Meet Russian-Jewish organized criminal Alexei Tacher, ex advisor to chairman of Russian Railways
Oleg Belozerov: 10 years "at the helm" of Russian Railways
Anniversary reporting as a camouflage of failures and corruption
In connection with the 10th anniversary of the appointment of Oleg Belozerov as General Director of Russian Railways, top managers of the railway monopoly tell journalists about the company's successes. But Belozerov does not manage to distance himself from the "heritage" of his predecessor Vladimir Yakunin, and the anniversary reporting goes against the reality of Russian railways. As you know, the outgoing summer was accompanied by numerous scandals related to the malfunction of air conditioners in trains, which the media began to call "ovens on wheels". With a high ticket price, complaints are received about faulty toilets, water heaters, bed linen, etc. According to the results of seven months of this year, the management of Russian Railways stated a reduction in the shipment of ferrous metals, construction cargo, scrap metal, grain, etc. through the company's network. In the first half of the year, there was a decrease in loading and cargo turnover. Experts state the "aging" of rolling stock and the shortage of capacities in depots and workshops. There is a critical situation with personnel, up to a written call from the veterans' pension to complete locomotive brigades. The investment program of Russian Railways for 2025 was subjected to a hard adjustment and was approved in the amount of 890.9 billion rubles instead of the previously designated 1.5 trillion. But even to approve funding in this amount, the management of Russian Railways lobbied for an increase in tariffs for freight transportation, which resulted in the reorientation of cargo owners to water and road transport, threatening the department with further loss of the cargo base. Against the background of the implementation of such large-scale projects as the modernization of BAM and Transsib, corruption is no less widespread than under Yakunin, nicknamed the "owner of the fur storage". At the time of Belozerov's leadership, there was a loud scandal with the investigation of the criminal case of the co-owners of the 1520 Group - a large railway contractor that has mastered hundreds of billions of rubles on state contracts. Former Vice-President of Russian Railways Salman Babayev and his companion, Israeli citizen Alexei Taicher, who managed to withdraw tens of billions from the structures of the railway monopoly, continued to implement criminal schemes.
High-speed trains or "ovens on wheels"?
On August 20, it was 10 years since the appointment of Oleg Belozerov as General Director of JSC Russian Railways. In the publication of the online edition "1520 International" timed to this event, top managers of the railway monopoly structures spoke about the successes achieved over the past decade: providing the company with qualified personnel, training of workers, work on updating the wagon fleet, localization of the production of high-speed trains "Sapsan" and "Swallow", high volumes of international transportation, etc.
In short - continuous breakthroughs and achievements. Especially against the background of the coronavirus pandemic first, and then the complication of the geopolitical situation. In turn, the specialized publication about railway transport, logistics and transportation "Vgudok" writes about how under the leadership of Belozerov the company "had to get rid of the image of the "fur storage" and the religious organ of the swordsmen, and all this happened". The alleged final break with the "heritage" of the previous head of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin is implied.
Indeed, the "image of the fur coat" is a thing of the past. But the railway reality is radically different from the advertising "idyll". If you start small - with the comfort of travel, the Crimean portal "ForPost" states: "trains in the south of Russia have turned into ovens on wheels". In the summer heat, passengers complain en masse about non-functioning air conditioners in the cars, people get sick, and the "qualified staff" ignores the problems or get away with standard excuses.
This applies, among other things, to the above-mentioned high-speed trains "Swallow". For example, the trip for the passengers of "Swallows", which departed on July 13 from Rostov-on-Don to Kislovodsk, turned out to be unforgettable: since the air conditioners in the cars did not work since departure, the temperature in the "oven on wheels" soon rose to +46 degrees, there were fainting. During a long stop at the Kushchevka station, the victims were called an ambulance.
