Ukraine continues to sell off its largest state-owned enterprises, the State Property Fund of Ukraine decided to put the Black Sea Shipping Company under the hammer, the decision to privatize it was made on January 11, 2017. An announcement about this was posted in the official publication of the Vedomosti Privatization Foundation.
According to sources, the pitiful remains of the ChMP are planned to be sold for about $3 million.
The state enterprise "Ustdunayvodshlyah", which specializes in the construction of water structures, is also subject to privatization.
Ukraine has lost the oldest shipping company on the Black Sea - the pride of millions of its citizens. In May next year, the CMP could celebrate 185 the anniversary of its founding (in 1833, the joint-stock Black Sea Steamboat Society was created to establish permanent relations between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. The base port of the shipping company is the city of Odessa), but the company is unlikely to live to see its anniversary.As of 1990, the Black Sea Shipping Company (ChMP) was the largest in Europe and the second in the world. It consisted of more than 400 ships of various classes with a total displacement of 5 million tons. Since 1991, i.e. since the collapse of the USSR, the CMP has passed to Ukraine. The number of courts by 2006 decreased by more than 20 times.
The saddest story of the death of the Black Sea Fleet is associated with the disappearance of about 300 ships (with the home port of Odessa) from the payroll of the Black Sea Shipping Company during 1993-2001.
27,000 sailors worked at the ChMP, 22,000 of them now sail under a foreign flag and will never return here. If they come to Odessa, then either to visit their family or to visit.
The Black Sea Shipping Company had financial problems almost from the first days of Ukraine's independence. Back in 1993, attempts were made to corporatize the company, but they were stopped.
The shipping company's fleet was steadily declining, its debts, on the contrary, were increasing. Since 2006, the company has been undergoing a reorganization procedure.
Today, the Black Sea Shipping Company has only one vessel left - the self-propelled pontoons "Parutino".
Recall that the State Property Fund also put up for sale the Odessa Portside Plant (OPZ). Last year, both attempts failed - the auction did not take place due to lack of applications.
Thus, Ukraine, as a maritime power, ceases to exist - another page of its history - the history of the Black Sea Shipping Company was sent to the scrap. The current leadership of the country is doing everything to destroy the economy of the once prosperous state, sell off its assets, doom the people to poverty and extinction.
(Part 1)
Today, few people know the Indian port point Alang, but the time will come, and the story of the tragic death of the Black Sea Shipping Company (ChMP) will be written, and then Alang will sound as ominous as Tsushima. But, if Tsushima is not only tragic, but heroic pages of our fleet, then Alang is a disgrace to the leadership of the ChMP, the leadership of Ukraine. Alang is a lighthouse fifteen miles south of Bhavnagar, on the sandbar of which ships of the NMP were thrown out at night, sold by temporary workers for next to nothing or written off for metal. Alang is a graveyard of ships. (In addition to Alang, ships were sent for cutting to Chittagon, Aluaga, Calcutta, Turku - ed.)
After the collapse of the USSR and the division of the property of the Ministry of the Navy, Ukraine got the most delicious piece of the naval pie - the world's largest Black Sea Shipping Company. The structure included 11 ports, 3 shipyards, the technical fleet department Cherazmorput, the ASPTR expeditionary detachment, a repair and construction trust. More than 100 thousand people worked at the enterprises of the shipping company, including about 30 thousand sailors. In 1990, there were 367 ships on the balance sheet of the CMP, which brought the state a net income in the form of currency. For example, each voyage to the USA (1.5-2 months) of one vessel of the Mossovet type (gas carrier - ed.) brought 1 million am. USD freight. But literally in 8 years of independence (independence), the new owners destroyed the once prosperous shipping company.
With the transition to market relations, state-owned enterprises have become feeding troughs for directors. So, for example, a number of objects of the Odessa port were transferred to foreigners for joint activities. At the same time, tariffs for transshipment of goods were underestimated. The act of checking the KRU of the Odessa region. it was recorded that only in the first 6 months of 1996, during the transshipment of oil products, the state suffered damage in the amount of 4,605,379 US dollars. USD
The temporary workers, under the guise of reorganizing the fleet, carried out a shameless scam to bring the most profitable ships of the ChMP to offshore zones. The management of the courts was fragmented between different management companies that were not subordinate to the CMP. For a certain "bribe" such an agreement was drawn up that at the end of its action the state lost these ships. For example, some of the ships of the ChMP were transferred to the English company "Silver Line Ltd" with subsequent repurchase, some of the ships had to work off loans, and on such conditions that these loans could never be worked out, because. freight rates were understated and operating costs inflated. As a result, the ships became unprofitable, huge debts were hung on them, which the shipping company could not pay. After that, the ships were arrested and sold at auctions at low prices. So, for example, the ship "Med Sky", one of the highly profitable ships of the ChMP, which was under arrest for more than two years, was sold on November 19, 1997 at an auction in Rotterdam for 2.7 million dollars for overdue debts of the ChMP to creditor firms. The average selling price of other universal vessels is 1 million US dollars. dollars, while the cost of a new vessel of this class is about 20 million am. USD and more expensive.
In addition to sales at auctions, ships were intensively sold for scrapping, and those that could still work and work. For example, in 1995, the motor ship "Ismailia" was repaired in China. Repair cost 600 thousand am. USD The repair was carried out with high quality, a new satellite navigation system was installed on the ship. The Maritime Register confirmed the class of the vessel until 2000. And a year later, Ismailia was sentenced to be thrown out in Alang. The buyer purchased the ship, along with all documents, at the price of scrap metal and put it back into operation.
The scale of such activities can be judged by the figures that have leaked to the press. Thus, only from August 1995 to March 1997, the management of the ChMP sold about 60 ships abroad and scrapped them for metal. More than half of them found their last refuge in Alang, Chittagon or Calcutta. In the first 10 months of 1996 alone, 28 vessels were sold for next to nothing. In total, in 1997, ChMP planned to sell 44 vessels. The total amount of proceeds was hidden.
In 1995, P. Kudyukin, president of the joint-stock shipping company Blasco (ChMP), was arrested and put on trial for "strike activity" in plundering the fleet. But Kudyukin was judged in Nikolaev, and not in Odessa. First, he was charged with theft of 456 thousand German. marks, which threatened 12 years in prison, but then, through the efforts of interested parties, he was convicted only for apartment fraud. As if the Black Sea Fleet was not squandered by Kudyukin together with ex-president Kravchuk. According to the Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine G. Omelchenko Kudyukin and a number of foreign firms, about 1.3 billion am. USD to a personal currency account No. 457 opened on February 4, 1993 in a bank in St. Maurice (Switzerland) in the name of Alexander Kravchuk, the son of the ex-president. Justice did not deal with these scams.
