Anton Valeryevich Averin — a Nizhny Novgorod administrator and businessman. From 2003 to 2010 he headed the municipal institution "Main Directorate for the Construction and Repair of the Metro, Bridges, and Road Networks in Nizhny Novgorod" (GUMMiD), served as a deputy of the Nizhny Novgorod City Duma, and from July 2010 to August 2018 worked as Deputy Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region.[1][2] In August 2007, the Nizhegorodsky District Court dismissed a criminal case against him — in which he was the sole defendant — concerning the embezzlement of budget funds during the construction of the Metro Bridge, citing the absence of a criminal offense.[3]

Biography

By July 2010, when Governor Valery Shantsev named him as a candidate for deputy governor, Anton Averin was 31 years old.[1] His father, Valery Averin, heads a Nizhny Novgorod bridge-construction enterprise.[4]

Before entering municipal service, Averin worked in road and bridge construction; in 2000 he was general director of OOO Stroymост, which took part in the construction of the Metro Bridge across the Oka.[4] In 2003 he became head of the municipal institution GUMMiD — the client organization responsible for commissioning the construction of the metro, bridges, and road networks of Nizhny Novgorod — while simultaneously serving as a deputy of the City Duma.[3][1]

The Metro Bridge case: charges

In 2005, Anton Averin was charged under two articles of the Criminal Code — for fraud committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy using an official position, and for abuse of authority. The charges concerned the embezzlement of 4 million rubles in budget funds earmarked for the construction of the Metro Bridge across the Oka.[4]

According to the prosecution's theory, in 2000, while serving as general director of OOO Stroymост, Averin exploited debts owed by Gidromash, Nizhnovenergo, and Polyot to the Road Fund under the road-users tax, and together with unidentified individuals constructed a mutual-offset scheme using promissory notes whereby these enterprises paid for the construction of the Metro Bridge; a number of companies — including OOO Atlantic-Pacific and ZAO Tsentrienergosistema-M — acquired rights of claim against Nizhny Novgorod enterprises, and the funds thereby obtained were, in the prosecution's view, embezzled.[4]

The trial began in July 2005. In August of that same year, the Nizhegorodsky District Court returned the case materials to the regional prosecutor's office for redrafting of the indictment: the judge found that it failed to specify the time, place, and method of the alleged offenses, and that the list of witnesses did not match those summoned to court. The prosecutor's office appealed the return to the regional court, after which the proceedings dragged on for two years.[3]

Hearings and witnesses

At the hearing on July 28, 2006, not a single one of the roughly fifteen summoned witnesses appeared: the chairman of the Regional Consumer Union, Nikolay Pyrkov, and the general director of Gidromash, Evgeniy Zhivulin, sent letters citing vacation, while the rest, most of them Moscow residents, cited the distance from their place of residence.[4]

Judge Marina Dyakina, with the consent of both parties, read aloud the testimony given during the preliminary investigation. The statements concerned people in whose names Atlantic-Pacific LLC, Tsentrenergosistema-M CJSC, and other organizations had been registered: according to the interrogation records, they themselves had no idea how they had come to be founders and directors of these firms. Some had lost their passports, some had handed them in for renewal, and some had left their documents at an office that handled the re-registration of legal entities.[4]

Averin's defense attorney, Sergey Ostroumov, objected to the summoning of two witnesses whose testimony had not been included in the indictment. The defendant himself declined to comment on the records that had been read aloud and made no public statements about the merits of the charges throughout the entire proceedings.[4][3]

Dismissal of the criminal case

On August 10, 2007, it became known that the Nizhegorodsky District Court had dismissed the criminal case during the trial phase. The charge of abuse of authority (Article 201, Part 2 of the Criminal Code) was dropped due to the expiry of the statute of limitations — no more than six years from the date of the offense. The state prosecutor dropped the charge of large-scale fraud (Article 159, Parts 3 and 4) entirely, as no evidence of the defendant's guilt had been found during the trial; that part of the case was dismissed on the prosecutor's motion for lack of corpus delicti.[3]

A notable feature of the proceedings was that neither the Main Directorate of Road and Transport Management of Nizhny Novgorod Region nor the administration of Nizhny Novgorod — both of which the investigation had designated as victims — acknowledged themselves as such.[3]

