Prague, shake it! Strabag is building half the city, now a bridge. Does Putin’s oligarch benefit from this?
The construction of metro D will cost 13.75 billion crowns and Strabag is part of a consortium of companies that will participate in the lucrative contract. Oleg Deripaska, who is close to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and often a mistress, hosts him on his yachts and private jets, bought more than a quarter of Strabag in 2007.
Deripaska is on the EU’s sanctions list, partly because one of its companies manufactures armored personnel carriers used by the Russian military in Ukraine.
He criticized Mayor Zdeněk Hřib in mid-March, saying that he had no choice but to intervene in the criticism that money from the Prague budget would flow into the pocket of the Russian oligarch. And that the government should act first and foremost.
However, the municipality continues to knock lucrative contracts for Strabag. The construction giant will now take part in the construction of the Dvorecký Bridge, which will cross the Vltava and connect Smíchov and Podolí. It will cost 1,075 billion and Strabag will build it together with Metrostav TBR, Firesta-Fišer, reconstruction, construction.
In addition, Strabag is currently working on the construction of a new tram line between Modřany and Libuší. 304 million crowns will be shared with OHLA ŽS.
So what about the money for oligarch Oleg Deripaska? Strabag assures that he will not reach for the money from the contracts, because he was terminated by a syndicate agreement, or by his Cypriot company, which owned the share. This was stated by the Vienna headquarters of the construction company.
“I was given a guarantee that he would not achieve a dividend, which – to put it simply – would not even reach the crown, for example from public procurement. At the same time, Mr. Deripaska will have limited space in the group’s governing bodies, “ said before the server of the List of News Minister of Transport Martin Kupka.
“The attitude and active steps of Strabag are clear. In the circumstances, restrictions and exclusions from public procurement would not be appropriate. I consider the steps and guarantees provided by Strabag to be a clear expression of the will to resolve the current situation. The group unequivocally condemns the Russian aggression in Ukraine and is trying to help Ukraine with the consequences of the war. “ he added.
Oleg Deripaska
The mayor of Prague, Zdeněk Hřib, sees this in the same way, which is why the municipality has recently commissioned Strabag to build the Dvorecký Bridge.
But this is not enough for some Prague representatives. Server Lidovky.cz he interviewed, for example, Jan Wolf from KDU-ČSL, according to which it is far from certain whether Deripaska will not benefit from the contract in the end.
Hana Kordová Marvanová, Councilor for Legislation, Public Administration and Housing Support, sees this in a similar way. Before Strabag received the contract, she drew attention to information from the Austrian media about the complex offshore structures around Strabag, which could lead other Russian oligarchs as well.