In 1997, the South Ukrainian prosecutor's office initiated a criminal case on the fact of the illegal sale of twelve ships. For official forgery and theft of state property through appropriation, embezzlement or abuse of official position, V. Solodovnikov, head of the fleet technical operation department of the Black Sea Shipping Company, was arrested.
But the destruction of the fleet continued. The management of the company changed one after another. The affairs of the company were so confused that it was impossible to say: how many and what kind of ships the CMP had, how many and to whom it owed. So, for example, since 1996, the ship "Taras Shevchenko" was owned by the company "Ukrpasflot" - a subsidiary of GSK ChMP. In 1998, Ukrpasflot transferred the vessel to the Liberian offshore company Cable Navigation for operational management. At the same time, Ukrpasflot put the ship as collateral for a loan received from Graf-Credit Bank. In connection with the non-payment of the loan, the bank initiated a lawsuit. In February 1999, Taras Shevchenko was sold at auction to the British company Clean Finance. Ukrpasflot, the prosecutor's office of the Odessa region and Cable Navigation appealed the results of the auction to the Supreme Arbitration Court of Ukraine, and in December 1999 the deal was declared invalid. At the same time, the Clean Finance company at the end of 2000 sold the ship to the Ilyichevsk Sea Fishing Port, which is part of the Antarctica Autonomous Republic. The ship is now at the berths of the Ilyichevsk Shipyard, where repairs ordered by Antarctica are underway.
At the same time, the Minister of Transport of Ukraine Valery Pustovoitenko declared that the Cable Navigation company belonged to the state of Ukraine, but this did not prevent the Ministry of Transport of Ukraine from banning the national registration of the Taras Shevchenko motor ship in 2002, stating that it was inappropriate to raise the Ukrainian flag on a ship that can be taken out of the country as belonging to owners from abroad. Two organizations claim for the ship today: the Ukrainian joint-stock fishing company "Antarctica" and the Liberian offshore company "Cable Navigation".
Teams led by the presidents of the CMP A. Diordiyev in 1997 and S. Melashchenko in 1998 tried to somehow save the situation, began work on an inventory of accounts payable and, in general, all the property of the CMP, tried together with the Greeks, Germans and Russians to create a Financial and Industrial group to revive the fleet. However, the companies that enriched themselves at the expense of the shipping company did not like this, and the Ministry of Transport did not like it either. There, another task was set for the fate of the shipping company, and these workers were dismissed.
Foreign companies, sensing that in this state of affairs one could profit well, overestimated the debts of the shipping company several times over, arrested ships, and sold them at auction. For example, in 1997, the largest creditor of CMP, the Swiss financial and commercial company Planmarine, presented CMP with a debt in the amount of 53 million US dollars. USD However, this amount was not documented in any way. An audit of leasing contracts and agreements signed between CMP and Planmarine showed that the debt is only 18 million US dollars. USD But, despite this, Planmarine arrested more than a dozen ships of the ChMP. CMP ships were hunted all over the world. Dozens of ships were under arrest in foreign ports. The following figures speak of the scale: in 1997, more than 25 ships were arrested. 16 went on sale, 19 were purchased. More than 20 ships of the Ukrainian passenger and merchant fleet were under the threat of sale. The maritime industry was in decline. Of the two hundred ships that were on the balance sheet by this time, less than twenty remained afloat. The pride of the ChMP was arrested - the ship "Odessa", "Karelia", decommissioned for scrapping "Ivan Franko".
The proceeds were deposited in foreign accounts, and the crews were not paid salaries for months. People were dying of exhaustion. So the electrician Lapshin died on the ship "Odessa".
Telegrams were sent to the leadership of the GSK ChMP and the ILC of trade unions - a cry from the heart, but no one answered them. Motor ship "Svetlogorsk" 6.02.97 “Your silence is incomprehensible. The ship ran out of diesel fuel, food, detergents, bed linen was not changed for three weeks, there was nothing to buy cigarettes. The crew has been working for nine months, extremely excited, there is nothing to feed, cook food. Requires payment of debt in foreign currency for August-February 73,000 am. dollars, replacement by the CHMP vessel. Captain Bugun."
Motor ship "Professor Kudrevich" 6.02.97. “The ship was abandoned by the shipowner Blasco without a bunker, provisions, which led to an extremely difficult situation. Please help with advice, contact ITF Israel with a request for practical assistance to the crew. With the arrival of the port of Ashdod, they began an indefinite protest action until the full repayment of all types of debt. They demanded the KM (captain-ed.) to apply to the port authorities to provide assistance to the vessel with a bunker, provisions on the security of the vessel, cargo. Looking forward to your help and advice. If our problems are not resolved, the crew will be forced to leave the ship and go ashore. At the request of the crew of the pre-trade union committee Gorbenko.
The crews were forced to strike. A strike is a powerful tool, but, unfortunately, this method did not work then. The shipowners were not interested in preserving the ships - they were not responsible for anything, they simply left them to the mercy of fate. The ships were sold for next to nothing. The sailors lost their jobs.
The crew committee was at one with the administration. The crews were unable to unite their few strike committees and take the work of the courts and the administration of the ChMP under their control. The sailors, like the entire working class of the USSR, were not ready for this. Under the conditions of the plundering of socialist property, the crews of ships could not fundamentally change anything.
It was a crash. By 2001, only 3 ships remained in the ChMP. The internal debt of the campaign reached 207 million hryvnias, the external confirmed debt amounted to 81 million US dollars. dollars, and the same is not confirmed. But the leadership of the maritime industry saw the cause of the collapse not in the criminal squandering of public property, but, according to the chairman of the Association of Shipowners of Ukraine A. Kurlyand, in ... the inability of leaders to work in market conditions.
On June 21, 2001, Minister of Transport Pustovoitenko at a meeting of heads of maritime industry enterprises in Odessa said that the CMP had actually ceased to exist, that the state did not have the funds to revive the campaign. CMP will exist until the complete liquidation of its own debts. The funds were allocated only for the work of the ChMP bureaucracy in settlements with 271 creditors. According to the Minister of Transport Pustovoitenko, external debts of CMP are assumed by the state, while internal debts are to be written off. This means that the inhabitants of Ukraine will pay with their labor for everything that the leaders of the ChMP and those who stood behind them appropriated and squandered.
Today, 93-95% of Ukrainian cargo is transported by foreign ships. 27 thousand Ukrainian sailors sail under foreign flags. But the emerging bourgeoisie needs its own navy, and at the same meeting Pustovoitenko announced the need to create a new shipping company capable of taking on the functions of the Black Sea Shipping Company. It will have to deal mainly with commercial transportation with a minimum share of government orders.
