were also unsuccessful. Many buyers were offered to "part with money" in exchange for the "helicopter" shares. In 2013, Rostec tried to get money from the Anglo-Italian AgustaWestland, but the deal never took place. In April 2016, Minister Ulyukaev, after a meeting with the business community of France, said that the Airbus concern was allegedly interested in a stake in the holding company, but the French quickly disavowed this information. It would seem that it's time to abandon the idea to avoid further shame. But Chemezov and Manturov need financial injections to "expand" the huge debt burden of the main shareholder of the helicopter holding JSC "OPK" Oboronprom ", which has accumulated over the years of its dubious activities. At present Rostec seems to be conducting a "quiet" liquidation of this department, but the huge financial hole in its budget does not allow it to be done without additional financial injections.

The forgotten OPK Oboronprom

Over the recent years, neither Denis Manturov nor Sergey Chemezov, nor their subordinates have tried to avoid thinking about Oboronprom. But this entity, for example, owns 91.69% of the ordinary shares of the helicopter holding. Therefore, virtually all the funds from the sale of the package will come from this organization. A simple citizen will have no benefits from the sale of the holding company, because the Russian budget will not receive a penny from the sale of shares of industrial facilities that were previously in federal ownership and donated to JSC OPK Oboronprom under the decree of the Russian president on November 29,

At present, through simple manipulations with state property, Chemezov succeeded in securing 100% of shares in JSC Oboronprom for Rostec, together with state-owned industrial assets that were federal property, which had once been transferred to the state free of charge. Chemezov and Manturov, in several stages, deprived the state of the federal property, which is undoubtedly worthy of closer attention of the competent authorities. But while the FSB General-Colonel Sergey Chemezov is omnipotent, he has nothing to fear. The fight against corruption in Russia in relation to such figures is never conducted.

Now, when Chemezov needs to get rid of JSC OPK Oboronprom , he urgently needs to get money somewhere to pay his debts. The plan to eliminate this "toxic" entitiy was hatched for a long time, the general director of Rostec repeatedly voiced it. That is why all the time, starting in 2010, Chemezov and Manturov have been frantically searching for a buyer of shares in a helicopter holding. In early 2016, the Minister for Trade in Industry, Denis Manturov, said that "the Russian government decided to privatize the Russian Helicopters in 2016, discusses the share to be sold: 49% of the enterprise shares can be sold to a strategic investor from the Russian Federation, 25% to a foreign investor" . In fact, under the concept of "the government of the Russian Federation," Manturov, apparently, understood himself and his patron Chemezov. After all, only these two people are legally controlling the asset put up for sale: Sergey Chemezov as the general director of Rostec and Denis Manturov as the chairman of the supervisory board of this organization.

Feverish investor searches and long-awaited "Arabs"

The investors, realizing that in Russia gambling with the state is extremely dangerous, did not yield to persuasion to buy the shares. And then there was an avalanche drop in external orders for Russian-made helicopters, which had to be compensated for by budgetary purchases. From the beginning of 2016, Chemezov and Manturov often visited the United Arab Emirates, and at the same time information appeared that they intended to give 25% of the holding to "good Arab hands". Later it was announced that the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RFPI) will participate in the privatization, in fact, again a budget organization that allegedly organizes a consortium with the Arabs.

And Minister Manturov informed the public that at IDEX-2017 in Abu Dhabi he had finally managed to negotiate with the unnamed Arabs about the sale of shares in the helicopter holding. However, contrary to the original plans, only 12% of the shares of the management company were to be sold to the Arabs. Not much. But the concessionaires are not discouraged, they are trying to find further means for patching the financial holes of JSC OPK Oboronprom with the assistance of the naive Indiands. As it turned out in practice, the newly created and repeatedly advertised helicopter holding, managed by "effective managers", is completely unattractive for investors. It is only possible to realize its shares with great difficulty. And in this case, since neither Rostec nor RFPI name the mysterious Arab funds, there is a doubt: have there really been any Arabs? It is possible that in this way some Russian unnamed "players of the invisible front" return the previously withdrawn from Russia funds. And such an operation is caused by the need to close the financial holes of JSC OPK Oboronprom in the conditions of budget deficit. Otherwise, there would be no need to keep the public deal in secret.

