Employees of the Rosgvardia Center for Special Assignments guarding Ingushetia’s facilities will be fired in connection with the termination of the contract by the new owners of the oil company from Tsentrgeko Holding, follows from a letter from the families of Rosgvardians to the head of Ingushetia Mahmud-Ali Kalimatov. A copy of the letter ended up in Fortanga’s possession. The cuts could hit 250 people, a unit official said.
Rosgvardia personnel from the Special Purpose Center (SPC) have been engaged to protect some of the oil complex facilities in the republic. But due to the decision of the new owners of the company from Moscow to refuse Rosgvardia’s services, the unit will be disbanded. The number of staff falling under the cuts is 250, a member of the unit told Fortanga on condition of anonymity.
According to him, there was talk of a possible disbandment back in the fall of 2020. In November 2020, the company’s management extended a two-year contract with the Rosgvardia for the protection of facilities. But afterwards there were new rumors in the oil company — about selling 51% of Rosneft’s shares and terminating the contract with the Rosgvardia along with it. «The story was told of a case where a man wanted to join the service, but was told, ‘Why do you need it, you’ll work for a few days and you’ll be fired anyway. But the very information about what will happen was hidden until the last moment,» said an officer of the Rosgvardia unit, adding that the service will last until March 16.
He said that security guards of Rosgvardia have prevented the practice of stealing the company’s property, «The regiment has been engaged in protection of objects since 2011(at that time, the regiment was part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs), since then much has changed in the work of oil facilities — the volume of oil production has increased markedly. «And it’s not because there’s more production,» the interlocutor claims.
The letter from close relatives of the CSN department of security calls on the head of the republic «to assist in resolving the situation».
«At the beginning of this year it became known that Rosneft’s 51% stake in Ingushneft was sold in favor of Tsentrgeko, and the previously concluded contract for the provision of oil and gas security services in the Republic of Ingushetia with the Central Security Service of the National Guard was terminated from March 16, 2021. In violation of the decree of the Government of the Russian Federation […] «On the list of facilities subject to mandatory protection of National Guard troops of the Russian Federation» no protection contract is concluded. Is it possible that the government of the Republic of Ingushetia is not aware of what is going on, or is this situation planned?» the authors of the letter to Mahmud-Ali Kalimatov ask.
They point out that the employees have dependent «families with many children, elderly parents, disabled people,» and this decision will lead to the loss of a source of income for the families of the Russian Guard. The security officials themselves were thrown «overboard» while «some had 2-3 years left to complete their service in order to retire». At the same time, Ingushetia has the highest level of unemployment, the letter said.
Aslan Khamkhoyev, a former specialist of Ingushneft, said that the company’s debt at the time of the sale was 2.7 billion rubles. He noted that together with the purchase of oil wells Tsentrgeko Holding LLC received other oil complex facilities in Ingushetia. «These are huge territories that are no longer in use today. For example, there is a huge area of land adjacent to Malgobek, these lands should have been given to the Ministry of Property, as there is already a shortage of free land in Ingushetia. On the other hand, huge areas have now been given to a company that is likely to resell them to others,» Khamkhoyev told Fortanga.
In his opinion, «selling illiquid assets usually means getting rid of unnecessary ballast at the hands of private individuals», which is currently happening to the Rosgvardia regiment and is likely to happen to most of Ingushneft’s workforce. «Although we were assured as recently as last week that there would be no staff cuts. We’ll see…», Khamkhoyev noted.
It should be reminded that in early March it became known about the sale of 51% of the assets of Ingushneft, which is a subsidiary of Rosneft, in favor of Tsentrgeko Holding LLC. At that time the representative of the holding assured that the management intends to develop oil production in the republic and is not going to decrease the number of employees. The head of the Ingush government demanded the same at a meeting with a representative of the holding.