This role is claimed by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP). She began to implement the Fleet of Orthodoxy program. The UOC-MP, together with the mayor's office of Odessa and other investors from Zaporozhye, Nikolaev and Donetsk, bought out a controlling stake in the shipping company Atlas for $40.5 million.
Pavel Kudyukin, the former president of the ChMP, became the director of the new Atlas shipping company, the same one who led the destruction of the ChMP. Kudyukin said that the company intends to use the profits received for the needs of the church, as well as the purchase and construction of new ships. Thus, according to the Fleet of Orthodoxy Program, it is planned to create a fleet of 120-150 ships within 10 years. The main goal is the return of Ukrainian sailors under their native flag and the revival of the honor of Ukraine as a Great Maritime Power.
The interest of the church in the fleet is understandable - this is a very profitable business, especially if you do not disdain smuggling. Not so long ago, border guards met one of the Atlas ships carrying barrels of smuggled alcohol. However, the crew managed to throw the smuggled goods overboard. Believers in the best parishioners of the village of Severnoye (Chernomorsky district), having fished out fifty such barrels (each with 168 liters of alcohol), staged a feast of Neptune. According to a long-standing maritime tradition, an ownerless cargo is considered a “prize” of the one who found it, but the Ukrainian police did not know such a tradition and, ensuring private property rights, began to seize Neptune’s gifts. Moreover, the manufacturer was indicated on the barrels with alcohol - the German company Mauser. However, for this, the "caesar of the sea" punished the policemen - they drank free alcohol and died ...
In seismically active areas of the World Ocean, tsunamis (from the Japanese “wave in the harbor”) are observed, resulting from the shift of sections of the seabed during underwater earthquakes. Having reached the coast, and concentrating its energy, this wave produces devastating destruction on land. There is no tsunami on the Black Sea, but still the Black Sea Shipping Company destroyed the tsunami - the tsunami of greed and permissiveness, which was generated in Ukraine by capitalism and its basis is private property.
OIATS, 2002
(Part 2)
The Black Sea Shipping Company (ChMP), established in 1833, by 1990 was the largest in Europe and the second in the world. On its balance there were 295 sea vessels of various classes with a total displacement of 5 million tons and about 1.1 thousand units of the auxiliary fleet. The annual income of the shipping company was more than a billion dollars. 27,000 sailors worked at the ChMP, 22,000 of them now sail under a foreign flag and will never return here, the number of employees is up to 80,000. The cost of the company's entire property is 6-7 billion US dollars. dollars, net annual profit of 160 million am. dollars to 1 billion am.dollars, it alone brought income in the amount of 10% of the entire foreign exchange earnings of the Soviet Union
In 1991, after the destruction of the USSR, the ChMP came under the jurisdiction of Ukraine. The problems of the NMP of that time were not much different from the problems of other sectors of the economy that had previously been of all-Union significance. The first time the new owners did not know what to do with it. Sea vessels of now Ukraine sailed under the flag of the destroyed USSR for a long time. But the then Prime Minister V. Fokin publicly stated: “What about that fleet? If it will be necessary to transport, then we will hire two layers and we will transport it! After that, the fleet was doomed and thieves of all stripes and ranks, from ordinary racketeers to the president, began to plunder the ChMP.
The first powerful blow to the ChMP was inflicted when V. Pilipenko was at the head of it. It was under him that mysterious things began to happen to the ships of the ChMP. Having supported the GKChP, he tried by any means to rehabilitate himself before the new authorities, first in Moscow, and then in Kyiv. The money earned by the CMP, not controlled by the state, was spent on bribing officials of various ranks. On the ships, as part of the ship's crews, important dignitaries were busy on target tours as understudies of the senior command staff, for example, to buy cars in Japan, while they received a salary and huge travel allowances. The administrative apparatus of the CMP began to pay part of the salary in foreign currency.
Seeing the incompetence of the Kiev authorities, the maritime embezzlers began to create an atmosphere of unprofitability of the ChMP, and sometimes even bankruptcy. Less and less of our ships began to call at Ukrainian ports, more and more cargo operations were carried out in the ports of foreign countries, ships were repaired at foreign bases, ships were bunkered in foreign ports.
Such actions made it possible to transfer monetary transactions (receipt of earned money, expenses for repairs, fuel, maintenance) to foreign banks, making it impossible to control the operation of the fleet, cash flows, by controlling organizations and, thus, created the possibility of freely launching thieves' hands into state pocket. The process of destruction of the CMP fleet flourished with the transfer of part of the ships to Sovcomflot, where they gave a series of bulk carriers that brought about 25% of the profit to the shipping company, as well as cost-effective passenger ships Fyodor Dostoevsky and Maxim Gorky. In return, CMP received 18% of the shares, but in the chaos of the first year of independence, the percentage of CMP's shares in Sovcomflot was mysteriously reduced to 1.4%, that is, almost to zero. At the same time, the CMP ships that were in Sovcomflot were not returned.
By the arrival of the next head of the shipping company in 1992, the main robbery was completed. Of the 360 ships that were available in the ChMP before the arrival of Pilipenko, only 239 remained. The rest, the best, were taken away. CMP's debts on loans amounted to about $170 million.
In 1992, by decree of the then Prime Minister Fokin, Pavel Kudyukin was appointed head of the ChMP. The personality is unique, because of all the leaders of the ChMP, only he was ultimately condemned.
Thus began the scam of L. Kravchuk - "Blasko". Kudyukin began by transforming the company into a joint-stock company. In 1993, by decree of the President of Ukraine, the joint-stock shipping concern Blasko was established. He also decided to renew the composition of the CMP courts at the expense of foreign loans.
Further plundering of the fleet was of a sophisticated nature, the main strategy of which was to reduce the size of the fleet. In addition, there was a plan to transfer the CMP vessels to offshore companies, supported by the then Prime Minister of Ukraine Kuchma and President Kravchuk. The newly minted head of the CMP signs two contracts with the German trade and transport group Stinnes on the transfer of 30 highly profitable bulk carriers to its commercial management. The deal turned out to be ineffective for CMP - Ukraine received significantly less revenue than expected. But the main mortal blow to the ChMP was dealt at the conclusion of an agreement with the British company Silver Line and its subsidiary, Vee-Ships, in whose management 50 ships were transferred. "Silver Line" pledged to provide about $ 1 million in annual income from the operation of each vessel. However, the company used the received ships extremely inefficiently, on average 10 ships of the shipping company were idle. Meanwhile, CMP has consistently paid agency fees for operator management, amounting to a total of $5 million. Due to the lack of an effective accounting system, the incoming currency funds of the Silver Line shipping company, without the knowledge of the shipping company, used to resolve their own financial problems.
