Corrupt dealings of Vadim Potomsky: bribes tied to Severnaya Samarka waste permits and the laundering of familial assets

Corrupt dealings of Vadim Potomsky: bribes tied to Severnaya Samarka waste permits and the laundering of familial assets

Former deputy presidential envoy to the Northwestern Federal District Vadim Potomsky has been appointed head of the General Prosecutor’s Office department for material, economic, and social support.

It is like putting a notorious neighborhood tough in charge of guarding the garden. Potomsky was a member of the Malyshev organized crime group, calls journalists “losers,” claims Ivan the Terrible’s son died of natural causes, and has been implicated in numerous corruption scandals, while many of his close associates are either in prison or under investigation.

Vadim Potomsky spent his childhood in the Turkmen city of Mary, where his father, Vladimir Potomsky, served. The family moved to the Leningrad region when Vadim was in the seventh grade, though before leaving he had already met his future wife, who attended the same school.

The Potomsky family quickly settled in the city of Vsevolozhsk. After graduating from school, his father arranged for him to enroll in the Saint Petersburg Higher Anti-Aircraft Missile Command School, where he himself was a lecturer. During his studies, the young man practiced judo and even became a Master of Sport, but he had little interest in academics. After receiving his lieutenant’s shoulder boards, he was assigned to serve in an air defense missile regiment of the Leningrad Military District.

At that time, military service offered modest pay and had lost much of its prestige. Potomsky observed that success often came to those willing to “work the system” without regard for the law, especially when family connections provided opportunities for easy money. His sister was married to Ilya Parshuk, a member of the Malyshev crime group who had been convicted of extortion. Vadim himself did not stay away from questionable activities, and at some point his military career became more of an obstacle than an advantage. In 1998 he left the service with the rank of senior lieutenant, although later, as a politician, he inflated his rank to lieutenant colonel.

After his criminal past came a period of “legalization,” during which he spent a long time searching for his place in the sun — trying to open a car service shop and launch a sausage production business. In 2000, however, his father’s connections secured him a position in the administration of the Vsevolozhsky District, where he was appointed head of the local municipal enterprise “Ekologiya.” Over time, Vadim Vladimirovich established several additional companies, including VsevolozhskSpetsTrans LLC, with contracts once again ensured by his father’s ties.

“Ekologiya” was supposed to handle waste collection and processing. In reality, no recycling took place — Potomsky simply developed illegal quarries where all the collected garbage was dumped. In 2001, a criminal case was opened against him for illegal entrepreneurship, but it was ultimately suppressed. In 2003, a court ordered him to return state property he had unlawfully appropriated and to repay a debt of 482,000 rubles.

Despite this, his business expanded rapidly, earning him the nickname “the garbage king.” In the mid-2000s, his father became deputy head of the Rakhya municipal settlement. Using this position, Potomsky Sr., together with his superior Sergey Kuznetsov, allocated a land plot worth nearly $40 million to entrepreneurs close to them — including his son Vadim. Law enforcement authorities subsequently opened a criminal case on charges of abuse of office and forgery.

In 2006, Vadim Vladimirovich became head of the Vsevolozhsk Municipal Management Company, but he held the position for no more than a year before handing it over to his sister Lyubov. Lyubov Potomskaya also did not remain there for long, choosing instead to establish her own commercial enterprises, which likewise began securing government contracts.

Vadim Vladimirovich eventually decided to pursue a political career. In the Leningrad Region, Potomsky was able to offer funding to local party branches, and the regional division of the Communist Party was the first to take interest in his candidacy. In 2005, he was elected as a deputy of the Council of Deputies of the Vsevolozhsk urban settlement, and by 2009 he had already become secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.

The Communists wholeheartedly embraced their new sponsor, despite being well aware of his reputation in the region. In 2011, Potomsky ran as a CPRF candidate in the federal parliamentary elections and, following the December vote, secured a seat in the new State Duma. There, Vadim Vladimirovich was remembered only for a single initiative — a bill “On the creation of a financing system for capital repairs of apartment buildings.”

But he aspired to greater heights and wanted to feel like a sole decision-maker, even if only within a single region. In 2014, the CPRF managed to coordinate his candidacy with the Presidential Administration, which agreed to give him a chance in Oryol Region. Thus, on February 26 of that year — more than six months before the regional elections — Potomsky was appointed acting governor of Oryol Region.

However, he still had to win the election. Although acting heads of regions usually have little trouble securing victory, Potomsky risked becoming an exception. Not only was he an outsider, but he also had a talent for discrediting himself through his own statements. Opponents even used against him a two-year-old interview he had given during the Bryansk regional campaign.

