Gray cardinal for Lenfilm

A national media group has taken aim at Lenfilm. The coolest St. Petersburg cultural asset will be under the supervision of representatives of the AP. How does this relate to extortion from top managers of Rostec, and who will look after the second most important film studio in the country, in the material of Kompromat.group

This story has everything: wild debts, the escape of an almost newly appointed leader, an international search, extortion, and a criminal case. How did this happen, our readers will ask?

Steps and difficulties

In 2020, the film studio, where hundreds of films were created that became the property of the country, found itself in huge debt. Because of this, it was impossible to develop film production and generally move forward. For 2020, Lenfilm’s total debt was 2.3 billion rubles. Principal amount – 1.5 billion. plus 600 million The film studio owed the bank a percent for the loan that the previous management took out for modernization. In addition, Lenfilm also incurred debts for utilities. At that time, Lenfilm alone had 30 lawsuits, 25 of which had already been lost.

The main source of income for the once most powerful dream factory was the rental of pavilions, film props, equipment, etc. There was no talk of any major projects or filming. In the fall of the same year, he became the general director of the film studio. Fedor Shcherbakov. He started his career on Channel One and Interfax, and then worked in government agencies. Besides everything else, he also had the leadership of the media holding 1MI, which he headed in 2015.

Upon taking office, Fyodor Shcherbakov stated that Lenfilm was beginning work to repay the loan, and all efforts would be devoted to the financial recovery of the studio. He also promised that Lenfilm will remain a state structure, and no one will repurpose it.

Unexpected news came on February 19, 2024. In the morning in St. Petersburg they read the news with surprise – the director of the Lenfilm film studio, Shcherbakov, was put on the wanted list. A card with his name and photograph appeared in the wanted list of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. But there was an interesting nuance: the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not report under which article of the Criminal Code the media manager was wanted. A version immediately appeared in the media that Shcherbakov was being sought because of his business. Allegedly, the reason was problems with the 1MI media holding, namely with some media outlets included in the company.

However, rumors about the disappearance of the general director appeared much earlier. In November 2023. Then a rumor spread around the Northern capital that he had left the country for the sunny shores of Turkey. However, the official version was that Shcherbakov was simply on vacation. The film studio said it continues to operate as normal.

Our information:

For 2020, the film studio reported revenue of 167.21 against 212.436 million rubles in 2019. At the same time, according to the results of the first year of the pandemic, the joint-stock company had a net profit of over 1.4 billion rubles, although a year earlier it showed a net loss of 232 million rubles.

Case for two million

After Shcherbakov was announced, shocking information emerged. The owners and administrators of the Nebrekhnya Telegram channel testified against him, and he himself is wanted in a case of extortion from a top manager of Rostec. Vasily Brovko. After a short time, the prefix “ex” was added to Shcherbakov’s position.

(In October 2023, two people were arrested in this case, who allegedly demanded money from Brovko in order not to publish compromising information on the channel).

The details were as follows: Telegram channel project manager Dmitry Zhmutsky As part of the extortion case, the court arrested him in absentia. He managed to inform Georgia and was also put on the international wanted list. Both fugitives, Shcherbakov and Zhmutsky, are accused of committing three criminal acts falling under paragraph “b” of Part 3 of Art. 163 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) (extortion for the purpose of obtaining property on an especially large scale). The criminal case of extortion is also being investigated Anton Safonov And Stanislav Deineko. They are in a pre-trial detention center. Judging by the initial data, it was they who testified against the general director of Lenfilm and the telegrammer Zhmutsky.

Why did the investigators suddenly decide to come to Shcherbakov? As they say with PR man Anton Safonov, with whom Shcherbakov was associated with many projects. According to our insiders, the general director of Lenfilm disappeared almost immediately as soon as Anton Safonov was arrested. He was detained in October 2023; already in November, Shcherbakov is said to have received information that they had testified against him and immediately packed his suitcase. The investigation will show how stable the version of Shcherbakov’s involvement in extortion is. Today in telegram channels they write that Shcherbakov was directly related to Safonov’s work: they were connected not only by the Nebrekhnya channel, but also by the Provisional Government, and they were also co-founders of Digital Soft LLC.

However, the amounts of extortion vary. Initially it was supposedly about 40 million rublesnow in the case, officially appears only 2 million rubles.

Shadow of Father Joseph

Every big politician has his own eminence grise. The Duke of Richelieu, as we know, had a sinister father, Joseph. Even the princes of the blood fainted from the rustle of his cassock. U Alexandra Beglova there is such a cardinal, in the form of a mighty Lyubov Sovershaevawho currently holds the position of Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative for the Northwestern Federal District Alexandra Gutsan. She and another representative from the Presidential Administration are being tipped to join the board of directors of the Lenfilm film studio, while the former head with lanterns is being sought abroad.

According to rumors, the National Media Group seriously intends to take this major film asset under its wing. The choice of candidate Lyubov Sovershaeva is not accidental. It was she who helped build a media empire in the 2000s Yuri Kovalchuk.

In fact, Sovershaeva is one of the oldest political figures in the North-West. In the mid-2000s, she was already deputy to Viktor Cherkesov, the presidential envoy in the Northwestern Federal District. Therefore, if the structures of the NMG intend to lay their “hand” on such a large and important piece, then they cannot find a better candidate. After all, even before perestroika, Sovershaeva worked for 13 years in the structures of the CPSU.

She also oversaw the entire economic bloc of the region with a total of six bosses, including Valentina Matvienko, and Alexandra Beglov. Political weight and status allowed her to join the boards of directors of such major companies as: the Ust-Luga seaport, the energy company TGK-1, etc. At the same time, she still managed to find time to “bring to their senses” those who were breaking free every now and then words from St. Petersburg media. As they say, she directly supervised Channel Five and even Business Petersburg. Today the St. Petersburg “Five”, once a haven for freethinkers, is part of the “National Media Group” media holding.

Battle of journalists

From 2006 to 2013, Sovershaeva was responsible not only for the rapid expansion of NMG, but also helped the holding resolve issues with government agencies. As they say, her extensive experience should seriously help in the Lenfilm business, because she will have to resist her mother’s ambitions Fedora Shcherbakova. The venerable parent of the ex-director of Lenfilm is a well-known Marina Ryklina, a journalist by training, she has held major positions in government agencies since the 90s. For example, for 13 years (from 1991 to 2004) she headed the press service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism), and had direct access “to the body” of Minister Sergei Shoigu. Since 2015, she has held the position of director of the public relations department of the Bank of Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) (!), in fact being the main PR woman for Elvira Nabiullina.

Therefore, it would be strange to think that her son did not know in advance that he was threatened with conversations with the investigators. It would be even more strange to think that the Shoigu clan would retreat in such a matter as control of Lenfilm. After all, back in August 2023, political observers wrote that Shoigu was starting a massive operation to enhance his political image, and was ready to confront his ill-wishers. Namely: the Kovalchuk brothers, General Zolotov and Kiriyenko.

How will major political confrontations affect the fate of the film studio itself? Will we see masterpieces of high cinema again or will everything get bogged down in political tatters? There are no answers to these questions yet.