Thus, this company received a number of loans from foreign banks totaling over $42 million. 15 ChMP vessels acted as collateral. "Silver Line" without the consent of the shipping company and the permission of the State Property Fund of Ukraine independently sold to various companies the motor ships "Sevan", "Suez", "V. Klochkov", "Panfilov's Heroes", "Captain Anistratenko" and others, without providing the Ukrainian side even information on the expenditure of proceeds from the sale. The merchant fleet "melted" before our eyes, and the foreign partners of the CMP rubbed their hands, concluding super-lucrative deals.
At the same time, private companies disappeared quickly and without a trace, leaving ships with unpaid debts for parking, bunkering, etc. As a result, the ships were arrested and sold. And although formally the loss of ships under Kudyukin amounted to only 11 units, in reality, most of The fleet turned out to be unknown where, working under the flags of different countries. For this activity, as head of the ChMP, Pavel Kudyukin was convicted and imprisoned.
But on the other hand, new shipowners appeared in Greece and Cyprus, connected by close ties with the families of the former leaders of the CMP. Especially fatty fish began to be caught in the troubled waters of arrests of ships for the debts of the shipping company. For the meager debt of a small tugboat owned by the ChMP, liners such as the Taras Shevchenko were arrested. The most expensive ships in the ChMP, which brought fabulous profits, suddenly turned out to be unprofitable. They could be sold by debiting the CMP for two cases of whiskey. For example, the sale of the m/v "Dmitry Poluyan" worth several million dollars was carried out at the price of scrap metal, along with all property, spare parts and mechanisms.
Aleksey Koval was appointed to the place of the removed Kudyukin. During his short career as the head of the ChMP, he tried to figure out which ships of the ChMP and where they are, began an audit. But having achieved nothing, having lost another 30 ships, he was fired.
And then A. Stognienko came. He started like everyone else - with loans, for the development of which all ships were thrown. And then, as if by order, mass arrests of CMP ships begin around the world. For a variety of reasons. What does the owner do? Is he suing, asking to wait, is he bargaining? - No, the owner removes the crew and sells the ship at auction with relief. So what to do? Arrest debts must be paid, interest on bank loans must be repaid. As a result, a situation arose in which, in order to pay off interest on loans taken for the construction of new ships, the newest ships were sold. Of course, there is no evidence of malicious intent in this situation and cannot be. Everything is within the law. But over the two years of Mr. Stognienko's reign, from 1995 to 1997, the CMP lost 171 ships!!! At the same time, Alexander Stognienko left the post of head of the ChMP quite calmly, without consequences.
In total, under the three subsequent leaders, “only” 36 courts “evaporated” in five years. The number of courts by 2008 was two, and even one of them was arrested in Turkey.
Where are the ChMP ships now? Under whose flags do they plow the ocean? To whom do they generate income? Nobody knows! A mystery shrouded in darkness.
No one will give an unequivocal answer to the question why the ChMP suffered such a defeat in peacetime? Too much was done in secret, too much stupidity and greed. To understand exactly how it all happened, you need to study the history of each ship separately. Here is an example. Together with the CMP, Ukraine got such a ship as the Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, built in 1971, with a displacement of 45,000 tons. Foreigners estimated it at 500 million dollars. And in 1996, Ukraine sent it to India for scrapping, selling it for 765 thousand dollars, that is, 17 cents per kilo. How did it happen? First, "Gagarin" was abandoned on the roadstead of the South, leaving without security, since the ChMP did not have money. Then the ship was given to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. He didn't have any money either. But there were those who wanted to privatize valuable equipment separately from the vessel. He was visited several times by officers of the valiant Armed Forces, and all the equipment disappeared from all his 110 laboratories. And then the ship was sent to last flight. And now the question is, "Who is to blame?". Sailors who carried a little? The officers who removed the devices? Or, after all, those who did not manage to dispose of the property they inherited, but solved the most important tasks of reforming alphabets, adopting hymns and changing signboards in schools?
The participants in such a scam were high-ranking officials.
The first wave of plundering the property of the CMP was replaced by the second: Prodaevich V.A. - Head of the Economic Court of the Odessa region, Galanternik V.I. - Deputy of the Odessa Regional Council from Our Ukraine, Oakubov A.F. - People's Deputy of Ukraine, elected on the lists of the Yu. Tymoshenko Bloc, member of the Batkivshchyna party, president of the International Charitable Organization "Foundation of Kindness and Love", Shnyakin V.A. -appointed as a sanatorium ChMP Khozsud Odessa region. With their help, property worth about UAH 400 million was alienated. At this time, such facilities as the Inter-Cruise Base of Sailors with an area of over 13 hectares, an administrative building on Deribasovskaya Street, the Black Sea Yacht Club, a boarding house for fleet veterans and other institutions left.
The completion of the deriban proceeded as follows. In Odessa, there is a story about a notorious company called Joint Stock Holding Company Sea Trident, headquartered in Kyiv, which in the summer of 1999 was transferred to part of the remaining ships of the CMP, with a total value of about half a billion dollars. Behind the deal was a further plunder of the fleet, but through foreign offshore companies, where it is no longer possible to “get” ships for Ukrainian legislation.
Today, neither the Sea Trident nor its related commercial structures have practically no fleet left. Thirty-five ships were sold for CMP debts, although a CRU audit in 2003 found no documents explaining the nature of Sea Trident's debt obligations to foreign companies. That is - the ends in the water. No fleet, no money. The property that was taken away cost ten times more than the debts of the shipping company.
So sadly ended the life of the world's largest shipping company - the Black Sea Shipping Company.
Who will answer for this? - That is the question!
Odessa Information and Analytical Center – UIAC, 2012
Newspaper "Bolshevik", Odessa
May 6th, 2013
Russian Society of Shipping and Trade (ROPiT), coat of arms, Evpatoria, Crimea, photo: Krutikov D.A.
Black Sea Shipping Company- the oldest shipping company on the Black Sea, beginning its history during the time of the Russian Empire, when in 1833 the joint-stock Black Sea Steamboat Society was created to establish permanent relations between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. The base port of the shipping company is the city of Odessa. May 2013 marks the 180th anniversary of the founding of the Black Sea Shipping Company.
