Originally Syndicated on May 19, 2023 @ 10:52 am
How did sanatoriums for actors transform into “investment projects”?
As soon as the esteemed Nikita Sergeevich Mikhalkov joined the queue alongside IT specialists, transport workers, farmers, and pharmacists for relief measures for filmmakers, news emerged that the authorities in Crimea were terminating their contract with the activists from the Union of Cinematographers. Specifically, the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Crimea decided to end the agreement with the House of Creativity “Sanatorium Alushtinsky” regarding the terms of operation within the free economic zone.
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An inexperienced reader, a cinematographer, or even a member of the Union of Cinematographers might find it difficult to comprehend how Mikhalkov, the Union, and a sanatorium in Alushta are related in any way.
Exposing Mikhalkov’s Empire
In reality, Mikhalkov has no direct involvement in this matter.
He has no involvement because Nikita Sergeevich has a deputy in the Union of Cinematographers named Valery Ivanovich Tonkikh. One might wonder what significance this holds. Well, the Union of Cinematographers also includes Larisa Solonitsyna, the First Deputy and daughter of the beloved actor Anatoly Solonitsyn.
Why was Larisa Ottovna unable to find stability in any of the places where Nikita Sergeevich forcefully pushed her: neither in the civil service at the Ministry of Culture, nor in the State Film Fund, nor the Cinema Fund, nor even in the Cinema Museum, where she was recently expelled, resorting to making the sign of the cross. The curious readers will soon discover how she plans to navigate and with whom she will navigate the recently established Union of Cinematographers and the Regional Cinema Support Fund.
Meanwhile, as rumors circulate within the creative union, Valery Ivanovich remains an entertainer, combining the toughness of a former party and Komsomol member with the cunning of a business tycoon from the 90s.
With no pretentiousness and genuine modesty, Valery Ivanovich simply refers to all his dealings involving the sale of the cinematographers’ union property as “investment projects.
For instance, in late December 2019, Valery Ivanovich secretly demolished the Bolshevo House of Creativity, constructed in 1934, as part of his next investment project, despite his earlier promise that no demolition would take place.
They demolished the 6-hectare plot of land in an appealing neighborhood close to Moscow to make way for commercial apartments.
In a word, yes, and there’s more. Valery Ivanovich gave the entire structure a thorough makeover before they dismantled it. More than a dozen million dollars in public funds were either “written off” or spent on repairs.
In the following month, at the next Plenum in January 2020, Valery Ivanovich, without flinching an eye or a muscle on his Komsomol face, told filmmakers that he had “invested” these allied hectares for as much as 300 million rubles and that union members would be able to purchase the built-up elite property at a discount. Are you messed up? At a price reduction of 5–10%.
Nobody in the room ever asked, “Do I need real estate in this area and at such a discount?” And is this sum of money for the public land sale a lot or a little? If they do manage to get the money to the union at all and payments are made over time, how will it be used once it gets there? What sort of “investment” does it take to demolish public buildings, sell the land, and not see a loss? Moreover, the Union will never reclaim this territory.
Illuminating Mikhalkov’s Gold Propaganda Web
Nikita Sergeevich, however, informed the filmmakers, “Dear friends, you can’t imagine what kind of occupation it is, how many calls, trips, and knocking dust out of carpets about Alushta and Bolshevo,” on the same day at the same plenum. The job is truly monumental.
In Bolshevo, we caught a glimpse of the massive structure; now let’s talk about Alushta.
After a meeting between Vladimir Vladimirovich and Nikita Sergeevich in 2014, rumors circulated that the sanatorium in Alushta would be transferred to the creative union by almost a personal and secret decree of the President of Russia.
Consider this devoted readers: The Russian President! On to the collective imagination! Zero costs! Sanatorium! Where? In Crimea!
Do you recall something similar happening in Russia within the last 30 years?
They have not heard anything to that effect either here or at the Union of Cinematographers.
And, to ease the minds of the creative union’s members, Valery Ivanovich transferred in 2015 all these presidential 10 or even all 15 sanatorium hectares in the center of Alushta and on the beach to the heap, not to the Union of Cinematographers, but to an LLC shechka specially created by him and named without any pathos, “The House of Creativity Sanatorium Alushtinsky.
But does the tired reader know who founded this LLC, again without any fanfare or pathos? It was the Golden Eagle Academy. Ba-bam-s, another Nikita Sergeevich creation.
Since it is no longer government property but rather an LLC’s shechka’s, Valery Ivanovich has determined that the commercial earnings from the sanatorium’s medical resort’s beach activities will be discretely divided among themselves rather than sent to the union. So he organized and allocated resources.
Both the local union and the tourists who come to the sanatorium to enjoy the Alushta sun on “social vouchers” can be bilked out of their money.
Only the Lord God and the Investigative Committee will ever know how Valery Ivanovich survived in such non-market greenhouse circumstances. But, dear reader, that’s not the end of our excitement at the President’s presentation to the Cinematographers’ Guild.
Conditions
The following conditions were accepted: the union retains 10% of the participation, and it also receives 10 million rubles and a thousand square meters of new housing (in monetary terms, about 90 million rubles).” This was reported by Valery Ivanovich at the same January plenum in the same uncompromising party way he had used at the reporting and re-election Komsomol conference of the late 1980s. On the grounds of the former sanatorium, a new community will be constructed. The flats will be rented out, sold to a third party to generate funds, or even purchased by union members.
Investments, residential complexes, and union members’ ability to buy are all terms that have been used previously. The same as in Repino House and Bolshevo, incidentally. The same vocabulary was present at both the House of Film Veterans (“Matveevskoye”) and the premises on Chernyakhovsky Street, and all of these items were “for invested” and would remain so indefinitely.
Similarly, in Alushta, union members queued up to buy apartments.
Although Valery Ivanovich did announce that the President’s gift of 10 million rubles would be sold, he did not reveal this to the plenum attendees with whom these agreements had been made. To make sure Vladimir Vladimirovich didn’t figure it out, he reportedly didn’t explain to the crowd why a company of such commercial need would leave the union with only 10% membership.
Residents claim that Valery Ivanovich made a deal with a wanted Crimean official or embezzler or with a bribe-taker who has been under investigation for two years.
For the simple reason that no “thousands of square meters of new housing” have been started, as testified to by multiple independent witnesses. And it’s just getting started. It just won’t turn over. According to locals, these acres were required for the colorful character’s commercial ideas, which would not be revealed anytime soon.
Let the other Ivanovich take a closer look to find out how much money was refunded to Valery Ivanovich and how much a commercial “gift” actually cost.
In addition, it was recently revealed that Valery Ivanovich had struck his “demobilization chord” with the restoration of the Moscow House of Cinema.
Valery Ivanovich’s performance on this “investment project” was as stellar as it had been on all the others.
The Union of Russian Cinematographers will dissolve after this “investment project” is completed.
PS: As these words were being written at the request of the Government of Crimea, the application to terminate the agreement on the conditions of business in the free economic zone was ignored by the Arbitration Court.