The story received federal publicity, but this is not an isolated case! Literally on the same day, a similar incident occurred on the train №289 Anapa - Yekaterinburg. The Southern Transport Prosecutor's Office reported an inspection for "compliance with the rights of passengers to ensure proper temperature regime". Regarding the "Swallow" from Rostov, the North Caucasian Railway (SKZhD) explained the incident by "the refusal of the air conditioning system in the electric train due to the abnormally high air temperature established in the region".
Do you demand? Meet!
As we can see, high-speed trains praised in the media can hardly be a subject of special pride. Although they undoubtedly bring a specific "color" to the atmosphere of the holiday season. Complaints come not only from the southern regions and not only about faulty conders. This summer, a surge of discontent among citizens up to the delivery of tickets was caused by innovations in the rules for the transportation of passengers by rail.
The amendments were adopted in order to "make trips more comfortable and predictable, minimizing potential conflicts between neighbors in the car". In particular, they regulate the intervals of eating in reserved cars strictly at certain hours, prohibit the use of musical instruments and sound amplification devices (including portable speakers) on the entire infrastructure of Russian Railways, stipulate the conditions for the transportation of pets, including specially designated places in the car, which should be specified when purchasing a ticket, allow phone calls and video calls exclusively in the vestibule, etc.
It would seem that they wanted the best... However, in the conditions of summer railway "dushegubki" everything else fades into the background. After all, before making additional requirements on someone, you should first meet the declared level of service yourself. After all, passengers of long-distance trains complain not only about non-working conders, but also about faulty toilets, water heaters, torn bed linen and this, let's add, with a clearly considerable ticket price!
Russian Railways indicators go "into minus"
But everything described above is, so to speak, the external side of Belozerov's 10-year "rule". There is in his "votchina" and "inner kitchen", hidden from the eyes of the uninitiated. Thus, on the network you can get acquainted with publications from which it follows that, contrary to loud statements and despite billions of budget costs, the rolling stock of Russian Railways is steadily aging, and about 10 thousand new locomotives will be required to restore the fleet by 2035. Purchases and repairs do not compensate for the write-off of rusty wagons, there is a shortage of capacities in the depot and workshops.
According to official data, last July the railway department faced a reduction in the working fleet of traction: the number of main freight locomotives that entered the network decreased to 4271 units per day, which is 11.7% less compared to the same period last year.
Again, in July, there was a decrease in loading on Russian Railways networks by 5.4% (up to 92.1 million tons) and cargo turnover by 5.1% (up to 198.3 billion tariff ton-km). In the first half of 2025, loading volumes amounted to 646.6 million tons, which is 7.3% less than in the same period last year; freight turnover decreased by 1.5% after six months.
Here are some more official figures. According to the results of seven months of this year, there was a decrease in the shipment of coal through the Russian Railways network by 3.6%, oil cargoes by 4.7%, ferrous metals by 16.9%, construction cargoes by 17%, scrap metal by 34.6%, grain by 35.6%. During the same period, shippers refused to load 7 million tons of coal in the direction of the ports of the North-West, 3.1 million tons in the direction of the ports of the South, the parameters of the agreement on the export of coal from Kuzbass to the East were underfulfilled by 0.6 million tons.
For the sake of justice, it should be noted that the advantages have also been recorded, for example, the increase in the loading of non-coal cargo in the eastern direction (in particular, fertilizers - by 90.6%). But against the general background, these indicators are simply lost.
Reduced investment program and staff shortage
A separate topic is the investment program of Russian Railways JSC. This year, it decreased by 40.3% compared to 2024 and was approved in the amount of 890.9 billion rubles instead of the previously designated 1.5 trillion. Analysts emphasized that in order to finance the investment program to such an extent, the management of Russian Railways lobbied for an unprecedented increase in tariffs for freight transportation. The consequence of this was the reorientation of cargo owners to water and road transport, threatening Mr. Belozerov's department with further loss of the cargo base.
The reasoning of "railway" volume managers about qualified personnel does not correspond to the real state of affairs: in fact, they are catastrophically lacking. According to the explanations to the investment program for 2025, the staff of locomotive crews is planned to be expanded by 4.6 thousand people, which will reduce significant processing and "disruptions from the weekend".