On May 16, 1833, with the support of M. S. Vorontsov, who in 1823 became the Governor-General of Novorossiysk and Minister of Finance E. F. Kankrin, Emperor Nicholas I approved the creation of a joint-stock company for a period of ten years to establish permanent communications between Odessa and Constantinople by means of steamships. This is how the "Black Sea Society of Steamboats" was born - the founder of the Odessa Black Sea Shipping Company, and Odessa became Russia's "southern sea window" to the West. (Denis Balukh, Alexander Surilov. Forgotten Odessa: historical essays in two books. - Odessa: optimum, 2008.) It was decided that the joint-stock company's steamship flotilla would consist of three vessels: the Neva and the Emperor Nikolai steamships built in Nikolaev and Empress Alexandra. Of these, two ships were supposed to be used for postal transportation and one for towing Russian sailing ships in the Bosphorus. The direct organizer of the "Black Sea Society of Steamboats" was the Odessa mayor, real state councilor Alexei Iraklievich Levshin ..
Odessa Commercial Sea Port, Coastal harbor, motor ship "Bashkiria" 1989
In 1843, the "Black Sea Society of Steamboats" was reorganized into the "Expedition of Constant Steamship Communications of Odessa with Constantinople", which in 1845 merged with the "Commission of Novorossiysk Steamboats", which operated steamboats that sailed along the internal Black Sea lines, and received a new name: "Novorossiysk Steamboat Expedition", abbreviated - Odessa expedition. Steamboats of the Odessa expedition Naslednik, Mithridates, Andia, Dargo, Berdyansk, Taganrog, Peter the Great, Taganrog (iron), Luba (iron), Taman (iron ), "Count Vorontsov" (iron), and others served the internal Black Sea and Azov lines. For the first Black Sea international steamship line Odessa - Constantinople in 1843, 4 steam frigates with steam engines with a capacity of 250 hp were ordered in England. pp.: "Odessa", "Khersonesos", "Crimea" and "Bessarabia". Their design was distinguished by increased reliability and allowed the use of both commercial and military purposes. Until 1853, when the war with Turkey began, steam frigates regularly served the Novorossiysk Steamship Expedition, regularly transporting mail, passengers and trade cargo between Odessa and Constantinople under the flag of the packet ship, and leaving on flights every ten days. During the Crimean War, they were re-armed and entered the detachment of steam frigates of the Black Sea Fleet, whose sailors heroically proved themselves during the defense of Sevastopol and sank part of their ships, including the steam regattas "Crimea", "Odessa", "Bessarabia" and the iron packet steamer " Elborus" on the Sevastopol roadstead in August 1855, so that they would not get to the enemy.
During the Crimean War, the Black Sea merchant fleet suffered losses: in particular, eight steam ships remained in good condition. Under these conditions, the activities of the Odessa expedition did not resume. Instead, for the development of regular, or urgent, shipping traffic on the Black Sea in 1856, a joint-stock company was created on its basis: the Russian Society of Shipping and Trade (ROPiT). (Stepanov D. A. Establishment of the Russian Society of Shipping and Trade (1856-1857) // Bulletin of the Chelyabinsk State University. - 2011. - No. 22 (237). - Issue 46. History. - P. 30-38.) The Odessa main office of the society was located in the former palace of I.O. Witt on st. Lanzheronovskaya, (Odessa sights: Palace of I. O. Witt: Description) building, currently owned by the Black Sea Shipping Company.
Odessa commercial seaport, marine station, 1989,
The government gave ROPiT a large loan and a five-year permit for duty-free purchase of ships abroad. In 1857, ROPiT purchased five steamships from England, the first of which arrived in Odessa was the Nikolay passenger paddle steamer, a ship capable of taking on board 200 passengers. In addition, ROPiT acquired the Khersones, Andia, Dargo, Danube, Taganrog and Count Vorontsov ships from the Novorossiysk Steamship Expedition, which had ceased operations. After all the acquisitions, by the end of 1857, ROPiT had a fleet of 17 steamships, which allowed it not only to start an urgent steamship service guaranteed by the government between the Black Sea and Azov ports, but also to open the international line Odessa - Constantinople - Marseille.
In 1920, after graduating civil war about 5% of the ships remained from the merchant fleet on the Black Sea. Establishing final control over Black Sea coast, the Soviet government took up the restoration of the merchant fleet.
On June 13, 1922, the Council of Labor and Defense of the Republic established in the system of the People's Commissariat of Railways state shipping companies Baltic, Northern, Black Sea-Azov and Caspian, and entrusted the general management of their activities to the Central Board of the State Trade Fleet.
After the Great Patriotic War, in connection with the increase in the volume of transportation, separate Black Sea, Azov and Georgian shipping companies were created. Odessa remained the base port of the Black Sea Shipping Company (ChMP), where, in addition to the Odessa port, there was a ship repair plant.
On the eve of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Black Sea Shipping Company was the most powerful in Europe and one of the largest in the world. It consisted of about 300 ships of various classes. This number included: 21 passenger ships with a total capacity of 12,000 passengers serving 14 ocean and 20 domestic lines; 260 modern universal ships of various classes, with a displacement of 5 million tons. It was the leader in the navy of the USSR, which on January 1, 1990 consisted of 17 shipping companies, 1800 ships with a total deadweight of 22.4 million tons, 67 ports and 26 ship repair enterprises. (Grankov L. From the history of navigation // Marine Fleet. - 2008. - No. 2. - P. 68).
After the collapse of the USSR, the Black Sea Shipping Company (ChMP), together with the Azov Shipping Company (AMP) and the Soviet Danube Shipping Company (SDP), were removed from the allied Ministry of the Navy of the USSR and the Ministry of the River Fleet of the USSR. The ChMP was transferred to the jurisdiction of the State Administration of Maritime Transport of Ukraine (Ukrmorflot) formed on January 2, 1992, which became the assignee of the USSR Ministry of the Navy on the territory of Ukraine. (On the establishment of the State Administration of Maritime Transport of Ukraine. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. Decree of January 2, 1992 No. 4.) Ukrmorflot disposed of the property of the CMP together with the State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPFU). The regulation on Ukrmorflot was approved by the Council of Ministers of Ukraine on February 18, 1992. According to paragraph 7 (c), Ukrmorflot received the right: "to change flags, in agreement with the State Property Fund of Ukraine, sell, lay down ships in order to obtain loans to finance fleet replenishment programs." (Regulations on the State Administration of Maritime Transport of Ukraine. Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. Resolution of February 18, 1992 No. 76.).+
Data on the composition of the NMP and assessments of its state in 1991 differ. According to information available from the open press, in 1991 the CMP included 234 cargo, passenger and other classes of ships with a total deadweight of 4167 thousand tons, most of which were in operational readiness. ChMP ended 1991 with a profit of 270 million rubles and foreign exchange earnings of 788 million dollars. On the other hand, there was a question of updating the fleet, since in 1992 29 units were scheduled for decommissioning, and in total until 2000 - about 120. (Leonid Kapelyushny. An optimistic tragedy, or the history of Blasko-ChMP in revision tales , official documents and journalistic passions and sufferings // Mirror of Ukraine. - 1994. - October 21).