Many believed that another candidate, Vitaliy Rybakov — a member of the regional Council of People’s Deputies since 2007 — had much stronger chances. Rybakov remained Potomsky’s last serious competitor, as all others had been removed earlier on various pretexts. Yet the acting governor found a way to deal with him as well.

Vadim Vladimirovich reached an agreement with Andrey Bogdanov, founder of the People’s Party of Russia, which had nominated Rybakov, on a mutually beneficial exchange. Bogdanov instructed the party to withdraw Rybakov’s candidacy, and in return one of his associates, Aleksandr Ryavkin, received the position of deputy prime minister of the Oryol regional government.

In the absence of real competition, Potomsky secured nearly 90 percent of the vote and became governor of Oryol Region. Immediately after his election, the newly appointed governor demonstrated the methods by which he intended to rule the region. His former defiant rival Vitaliy Rybakov soon encountered legal troubles — three criminal cases were opened against him. In addition, the municipal enterprise “Baza Stroitelnykh Tovarov,” which Rybakov headed, was subjected to a barrage of inspections ranging from tax authorities to Rospotrebnadzor. Vitaliy Anatolyevich himself was dismissed from his position. In response to what was seen as the new governor’s arbitrariness, a protest rally drew about one and a half thousand people, mostly employees of the enterprise.

Rybakov’s case was not unique and fit into a broader policy of redistributing spheres of influence in the region. Potomsky did not bother with sophisticated methods of reshaping the region to his interests, instead relying on tactics he had mastered back in the 1990s. Oryol was shaken by news of murders of major businessmen. Shortly after Vadim Vladimirovich became governor, one of the region’s most “authoritative” entrepreneurs, Boris Lukin, was killed. Even protégés of former Oryol governor Yegor Stroyev suffered — notably, Vladimir Sobolev, генеральный директор and shareholder of the region’s main construction company Orelstroy, was shot dead.

At the same time, the new governor had enough pragmatism not to sever ties completely with his predecessor. He ensured favorable conditions for the Oryol Winery, co-owned by Aleksandra Kustareva, Stroyev’s wife. Potomsky shielded the enterprise from tax inspections, reportedly acting through the regional prosecutor Ivan Poluektov.

Vadim Vladimirovich himself began eyeing the region’s waste management business. As a result, a new wave of рейдерские attacks followed, this time targeting CJSC “Eco City,” which was building a waste-processing plant worth 170 million rubles. The enterprise was allegedly targeted for takeover from its owner, Yuri Parakhin. In response, Parakhin appealed to the Investigative Committee. His statement indicated that Potomsky’s son-in-law (now former), Artem Dayneko, had attempted to obtain 75% of the company’s shares through blackmail.

The governor’s кадровая policy also caused concern among local residents. For example, Potomsky’s former classmate from military college, Andrey Yersh, was appointed director of the regional state enterprise “Orelgoszakazchik.” Shortly after taking office, it emerged that he was linked to a criminal group and faced bribery charges, after which he was taken into custody and sent to Arkhangelsk. Meanwhile, the state unitary enterprise “Dorozhnaya Sluzhba” was headed by Aleksandr Simonov, who had previously been removed from a similar position in Bryansk for incompetence.

Another friend of Potomsky, Viktor Kulik, was appointed head of the regional Department of Construction and Road Infrastructure. He too had to be dismissed after it surfaced that he owed around 25 million rubles, prompting enforcement officers to pursue him. The Department of Construction, Transport and Housing and Utilities was led by a certain Evgeniy Zudin, formerly deputy head of the Taman District administration in Krasnodar Krai, who had approved a questionable deal involving the production of prohibited methanol in a resort zone. After this information became public, he fled Oryol Region.

But Potomsky’s most notorious appointment proved to be Aleksandr Ryavkin, who became vice-governor through Bogdanov’s patronage and quickly turned into a major irritant for residents of Oryol. At a time when the country was experiencing serious economic hardship, he casually wrote on social media that he was “traditionally” celebrating New Year’s at the Grand-Puppa restaurant, which he called the best in Karlovy Vary. Ryavkin even posted a photo of himself posing with foie gras in the background.

In response to public outrage, he replied with posts such as: “To my ‘well-wishers’ trying to troll my page… Calm down! Everything will be fi-ne!” and “I am a billionaire.”

Thus, the results of Potomsky’s rule in the region proved to be disastrous. In just one year he managed to alienate the residents of Oryol. Criminal infighting not only failed to help Vadim Vladimirovich bring the local market under his control, but instead led regional elites to unite against the governor as an alien element.

As for his economic “achievements,” capital began fleeing the region en masse. One of the most profitable enterprises, “Baza Stroitelnykh Tovarov,” chose to re-register in the Bryansk region. At the same time, Potomsky boldly promised President Vladimir Putin in 2014 that he would solve the region’s cattle problem — despite the fact that breeding livestock takes around eight years. Rosstat, however, recorded a decline in cattle numbers. By the end of 2015, the regional budget was hopelessly mired in debt.