Financial hole

Where did the huge financial hole, now called JSC OPK Oboronprom, come from? This story is worth describing, because its meaning is not inferior to the notorious mortgage auctions, thanks to which a group of interested people in the early 90s, relying on state funds placed by the RF Ministry of Finance in commercial banks controlled by them, put pieces of public property into their own pockets. To understand this is not so difficult if we analyze the mechanism invented by Manturov, which in 2003 was liked by the all-powerful Chemezov, by the example of buying up shares in JSC NPO Saturn (the rest of the transactions were conducted in a similar way).

When in 2004, by decree of the president, JSC OPK Oboronprom was formed, a number of packages of defense enterprises, which are in federal ownership, were transferred under the management of this entity. But many shares of defense enterprises were in the hands of private owners. That's where a scheme of buying up assets was organized, logically resembling a scam with mortgage auctions, when the Ministry of Finance of Russia scrolled by private banks. After the creation of JSC OPK Oboronprom and the transfer of shares from the federal property to it, Chemezov and Manturov proclaimed a "patriotic" program for the consolidation of the defense industry. It sounded beautiful, although "patriotism" was probably just a cover for the purely commercial interests of the participants in this process. If federal packages of JSC OPK Oboronprom were received for free, then for calculations with private owners, for obvious reasons, the money was needed.

And the newly born entity didn't have any. Then the following decision was found: JSC OPK Oboronprom conducts additional issue of shares and places them among investors. Needless to say, no private investor will incur money into the newly born empty company. Most likely, that is why the shares and other financial surrogates, which were issued by JSC OPK Oboronprom, were acquired either by the state in the person of the Federal Agency for State Property Management, or banks under state control, or by entities close to the state. It is clear that in the end, the injection of money into JSC OPK Oboronprom was a burden on the federal budget. But then the commodity market grew and no one calculated the balance. On the contrary, there was a lack of relatively honest mechanisms for pumping them out of the budget. One of such mechanisms was JSC OPK Oboronprom.

It should be noted that, having received funds for the "patriotic" consolidation of defense assets, the lmanagement of JSC OPK Oboronprom almost never participated in direct transactions. As it was with JSC NPO Saturn, all shares were bought up for intermediate structures that acted in the interests of JSC OPK Oboronprom, or rather the groups of comrades behind this screen. For example, shares of JSC NPO Saturn's shareholders were bought out by ZAO PrimeLitex (23.85%) and OOO Mekom-lux (24.91%) - this was the package of the enterprise that controlled the management headed by Yuri Lastochkin. And only then the shares were bought by JSC NPO Oboronprom itself. What delta in this transaction was in the accounts of CJSC and LLC, nobody knows. But it is logical to assume that rather big. Otherwise, the management of JSC OPK Oboronprom would not make the show with the intermediate companies, and patriotically and transparently would immediately buy shares in favor of JSC OPK Oboronprom.

Absolutely all the transactions took place approximately according to this scheme. The state pumped into the JSC OPK Oboronprom the budget money, buying out the financial surrogates, and then on this money through private structures, private stakes in enterprises were purchased, of which Rostec subsequently formed its holdings. According to the same scheme, JSC Helicopters of Russia was also shaped. For example, when buying up the Novosibirsk Aviation Plant, the role of the money separator was performed by ZAO Russian Helicopter Company, controlled by the long-time friend of Manturov, Artur Shtankov (who later headed the Helicopter Service Company). 

Perhaps, through front companies, the enterprises were bought at artificially high prices to ensure the delta for intermediary separators of the financial flows. It looks like the initiators of this scheme believed that after the consolidation of the assets in the holdings the capitalization will increase and, having sold part of the shares (as in case with Russian Helicopters now), they'll patch the financial holes. But, as we know, the market has falled. The price of the assets was much lower than the spent budget funds and the financial black hole to be serviced sucked in more and more money.

That's how a financial hole called OPK Oboronprom was created; and now they want to fix it with the help of the fabulous Arabs.