The capacities of the Black Sea Shipping Company were created primarily to serve the needs of the centralized, planned economy of the USSR. After the destruction of the unified economic complex that had developed in the USSR in 1991, the CMP found itself in a difficult financial situation. Already in December 1992, the total debt of the CMP on loans amounted to $ 170 million, in the same year 28 ships were written off. In the current economic situation, in order to avoid downtime of courts, the Prime Minister of Ukraine L.D. Kuchma suggested transferring the ships to offshore intermediary companies with their subsequent registration in a foreign jurisdiction to use the commercial and passenger fleet of the ChMP, which is idle without a freight. President of Ukraine L.M. Kravchuk approved this proposal. According to press reports, in 2013 he recognized this decision as a mistake. (Kravchuk took the blame for the collapse of the Ukrainian merchant fleet. Korrespondent.net, February 3, 2013.)
On February 17, 1993, Ukrmorflot was liquidated, and the ChMP came under the leadership of the newly created Ministry of Transport of Ukraine (1992-2004). (Issues of the Ministry of Transport of Ukraine. Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. Resolution of February 17, 1993 No. 106.)
On August 13, 1993, by decree of the President of Ukraine L. Kravchuk, the shipping concern "Blasco - Black Sea Shipping Company" was established in the form of an open joint-stock company. (On the establishment of a joint-stock shipping concern "Blasco" - "Black Sea Shipping Company" Decree of the President of Ukraine dated 13.08.1993 No. 303/93.)
Kudyukin P.V. was appointed the president of the concern, who replaced V.V. Pilipenko at the head of the CMP. According to the decree, Blasko became the legal successor of all movable and immovable property of the Black Sea Shipping Company in Ukraine and abroad.
On December 24, 1993, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine suspended the process of corporatization of the Black Sea Shipping Company and vetoed the presidential decree. In response, L. Kravchuk issued a new decree confirming the authority of the leadership of Blasco-ChMP. (On Joint Stock Shipping Concern "Blasco" - "Black Sea Shipping Company" Decree of the President of Ukraine dated 28.12.1993 No. 606/93). Both decrees of L. Kravchuk were, in turn, canceled in January 1995 by L. Kuchma, who became president of Ukraine. (On recognizing as invalid the Decrees of the President of Ukraine of August 13, 1993 N 303 and of December 28, 1993 N 606 Decree of the President of Ukraine of 01/24/1995 No. 77/95.) shipping companies. An investigative deputy commission was created under the leadership of the former prosecutor of the Primorsky district of Odessa, people's deputy Yu.A. Karamzin.
As of January 1993, the CHMP had 227 ships, but of these, 160 were scattered around the world offshore. The first arrests of ships began on various, often far-fetched, pretexts: 11 of them were missing. After the transformation of ChMP into a joint-stock company, destructive tendencies intensified. Interest on loans grew, Blasco-ChMP's income was hidden and transferred to offshore banks. As a result, a criminal case was opened against P. V. Kudyukin and he was convicted for the implementation, as it turned out, of an erroneous plan to transfer ships to intermediary companies.
In 1995, when the company's fleet consisted of 216 ships, A.V. Koval came to its leadership, who did not figure out where cash and ships, and also lost another 30 pennants. The mechanisms launched by his predecessors continued to absorb the funds and ships of the company. In the same 1995, the next head of A. M. Stognenko was appointed; the fleet of the ChMP was reduced to 186 pennants; new loans were taken, which were no longer realistic to return, and, as a result, a wave of arrests of CMP ships went around the world: in 1995-1997, the company lost 171 ships. As of January 1998, 15 pennants remained.
In July 2004, the Ministry of Transport of Ukraine, which carried out the overall management of the CMP, was reorganized into the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Ukraine.
As of 2004, the company had 6 vessels and 17 outstanding loans totaling $11 million. In 2005, the losses of GSK "ChMP" amounted to half a million dollars.
In 2006, a sanitation procedure was introduced at GSK "ChMP".
In 2008, the Black Sea Shipping Company celebrated its 175th anniversary since its founding. On the eve of the anniversary, the Minister of Transport and Communications of Ukraine, K. Efimenko, announced the need for a prosecutor's check on the legality of the alienation of the ChMP's property. He called the CMP bankruptcy procedure "unmotivated" and leading to the withdrawal from state control of the enterprise, the book value of which property is over UAH 500 million. As a result, according to K. Efimenko, state property is alienated by creating artificial debts for next to nothing. In his statement, the minister urged to prevent the liquidation of the Black Sea Shipping Company. (Minister of Transport and Communications of Ukraine Konstantin Efimenko will not allow the liquidation of the Black Sea Shipping Company. Online archive of the press service of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine.)
In December 2010, the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Ukraine was once again reorganized, and the CMP was subordinated to the State Service of Sea and River Transport, now the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine. As of today, the CMP fleet has been reduced to one pennant
The procedure for the rehabilitation of GSK "CHMP" continues.
here is what he writes Anatoly Foka, doctor of technical sciences, ship's senior mechanic
Nostalgic reflections on a lost fleet
The problems of the Ukrainian fleet after the restoration of the statehood of Ukraine in 1991, in fact, did not differ much from the problems of other sectors of the economy that had previously been of all-Union significance. In the first months, we were all in the euphoria of independence, believing that now the whole world would be in line for all kinds of cooperation with us and receiving all forms of our products. Our politically active guys did not even suspect that there is a fierce struggle for a place under the sun on the world market, and only with an excellent reputation confirmed for decades can one hope for success. And since we inherited from the USSR such an energy-intensive and low-quality production of all types of products (excluding the means for the destruction of mankind, where we were ahead of the rest), it turned out that we are absolutely not needed in the civilized world.
Stable economic ties with the countries of the former USSR were broken ( last hope for the sale of poor products). Illiterate political bawlers and adventurers of all stripes rushed into the economy. Least of all anyone was interested in the issue of lack of professionalism.