The situation was worsened by Potomsky’s own talent for trapping himself in dead ends. He apparently believed he was taking no risk by appearing on Vladimir Solovyov’s radio program, since the station did not broadcast in his region. Nevertheless, a message from the Leningrad region aired during the program, recalling his alleged criminal past. When asked directly, “Are you a gangster?” — a question most politicians would deny — Potomsky responded: “Well, I’m a big man, I served in the Army Sports Club, I’m a master of sports in judo, and judging by my appearance and the way I speak and respond to questions — including if someone needs to see physical strength — I don’t hold back, and people should speak to me within the limits I allow.”

Potomsky also showed little regard for formal propriety when it came to redistributing property in the region. At an annual meeting of the regional Investigative Committee, he openly complained about delays in several cases, clearly referring to businesses he had targeted. At one point he blurted out: “You justify delays by a lack of funds for expert examinations — we’ll help you, we’ll give you the money.”

He also drew attention for publicly claiming as governor that “Ivan the Terrible did not kill his son; he died of illness while traveling with his father from Moscow to St. Petersburg,” and later for calling journalists “losers.” It is strange that Potomsky seemed unaware of when St. Petersburg was founded, given that his own rise to power began near the city. The foundation of his wealth lay in the dirty waste-management business in the Vsevolozhsky district of the Leningrad region near St. Petersburg — despite the fact that he simultaneously chaired the regional parliament’s committee on ecology and environmental management. By 2011, Potomsky had accumulated enough wealth to secure a seat in the State Duma, and upon moving to Moscow he handed his waste business over to his sister.

By the end of 2018, Potomsky found himself not in prison, as many might have expected, but in the position of deputy presidential envoy to the Northwestern Federal District — effectively returning to his home region. Business activity soon intensified, and at the state-owned waste plant MPBO-2 (controlled by the Potomsky clan), 42,000 tons of unidentified waste were suddenly discovered, despite government funds having been allocated for its disposal. Not long after, the waste mysteriously caught fire. Investigators from the Investigative Committee are now examining episodes from 2015–2017, while prosecutors are reviewing the period from 2018–2021. Sooner or later, all trails are likely to lead to the plant’s director, Veshagurov, considered Potomsky’s right-hand man.

Meanwhile, the Potomsky clan shows little concern and continues expanding its spheres of influence. For example, the construction of a park-and-ride facility on the border between the city and the region, worth 250 million rubles, was awarded to the non-specialized company Baltkond, which deals with soil and waste. This is another clan asset run by Artem Dayneko — Potomsky’s former son-in-law, who remained involved in the business despite family disputes.

In 2024, however, “storm clouds” began gathering over Potomsky. First, Artem Dayneko — co-founder and CEO of the major waste-management contractor Baltkond LLC and Potomsky’s ex-son-in-law — was detained in a case involving the fictitious liquidation of landfills following a series of searches. Then news emerged of the arrest of Potomsky’s former in-law (the ex-husband of his wife’s sister), Aleksandr Muntyanu. He was pinned to the pavement near a restaurant on suspicion of accepting a 10-million-ruble bribe. According to investigators, the money was allegedly paid in exchange for issuing access permits to the Severnaya Samarka landfill in the Vsevolozhsky district of the Leningrad region.

In 2025, another blow followed: the arrest of Vladimir Region Vice-Governor Aleksandr Remiga — a close friend of Vadim Potomsky and his partner in alleged corruption schemes. While serving in the government of Oryol Region, Remiga oversaw the most lucrative sectors, including construction, housing and utilities, energy, transport, and road infrastructure. His tenure was also marked by numerous scandals involving his inner circle.

It was Remiga who helped a family friend — Dmitriy Sergeev, owner of the notorious St. Petersburg construction company BaltStroy and a recurring subject of our channel’s reports on criminal cases involving embezzlement at the Russian presidential residence Novo-Ogaryovo and within the Ministry of Culture — secure a 350-million-ruble government contract to reconstruct the embankment of the Oka and Orlik rivers. This was one of the most significant state contracts in the program marking the 450th anniversary of the city of Oryol. As with many projects handled by BaltStroy, the reconstruction nearly turned into a disaster for the city: due to violations of design and construction standards, annual flooding caused boundary covering slabs on the parapet to be torn off and the embankment slope to collapse.

At the time, this did not trouble Governor Potomsky in the slightest. On the contrary, he told the media that “the contractor (BaltStroy) has a good name, and he (Potomsky) will not allow stones to be thrown at BaltStroy.”

In such circumstances, it is hardly surprising that a quiet and safe refuge would be found — in the Prosecutor General’s Office.