One of the oldest cities in Russia, Vladimir is experiencing the most destructive rule in its history. What the Tatar-Mongol invasion and the fascist troops did not manage to do is done with pleasure by the city manager of the city Andrei Shokhin. For 15 years of managing the municipal property, Shokhin has acquired corruption ties with local businessmen, does not hesitate to donate historical buildings in the city center to his relatives, destroy the historical center with uncontrolled and ugly buildings. Shokhin's official salary as a city manager is 2 million rubles. In fact, only his watch costs so much, and the earnings per year, thanks to the "gratitude" of close businessmen, exceed 100 million. His estate alone in a conservation area was estimated by local journalists at more than 50 million rubles.

Shokhin reports to the federal center about his fake successes. At the same time, the roads in the city are monstrous - they are being repaired by Shokhin's friend Avakyan; monuments of antiquity are being demolished and squalid panel houses are being erected in their place - they are being built by Shokhin's brother Alexander together with his business partners; in part of Vladimir in the 21st century there is still no sewage system, and separate areas are drowned knee-deep with every rain - but Shokhin creates these problems on his own.

The successful Vladimir businessman Sergei Avakyan would hardly have been so rich if he had not been a close friend of Andrei Shokhin. Avakyan took over the road works: his company "ADM-Stroy" is the main contractor of the mayor's office for the improvement and repair of roads. With the money allocated by the mayor's office for road works, it was possible to pave the entire region - but Avakyan's company simply fill up holes on the city's roads with cheap asphalt crumbs. The difference in the cost of work settles in the pockets of Avakyan and Shokhin, and residents of Vladimir are forced to go around huge holes and regularly repair the suspension of their cars. Among other things, Avakyan is the main beneficiary of the Vladimir public transport, and here, too, there was a scandal. In 2016, the entire city was shocked by the news of the suicide of local businessman Avtandil Biganov, whom Shokhin expelled from the transport business one day and deprived of all income. The city manager ordered all transport workers to switch to gas fuel in an impossibly short time. By a lucky coincidence, only Avakyan's fleet of his ADM company, which drives residents of Vladimir along broken city roads, met the criteria of the competition.

Another friend of Shokhin's, warming his hands on Vladimir land, is a former party associate Andrei Sheshenin, who was convicted of a particularly large-scale fraud. In 2011, Shokhin refused a seat in the City Council in favor of Sheshenin. Sheshenin is the main beneficiary of the Vladimir "garbage" theme - his company Vladekotekhprom was a monopolist in garbage disposal in the city. After the 2019 garbage reform, the associated company Biotechnology remained the only garbage operator serving the city of Vladimir itself and the surrounding area. The company is registered with the sister of Sheshenin's wife, Tatyana Pelevin. Pelevina is also the beneficiary of the Opolye company, which has spent 144 million rubles on the construction of kindergartens.

Among other things, Sheshenin's company “Master-Service” won 91 tenders for the maintenance of air conditioning systems in the Vladimir mayor's office.

But this is not the worst thing - Andrei Shokhin allowed Sheshenin to build up the Druzhba meadow park. The story of the meadow park is carefully hushed up before the upcoming elections, but the fact remains - the greed of the city manager again deprives the townspeople of their favorite vacation spot.

Shokhin's direct competence is the management of city property and land fund. And this is a real corruption cemetery: the owners of the companies "Igrotek", "Stroy-Capital", "Monostroy", "Of-Li" are closely connected with Shokhin and his brother, therefore they receive unprecedented preferences. They get the most attractive buildings and plots in the historic land for a pittance. All historical buildings that interfere with construction "accidentally" burn down and are demolished.

So, at the disposal of "Of-Li", which belongs to the sister of his brother's wife Lilia Ofitserova, was an old almshouse building in the very center of Vladimir. The company “won” the tender for renting this architectural monument for 200 thousand rubles a month, and almost immediately leased it to Sberbank - for almost 1.5 million a month. As a result of this "deal", the city received less than a million rubles each month. But this seemed not enough - and after a couple of years Shokhin simply donated the building to the company. Then the court took the side of justice - "Sberbank", fearing to continue to pay an exorbitant lease, filed a lawsuit, and Shokhin's decision was annulled. Also, "Of-Lee" on favorable terms received a lease of land in the city center for the construction of the Hilton hotel. Six years have passed and the company has done absolutely nothing there, except for an accident in the children's clinic adjacent to the site. Now the site is overgrown with weeds and is idle.

The "Igrotek" company of Alexei Andreev, a partner of Shokhin's brother, also receives tidbits of the historic city for rent - but does not consider it necessary to pay for it. By a lucky coincidence, the Shokhin City Hall is always one step behind - lawyers from the administration do not appear in court, “forget” to pay the fee, and miss the statute of limitations. In a word, they do everything to comply with the external intention to knock debt out of the company, but the circumstances turn out to be stronger. Thanks to Shokhin, Igrotek caused damage to the city's economy in the amount of more than 70 million rubles.

The famous athletes in the city, the Kuzin brothers, also, bypassing all the rules and permits, built the Panorama hotel in the city center. Back in 2017, the court ruled to demolish the hotel as illegally built. However, now it is 2020, and the hotel did not stop working even during the pandemic. One of the brothers, Sergei Kuzin, rented an entire lake from the mayor's office adjacent to his house in the center of Vladimir for 19 years, at a price of 2,432 rubles for the entire lease term.

Andrei Shokhin strictly observes his image of the "father of the city" - but in reality he is a drunken and dismissive stepfather, stealing things from the house for sale.

At the same time, he clings to the power chair with blue fingers, and is ready to do anything to keep power as long as possible. All those who disagree with such conduct of affairs receive a wave of compromising evidence through the telegram channels controlled by Shokhin, and after that - direct threats. The journalist Alexei Shlyapuzhnikov and the former governor's PR man Grigory Belov run a whole network of "anonymous" telegram channels for Shokhin, where they praise their master and "slur" unwanted ones - first of all, the governor of the region, Vladimir Sipyagin. How long the uncontrolled destruction of the city will continue to please one prince is not known for certain. But if Shokhin's power continues in the future, then the city will be completely destroyed for the sake of the momentary benefit of this thieving "manager".

Timofey Zabiyakin

To be continued