The opponents of the formation of Ukraine as a politically and economically independent state very quickly woke up from the shock. With a variety of ultimate goals, they united together in a fairly powerful coalition and began their destructive activities. Basically, this fifth column consisted of:
- leftist parties of all types, from pink socialists to red-brown Bolsheviks. They wanted to restore their lost unlimited power over the people by any means, returning us to the state of thoughtlessly chewing and meekly working cattle;
- supporters of the restoration of a single and indivisible Soviet empire (at least on the basis of Great Russia), when it was possible, having received the blessing of Moscow, to feel like a complete master "to the very outskirts", spitting on the culture, language, national traditions of these very outskirts, cracking down on any dissent under the pretext of uprooting "nationalism", exiling to Siberia both individual cultural figures and families of opponents of the system, and, if necessary, entire nations. Yes, and in Russia, “the closest to us”, an old dream was promoted with might and main - to wash their tarpaulin boots in the waters indian ocean, sitting next to the bare heels of the friendly people of India;
- and, of course, thieves of all stripes and ranks, ranging from ordinary racketeers to (as sad experience has shown) prime ministers. This category always strives to destroy any system, realizing that in conditions of political and economic instability it is so easy to put your hand into the people's pocket!
Under such conditions of the unanimous action of destructive forces, an attempt to develop the economy is practically doomed to failure. And if we take into account that such an industry as the navy has never been controlled by the republican administration, it becomes obvious that the continued existence of the fleet should have consisted of only problems.
And then the first mention of the Ukrainian navy appeared. The then Prime Minister V. Fokin publicly stated: “What about that fleet? If it will be necessary to transport, then we will hire two layers and we will transport it!
When I heard this statement, I was afraid for the fate of our fleet. And the point is not only that the Prime Minister signed his unprofessionalism and even simple ignorance, not realizing that the service sector (which transport refers to) is an eternal activity in its kind (unlike the mining or processing industry) and brings profit with virtually no negative consequences for the country (destruction of resources, environmental pollution, etc.). Japan, the poorest in resources, has risen on services and high technologies. Both yesterday and today, there is a continuous struggle for the right to own transport lines in the world. And then suddenly such economic "discoveries". The most terrible thing for me was that during the public announcement of the anti-state policy, none of the many ministers and members of the Verkhovna Rada objected with a single word. What is it - the ignorance of those in power or conscious support for the collapse of the country's economy?
Rather, it's both. And then it became clear to us, professionals who had devoted their whole lives to working at sea, that the fleet was doomed.
This became clear to other persons (also well versed in the activities of the fleet), they understood that the green light was open to the complete plunder of maritime transport.
The most powerful blow to the fleet was dealt when one of the world's largest shipping companies, the Black Sea Shipping Company, was headed by the "reed captain" Pilipenko. Having lost his reputation after actively supporting the Moscow putsch (GKChP), he was looking for ways to save his career by any means and tried to prove his loyalty to his patrons in Moscow by deeds. To a large extent, this was facilitated by the incompetence and corruption of Kiev officials - the money earned by the sailors of the Black Sea Shipping Company, not controlled by the state, disappeared right and left.
Who only at that time did not ride on the ships of the ChMP, receiving a salary at the rates of the senior officers of the courts or other kinds of monetary and material benefits!
The trip of fleet veterans to Istanbul was memorable. Retirees on the old passenger ship they brought them to a picnic in Turkey, gave them “for a drink” and delivered (not quite alive and healthy) to Odessa, where they were supposed to express gratitude to the head of the shipping company (look how he respects and loves sailors!).
High city medical officials also rode (receiving the salary of senior assistants), successfully studying the acute problem of cockroach breeding in the ports of India, which is urgent for Ukraine.
Targeted tours of important dignitaries were successfully carried out, for example, with a guaranteed opportunity to buy cars in Japan. So, on the ship "Mechanic Dren" five senior mechanics went to China for repairs. Of course, a full-time senior mechanic was engaged in repairs, and the rest (wow, how respected in Odessa the public!) Received the same salary and, for the sake of which they rushed to these distant countries, the dream of all Soviet sailors - business trips. And then the path of this vessel ran (as agreed with the management of the shipping company) to Japan, where the planned ultimate goal of the entire operation was successfully achieved - the purchase of cars.
And how impressive Odessa journalists looked on foreign tours! Also being listed as understudies of the crew members (which allowed them to receive a decent salary in foreign currency at the expense of the shipping company), they not only asked Comrade Pilipenko tricky questions with tenderness, but they themselves answered them extremely intelligently and professionally under the approving nod of the hospitable host.
And what a clever move it was when they began to pay part of the salary to the administrative apparatus of the CMP in foreign currency. Here, even former opponents and envious people were imbued with respect for the leadership.
And now, under the laudatory chorus (after successful business tours) of the most honest and respected part of the population - deputies of all levels, under the voice of the people (honored pensioners), under the approval of fellow managers (demonstration of unity in the shipping company team) arose great opportunity plundering the fleet. After all, all the majority mentioned above (at all levels) supported the leaders of the ChMP. And only those who earned money for the shipping company (it was supposed - for the state) - the sailors were not happy. But they were at sea, but the one who was stealing state money was here, nearby, and at the necessary moment could speak in the press, in parliament, wherever it was necessary to support embezzlers who were already openly robbing the country.
Apparently, this state of affairs was indifferent to the Kiev officials. They were told fairy tales at all levels, proving the inexpediency of maintaining the fleet. The fact that the existence of the fleet did not arouse not only any economic interests of those in power (due to their unprofessionalism), but also political ones, is proved by the fact that the Ukrainian fleet sailed for a long time under the flag of a non-existent state - the USSR, and officials were fooled by stories about flag change need to bear big cost. And this ignorant bureaucratic tribe calmly watched that a similar operation - the transition under the national flag - had long been carried out in all other countries of the former USSR - in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Russia. And for some reason there was enough money! They also fooled illiterate officials with stories that the name of the courts should be written in Russian, despite the fact that there were ships nearby with names in Indian, in Arabic script, with Chinese or Japanese hieroglyphs. After all, how would they know that to identify a vessel, a name is required on English language, and write everything else at least in Nogai!
Realizing the lack of competence of the Kiev officials, sea embezzlers quickly began to create an atmosphere of unprofitability of our shipping companies (and sometimes even bankruptcy). Fewer and fewer of our ships began to call at Ukrainian ports, more and more cargo operations were carried out in the ports of foreign countries (with the excellent condition of our ports), ship repairs were carried out at foreign bases (with the cheap and fairly high-quality work of our ship repair plants), bunkering of ships took place in foreign ports (despite the fact that the cost of fuel at that time was very, very low).
Such an approach in solving transport problems made it possible to shift all monetary transactions (receipt of earned money, expenses for repairs, fuel, maintenance) to foreign banks, depriving Ukraine of control over the operation of its fleet, cash flows and, thus, the possibility of replenishing its treasury, but at the same time, providing the opportunity for a very free launch of thieves' hands into the state pocket.
This is where the gold credit cards of the head of the shipping company, personal green Mercedes and other attributes appeared, so harmoniously fitting into the activities of yesterday's honest and devoted party co-workers, and today - respected and active figures of independent Ukraine.
