Recently, the aggressor-controlled “Sevastopol media” reported plans to develop the area surrounding the crumbling Baidar Gate with “tourist facilities.”
The project design was commissioned by “Vysota 503,” a local entity established last year, and was produced by the Vologda-based firm “North-West Design Institute”; in reality, the project amounts to a hotel complex.
The “Sevastopol authorities” had been preparing this scheme to destroy unique landscapes for quite some time, having staged “public hearings on the planning documentation” as early as last March.
Elena Shabunina, formerly the manager of the “iconic” “Shalash” restaurant in the same area, is listed as the “director” of “Vysota 503”. However, the ultimate beneficiaries are hidden behind “founders” identified as the Kazan-based firms “Alnair” and “Restor.”
These firms, in turn, are linked to “founders” such as Sergei Kucheryavenko, a figurehead listed in the aggressor’s registries as the owner of hundreds of entities, and Alexander Pichugov.
It is through Pichugov that the beneficiaries of the planned Baidar Gate development can be traced; he previously made headlines in Kazan as a “Tatneft”-linked figure involved in disputes surrounding the Chekhov Market, and his contact email is a corporate address from “TatAISneft,” a branch of “Tatneft-Digital Technologies.”
The occupiers have also registered a number of other subsidiaries under “Restor,” including the Sevastopol-based entities “Resurs-A,” “T-Nefteprodukt,” and “Park Foros.” The latter was implicated in a scheme from five years ago involving the development of Foros Park, specifically to serve the interests of “Tatneft”’s leadership.
Elvira Shrsha, the current “director” of “Park Foros”, has also been listed as the “director” of “Foros Wellness & Park”—”Tatneft”’s Crimean holdings since 2016.
Also the entity “Parus”, which is registered to the aforementioned restaurateur Shabunina, was involved in these operations.
Most notable, however, are the entities “Resurs-A” and “T-Nefteprodukt”; they handle wholesale supplies of motor fuel from “Tatneft” to the aggressor’s military units in Sevastopol.
Vladimir Tyutkalo, a Sevastopol native, is listed as the “director” of both companies; his two brothers, Valentin and Anton, have spent the last 15 years building careers aboard Russian Black Sea Fleet vessels—serving first on minesweepers and later on landing craft and in personnel units.
The specifics of the situation allows us to suggest that the construction of the aforementioned hotel complex at the Baidar Gate will be funded by “Tatneft”, which controls the non-public segment of the Crimean petroleum market linked to the Russian military, while the ultimate beneficiaries will be specific bigwigs from the inner circle of “Kazan Orphan” Rustam Minnikhanov and his “oil overseer,” Nail Maganov.
