Moscow authorities want to take away the Kirov Oblast’s representative office.

      The Moscow Department of City Property (DGI) is suing the Government of the Kirov Region over “abandoned” properties on Lyalin Lane (two buildings and two parcels of land). DGI is asking to terminate the Kirov Region’s ownership rights and to recognize Moscow’s title.

      Moscow authorities emphasize that they are not demanding the immediate transfer of the properties to Moscow — the case concerns a temporary “freeze”: a ban on registering the transaction and transferring title until the process is complete.

      Only the court decision revealed that the Moscow developer Coldy, via LLC PrimeStroy, which won the auction on May 5 this year, never registered title to the property and, apparently, renounced the asset. As a result, the bid of 472.5 million rubles passed to the second auction participant, LLC Topreit. The company became a third party in DGI’s suit, having not asserted its own claims in court.

      Moscow shook off the Kirov Region’s deception

      DGI applied to the Moscow Arbitration Court with a claim against the Government of the Kirov Region to terminate ownership of the abandoned properties back in February this year.

      In support of its claims, the Moscow government noted that the properties had been transferred to the Kirov Region for gratuitous use in 2011 for a term of 10 years. At the same time, the parties agreed on their further use — “for placement of the Kirov Representation, taking into account the need to carry out major repairs” (quote from the court decision):

      “The terms of the gratuitous use agreement dated 22.12.2011 provided for the carrying out of capital repair works at the user’s expense in agreement with the Department. However, over a long period the defendant did not take measures to maintain the property in proper condition, does not use the property complex for its intended purpose, and did not carry out the planned comprehensive reconstruction of the buildings and improvement of the territories.”

      At the same time, the Moscow Department requested imposition of provisional measures, stating that “failure to adopt them may complicate or make it impossible to enforce a court act.” This request was denied in the first instance. Dissatisfied with the court ruling, the claimant appealed to the Ninth Arbitration Appellate Court.

      There is an opinion that for Moscow this is convenient as an additional argument: “look, the region disposed of the property as if it were its own and sold it, even though the right is disputed and the term of the agreement has already expired.” Coincidentally or not, at the end of March — when the claim was filed — a document appeared on the regional government’s website listing state property to be privatized in the Kirov Region for 2025 and the 2026–2027 period. The Representation was included in that list.

      Newsler.ru reminds readers that the existence of the claim “on the alienation of the disputed property” could not have been unknown to the Kirov government, nor to the Ministry of Property Relations headed by Tatyana Polomskikh.

      Chronicle of courts and sales

      Not even a month and a half later, the Kirov regional government organized an open auction, the result of which (May 5) recognized LLC PrimeStroy (a structure of the major Moscow developer Coldy, registered on January 25, 2025 — possibly established specifically for this deal) as the winner.

      Interestingly, on May 26 a repeat auction was held, which was won by LLC Topreit. The firm, despite negative financial results, bought the property complex for 472.5 million rubles. The company’s founder and owner, Sergey Mefedov, was previously a partner of Artem Dyumin (the brother of the Tula governor) in a number of projects, including Litex S, owner of the Mart shopping center. He now figures as the main investor and beneficiary of R4S Group — a premium real estate development project in Moscow (club houses, elite residential complexes).

      On June 17 Topreit filed an application with Rosreestr “for the purpose of registering ownership.” On July 31 the appellate court, overturning the first-instance decision, imposed provisional measures on the property complex, suspending registration actions until September 23 (the reasoned decision was prepared on August 4). A new hearing on the “alienation of the property in favor of the Government of Moscow” was scheduled for early October.

      By the way, neither Moscow nor Kirov lawyers seriously doubt that the property complex on Lyalin Lane will return to the ownership of the city government: “The likelihood of such a decision approaches 100 percent.” After all, the appellate court established many years of violations of the gratuitous use agreement by the Kirov Region.

      Interviewed lawyers agree on one point: with a high degree of probability, by the end of this year the buildings and land at Lyalin Lane, 18, will “revert to Sobyanin.” So it will not be possible to erase the question of recovering the received — and likely already squandered on Sabantuy (or other festivities) — half a billion rubles from our thoroughly “full of holes” budget.

      “I understand that the specifics of arbitral judicial speech do not allow me to give an emotional coloring to the event, but that only makes me even more ashamed of the light in which the Kirov Region has not merely been depicted, but has become established in the capital. Yes! Not one person who made a ‘shameful and disgraceful decision,’ but the whole region... And it makes me blush that all of us can be called crooks. Or residents of a crookish region,” one of the interviewed lawyers said with annoyance.

      Recall that in a May publication, “How Dear to Us Sabantuy and How Free is Trinity Day,” Newsler.ru reported that the “inner gubernatorial circle” had said: “The money gained from the sale of the Kirov Representation building in Moscow will go to pay for festivities in Vyatskie Polyany — as a ‘useful investment in strengthening political ties with Tatarstan.’”

      Later the Kirov regional government reported that 62 million rubles were spent directly on organizing Sabantuy, and the remaining sum went to roads and other infrastructure in Vyatskie Polyany.

      Another aspect of the case is interesting: if it had not been for the regional head Alexander Sokolov, who fought desperately to have the Representation — previously sold to the construction company Monolit for almost 150 million rubles — returned to the regional treasury, the regional authorities might not now be facing such an embarrassment. They might have retained their millions. But in the current situation everything is heading toward what people call an “empty trough”: neither money (a half-billion hole in the budget) nor assets.