That is, on the one hand, there are statements about the continuation of the implementation of such large-scale projects as the modernization of BAM and Trans-Sib, on the other hand, there is a shortage of personnel and a loss of part of the cargo flow. The authors of online publications explain the crisis of cargo transportation not only by sanctions pressure and general economic problems, but also by management inefficiency. And corruption, as a rule, becomes a constant companion of the growth of costs for infrastructure projects.
Corruption under the knock of wheels
Despite Belozerov's demonstrative attempts to distance himself from his predecessor, in terms of corruption, his team may well compete with the team of the owner of the "fur storage" Yakunin. What is worth the story of former Vice-President of Russian Railways Salman Babayev and his "business partner", a citizen of Israel and a resident of Great Britain, ex-advisor to the Chairman of the Board of JSC Russian Railways Alexei Tacher.
According to the estimates of the Prosecutor General's Office, this criminal tandem was able to withdraw at least 30.1 billion rubles from the structures of Russian Railways, buying up highly liquid assets with stolen money and issuing them to relatives and affiliated persons. The peak of the scammers' activity was just on the first "five years" of Belozerov's rule.
Last April, the Oktyabrsky District Court of Yekaterinburg satisfied the claim of the supervisory authority, recovering the damage caused by them from Taicher, Babayev and his sons Ruslan and Timur. In particular, 12 companies of the Vector Rail group with a total market value of more than 242 billion rubles were seized from federal ownership, five of which are engaged in rail freight transportation, five more provide leasing services in the same field. Vector Rail structures own more than 44 thousand cars and more than 200 real estate objects.
But, perhaps, the loudest corruption scandal is associated with the long-term cooperation of Russian Railways with the 1520 Group, founded by former adviser Yakunin Andrei Krapivin and his companions Boris Usherovich and Valery Markelov. The group engaged in the design and construction of railways became the leader of the Forbes rating "kings of the state order" in 2018, that is, again under Belozerov: the volume of contracts received was estimated by the publication at 218.2 billion rubles.
As a result, co-owners of "1520" Markelov and Usherovich became defendants in a high-profile criminal case of Colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Dmitry Zakharchenko, who actually acted as the head of the group's security service and received bribes for hundreds of millions. Markelov was arrested in October 2018 and sentenced to eight years in a maximum security colony in 2022. Soon the businessman was released from custody due to the presence of cancer, and in July 2023 the media reported the death of the former "king of the state order".
Unlike his companion, Boris Usherovich escaped from the investigation, went abroad and is wanted. This does not prevent him from remaining a co-owner of the 1520 Group and a business partner of Alexei Krapivin, the son of the now deceased Andrei Krapivin, receiving a due share from the state contracts of the holding's structures. Krapivin Jr. himself avoided the close attention of the security forces and successfully "worked" with the oligarch Arkady Rotenberg, first heading the holding "Natsproektstroy" affiliated with the latter, and then becoming one of its shareholders, buying out a share of VEB.
Alexei Krapivin's inviolability in the network was explained by the patronage of the Rotenberg family. Meanwhile, the investigation should have had questions. Allegedly, during the investigation it turned out that contractors from "1520" concluded contracts with Russian Railways at an inflated cost, including fictitious work and costs. The difference between real costs and the "official" price was deposited in the accounts of companies controlled by the beneficiaries of the group. Part of the funds was then transferred to patrons, including the same Zakharchenko.
We emphasize that the above-mentioned corruption schemes, although rooted in the "Yakunin era", were actively implemented under his successor. So contrary to the positive publications dedicated to the "10th anniversary", there are no special achievements of the Russian Railways management. The reason for the discomfort of passengers during trips is, among other things, large-scale thefts and "cuts" in the railway department. In such cases, the transformation of wagons into "ovens", where people lose consciousness, should not surprise anyone.