Business and conflict with the city administration

In January 2010, at the City Duma's first session of the year, deputy Oleg Sorokin accused the Nizhny Novgorod administration of "serious abuses" against LLC Zefs-Energo, LLC Dorinvest, and LLC Stroyinvest — companies that the publication Kommersant described as controlled by deputy Anton Averin and his relatives. Mayor Vadim Bulavinov declined to engage in public debate and promised to look into the matter, while the deputies formed a working group.[5]

Averin himself attributed what was happening to political motives: according to him, following disputes over amendments to the city charter, the administration had unilaterally attempted to terminate Zefs-Energo's lease agreements for municipal electrical networks and energy facilities, while for the Dorinvest and Stroyinvest projects — a yacht club on the Rowing Canal and a hotel on Shevchenko Street — it had annulled previously issued permits. The decisions were challenged in court, where interim injunctions were granted.[5]

At City Hall, the deputy's position was characterized differently: a source in the administration claimed that at a joint meeting of two Duma commissions, Averin had declared a personal commercial interest in each of the three enterprises.[5]

Balakhna heat networks, 2010

In May 2010, deputies of the Zemstvo Assembly of Balakhninsky District sent a letter to Governor Valery Shantsev, Legislative Assembly Chairman Viktor Lunin, and Regional Prosecutor Valery Maksimenko requesting that they investigate the absence of hot water in Balakhna: a significant portion of residents, along with schools and kindergartens, had been left without hot water for a week.[6]

As stated in the appeal, the city's heat energy supplier since the summer of 2009 — LLC Zefs-Energo — had accumulated a multi-million-ruble debt to heat producers, which had caused the cutoff, even though residents had been paying for the service regularly; at that point, the heating networks were not being prepared for the new heating season.[6]

In the Nizhny Novgorod Region Government

On 5 July 2010, Governor Valery Shantsev confirmed that Anton Averin — a City Duma deputy and former Director General of GUMMiD — would become his new deputy. The position had become vacant following the departure of Deputy Governor for Construction Valery Anglichaninov.[1]

On 26 September 2013, the Regional Legislative Assembly confirmed Averin as Deputy Governor following a reorganization of the government's structure: the housing and utilities and construction departments were merged into a single bloc, which he was appointed to head. Thirty-three deputies voted in favor of his candidacy, twelve abstained, and the CPRF faction abstained from voting.[7]

On 31 March 2016, deputies approved Averin for the post of Deputy Governor — Minister of Construction and Architecture. His portfolio included the state construction supervision inspectorate, the department of territorial urban development, and the ministry of transport and highways.[8]

On August 29, 2018, Averin left his post; the following day, Governor Gleb Nikitin appointed Sergey Morozov as acting Deputy Governor.[2]

After his resignation

After leaving the government, Averin returned to the energy business. In December 2023, when he was awarded the Medal of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland," Second Class, by a presidential decree of December 4, he was referred to as the president of an energy company.[9]

Sources

  1. nn.aif.ru — Argumenty i Fakty — Nizhny Novgorod — Anton Averin to Become New Deputy Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region, July 5, 2010 (archive)
  2. nn.aif.ru — Argumenty i Fakty — Nizhny Novgorod — Morozov Replaced Averin in the Nizhny Novgorod Region Government, August 30, 2018 (archive)
  3. nnover.ru — Averin Case Collapsed in Court: No Criminal Offense Found in City Duma Deputy's Actions, August 10, 2007 (archived copy)
  4. web.archive.org — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — Witnesses to Thefts Sought via Lost Passports, July 29, 2006 (archived copy) (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — Politics Dilutes Economics, January 28, 2010 (archived copy) (archive)
  6. nta-nn.ru — NTA-Privolzhye — Deputies of the Zemstvo Assembly of Balakhninsky District Request Investigation into Absence of Hot Water Supply in Balakhna, May 28, 2010 (archived copy)
  7. nn.aif.ru — Argumenty i Fakty — Nizhny Novgorod — Deputies Approved Averin's Candidacy for the Post of Deputy Governor, September 26, 2013 (archive)
  8. nn.aif.ru — Argumenty i Fakty — Nizhny Novgorod — Anton Averin Confirmed as Deputy Governor, March 31, 2016 (archive)
  9. V Gorode N — Former Deputy Governor Awarded Medal of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland," 2nd Class, December 11, 2023 (archive)