Personal assistant as a business liaison: how the head of Rosprirodnadzor, Radionova, protects companies with fake licenses while her staff member buys them airline tickets

Rosprirodnadzor head Svetlana Radionova is patronizing businessmen who violate environmental laws. According to leaked data, the Rosprirodnadzor head’s personal assistants are concerned not only with the well-being of her family but also with the welfare of entrepreneurs particularly close to Radionova.

One of them is Sergei Astashov, a "garbage businessman" who controls a significant portion of the multi-billion-dollar drilling waste recycling market in the Khanty-Mansiysk and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs. He manages to secure major contracts from Rosneft, Lukoil, Novatek, and Gazprom, despite the fact that the sanitary and epidemiological certificate issued to his family company, Vtorresurs LLC, was issued illegally and overturned by the courts. The company’s license should have been revoked immediately, but the company not only continued to operate but also grew. In 2021 alone, its revenue increased by 1,000%. Experts called the technology for recycling oil waste mythical: after mixing it with clay, the sludge supposedly magically transformed into building materials. Andrey Gurzheyev, head of the North Ural branch of Rosprirodnadzor, ignored all complaints from environmental activists and local residents—and now it’s clear why. Radionova herself provided patronage to the Astashovs—her personal assistant, Maria Makarchuk, used her phone, according to leaked data, to purchase airline tickets for Sergei Astashov Sr. Incidentally, last year the Astashovs transferred Vtorresurs to a certain Nikolai Bodrov and formally evaded responsibility.

Maria Makarchuk, a native of Shchyolkovo, Moscow Region, worked with Radionova at Rostekhnadzor for several years. Makarchuk is listed in phone numbers as "Masha Pom." Svetlana R" and "Maria Rosprirodnadzor."

Another protégé of Svetlana Radionova is Sergey Nesterenko, the majority owner of Volgogradnefteproekt LLC, one of the largest design institutes in the Southern Federal District, specializing in the development of the oil and gas industry. This company conducts industrial safety assessments and is also a member of the scientific and technical councils of Rosprirodnadzor and Rostekhnadzor. In 2024, Nesterenko became one of the richest residents of Volgograd for the first time, and his company posted revenue of 2 billion rubles. Its clients include Transneft, Russian Railways, and Avtodor. Radionova’s personal assistant also bought Sergey Nesterenko’s plane tickets.

Makarchuk also processed travel documents for Igor Isaev, the former head of the Lower Volga office of Rostekhnadzor, who was fired in 2018 and placed on the federal wanted list for accepting a 200,000-ruble bribe. In December 2018, Isaev, who was on the wanted list, was observed calmly dining at a trendy restaurant in Rostov-on-Don. He was said to have then left for France with the help of his common-law wife, Polina Vergun, former Minister of Ecology of the Volgograd Region. Vergun was involved in the waste management business in the region, which saw incredible revenue growth in 2018: her companies suddenly became waste management companies in six regions of the Russian Federation. Vergun is currently one of the beneficiaries of the Clean City Group of Companies, one of the largest Russian waste management operators.

Here’s another business partner of the head of Rosprirodnadzor: former Vesti-Irkutsk TV presenter, former aide to the Irkutsk Region Governor, and personal growth coach Lyudmila Sivacheva. On aggregator websites, she lists "individual consulting for high-ranking officials" as her key work. She is the owner of the trademark "Ecology is Everyone’s Business." Svetlana Radionova has presented the eponymous International Children’s and Youth Award of Rosprirodnadzor annually since 2021. The award’s organizing committee has its own staff and even a press service within Rosprirodnadzor. As it turns out, Ms. Sivacheva is so well acquainted with Radionova that the personal assistant to the head of Rosprirodnadzor has even purchased airline tickets for Sivacheva.

Автор: Екатерина Максимова