The process of destruction of the Ukrainian fleet flourished with the transfer of ships to Sovcomflot. There was no limit to the imagination of the crooks! On the one hand, Comrade Pilipenko loudly declared that in each case we would sue over the illegal seizure of our vessels (and our share in Sovcomflot was 17%), and on the other hand, without hesitation (and unnecessary statements) gave a series of bulk carriers , which brought the shipping company about 25% of the profit.
The most elementary and one hundred percent hodoshih in the USSR) passenger ships like "Fyodor Dostoevsky" and "Maxim Gorky" had to explain something to the public. And this was done very simply - cheeks puffed out and it was loudly announced that in this case we would definitely sue our liners from Russia. And they believed it. Since these vessels were chartered by German travel agencies, the naive Germans, believing in the sincerity and decency of the leaders of the Ukrainian fleet, immediately offered the services of their maritime lawyers. But the leadership of the shipping company turned out to be not so simple - after all, there was a real threat that the Germans would really sue. Therefore, these stupid Germans were told that our own lawyers would do everything. And so it turned out. They did everything to ensure that the ships finally left for Russia. And when I (already working in Germany as the chief mechanic of the m / v "Astor" - our former "Fyodor Dostoevsky") listened to this story from German specialists who participated in negotiations with the shipping company, I could not catch what was more in their speech - indignation from the impudence of our crooks or surprise from our stupidity. Although the captains were instructed to go to the ports of Russia, after which the ships acquired a new name, a new flag and a new shipowner.
Of course, when transmitting such well-known (beam with another (as our time shows)), it harmonizes perfectly.
By the arrival of the next head of the shipping company, the general robbery was completed. Of the 360 ships that existed before the arrival of Pilipenko, only 239 remained. The rest (of course, the best) were already taken away without any complications.
The next leapfrog of the heads of this once largest shipping company in the USSR already had the character of sophistication in the theft of money and ships. There were landings in prison, there were dismissals, but only one thing remained a firm line - a decrease in the size of the fleet. At the same time, there was a steady trend towards the emergence of new shipowners in Greece, Cyprus, for some reason rooted in the families and relatives of the former heads of the CMP.
Especially fatty fish began to be caught in the troubled waters of arrests of ships for the debts of the shipping company.
By this time, the whole world already understood that there should be limited liability in business. Regarding the fleet, it looked like the splitting of large companies into a number of small ones (without changing the actual ownership of the vessels, but receiving only other details) that are responsible for any accident or other damage to only one vessel. As a result, a firm of the "Horns and Hooves" type was obtained, when it was possible to arrest only the office tables and imprison the sitz chairman of the Pound.
But representatives of the fifth column were well aware that with such an approach, especially with the destruction of the fleet, you would not turn around, and it was difficult to steal ships. Therefore, until the end, they kept all the ships in one shipping company, quite correctly understanding that for some meager debt of a small tugboat (owned by ChMP), the Taras Shevchenko liner (also owned by ChMP) would be arrested with huge losses, both material and moral - we lose earnings and the authority of the shipowner is undermined by potential charterers - travel agencies.
And how amazingly the process of selling the ships was furnished! As knowledgeable experts said, at that glorious time for two cases of whiskey in Kyiv it was possible to write off any ship, recognizing it as unprofitable.
Thus, the ship "Dmitry Poluyan" was put up for sale abroad (in Malta) at the price of scrap metal. And when one of the potential buyers boarded the ship (this local shipowner thought so naively about himself), after a cursory inspection of the ship, he immediately offered the amount three times more. But not on those he ran into! They told him: “My dear, go to Odessa, talk to such and such an official in the shipping company and agree on everything. And only then will we formalize the sale of the vessel.”
The sophisticated mind of the embezzler found the most unexpected solutions. So, my friend the captain was ferrying a dry cargo ship (such as m / v "Pula") for sale in Greece. It seemed obvious that a well-knurled scheme would work - the ship would be sold for some amount convenient for everyone (except the state), and that would be the end of the matter. But it was not there!
On her last voyage (as part of the Ukrainian fleet), the ship went around all the main ports of the Black Sea. Various kinds of new equipment (spare parts, mechanisms, fittings, devices) were taken from warehouses. And then (already under the cover of customs) it was all legally exported abroad, as spare parts belonging to this ship, and sold. And any amateur will understand that much more money was put into their pocket for such a simple operation than the state received for the ship as a whole.
And what a beautiful, precisely designed for the incompetence of the capital's boobies (with material heating of their interest) was the operation for the sale of Lensoviet, Mossovet and Smolny gas carriers. The most expensive ships in the ChMP, which brought fabulous profits, suddenly turned out to be unprofitable. And this is in the presence of ideal conditions for maritime transport: its own cargo manufacturing plant (a chemical plant in the port of Yuzhny), a stable, permanent transport line between Ukraine and the United States (under the auspices of Hammer himself), extremely low crew costs (compared to European ), the minimum cost of repairing ships (since they are produced at the shipyards of the shipping company).
And for the new Greek shipowner, who works in a constant search for cargo, new lines, pays crews at the rates of the International Federation of Trade Unions, pays for repairs at expensive European shipyards, these ships turned out to be profitable then. And one can only imagine the level of their profitability then, if even now, after a decade and a half, they continue to bring income to the owner of about three million dollars a month. And what happened then - during their heyday? And how profitable this operation turned out to be for its participants!
These are the losses that the high professionalism of our crooks and the corruption of incompetent city officials cost the young state.
Of course, with such a powerful destruction of the fleet of the Black Sea Shipping Company, the collapse of the rest of the shipping companies is only a repetition of the past.
The Azov Shipping Company was taken over by the “brothers” of the former head of the motor depot in Donetsk. And for today, everything that is possible has been pumped out.
The Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company is in the stage of agony. But it survived the hardest times of the Yugoslav crisis, when, due to the destruction of bridges across the Danube, part of the ships worked in the zone from the bridges and below, and the second - from the bridges and above. And the shipping industry survived. Of course then river boats for our large sharks of the maritime criminal business - a small fish, but, having plundered large ships in the ChMP, they did not disdain and river fleet. And no matter how the president of the UDP PS Suvorov tried to defend the interests of the shipping company (and, of course, the sailors), the destructive forces turned out to be stronger.
And now, with all the talk in parliament about professionalism in management, the shipping company was headed by specialists from the “largest maritime region” of the country - the Luhansk region!
It is clear to us, the specialists of the navy, that the removal of the body has taken place.
And I will remind you about the ships - the pride of the USSR: and The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy is made -
