Activist murder blights flagship Russia PPP deal
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Emerging Markets

Activist murder blights flagship Russia PPP deal

The murder of a St Petersburg civil activist has cast a shadow over Russia’s flagship public-private partnership (PPP) project, the Western High Speed Diameter (WHSD) road.

The EBRD, which is considering financing the road, has voiced concern over the death of Dmitry Troyan, who championed the rights of property owners disrupted by the project. NGOs will again discuss Troyan’s murder with the EBRD this weekend.

Troyan died in hospital on December 18 last year after being beaten by unknown assailants.

Troyan, chairman of the regional branch of the Russian Association of Car Drivers, had won legal claims for compensation to owners of garages whose property is being compulsorily purchased to make way for the road.

Several garage owners were paid 150,000 rubles each, several times more than the sums first offered by the city authorities.

The 44-kilometre stretch of eight-lane toll road linking St Petersburg and Helsinki is the first of a series of PPP projects for which the Russian transport ministry are trying to attract foreign investment.

At a road show in London in November last year, the project was presented as a pioneer, to be followed by others including the Orlovsky tunnel, the Moscow-St Petersburg highway and the Odintsovo bypass.

Advisory Council, on which Deutsche bank, Vneshekonombank, the Russian Development Bank, Citibank and Russia’s security markets regulatory work, is advising on the process.

Costs are expected to be shared between western investors and the Russian investment fund – and the total figure has risen from the 83 billion rubles ($3.0 billion) first mooted to 213 billion rubles ($8.9 billion), the sum given in an order signed by acting premier Viktor Zubkov earlier this month.

Campaigners in St Petersburg are concerned about the rising costs, environmental impacts and property disputes caused by the road.

Mikhail Druzhininskii, president of the St Petersburg committee to defend social and labour rights, told Emerging Markets that the city prosecutor’s office has failed to respond to requests for information about the investigation into Troyan’s death.

Druzhininskii believes that Troyan, as a businessman, could have been killed as the result of a commercial conflict. “But the fact is that activists who fight for citizens’ rights are often put under great pressure.” Housing rights activist Mikhail Belyayev was also killed last year by unknown assailants while local journalists have faced arbitrary legal actions.

Vera Ponomareva of Save Yuntolovo, an environmental group, said: “There is an issue of openness and information. We are asking for information about the impact this road will have, and the authorities just don’t answer questions.”

In February NGOs raised their fears about the road’s impact, and the Troyan case, with Bruno Balvanera, head of the north-west Russia region at the EBRD. He responded that he was very concerned – and this week told Emerging Markets: “We continue to hope that light will eventually be shed on the death of Dmitry Troyan.”

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