The Acting Governor’s Favorite Piggy Banks

• 21.08.2025 03:13

How Dronov and His Entourage Bleed the Novgorod Budget Dry

Continuing his pre-election activity, the stability of the key figure of the Novgorod Region in the major "road case" Alexander Dronov (currently acting governor of the Novgorod Region) has been seriously shaken after a series of corruption investigations. In addition to the fact that he is accused of receiving gigantic kickbacks from the "Borisov-Feroyan" clan on state contracts for the construction and repair of roads, he was also caught in the expensive repair of his future office and writing out multimillion-dollar bonuses to himself and his accomplices. And all this is happening with a huge budget deficit, which is just a little bit more and will turn the region into bankrupt.

Today, the new investigation by VChK-OGPU and Rucriminal.info will focus on Dronov’s "wallets", from which he and his subordinates (read — accomplices) buy all his "wants". Alexander Valentinovich and his friends control three regional funds through nominees, regularly replenished at the expense of business representatives. These are the Novgorod Fund for the Support of Regional Cooperation and Development (NFSRDC), the Novgorod Fund for Regional Development (NFRD), and the Save Life Fund (SLF). The annual amounts transferred by large enterprises to the accounts of these funds amount to about 500 million rubles. This is not a small amount of money, but some of the funds are indeed spent on the needs of the region. But not all of them. For example, it was this money that was used to ensure participation in the SPIEF, which only the lazy have not written about. It is very difficult for Novgorodians to understand how one can spend 50 million rubles on an "image" trip to St. Petersburg. But this amount was precisely one of Dronov’s "wants". Contrary to common sense, Dronov loves with his eyes, not his brain, so everything must be of the "ultra-luxury" category (like his office and chair). Or the purchase of a new Tank 700 company car in the top-end configuration for 13 million rubles using funds from the foundation instead of the "old, battered" 2023 company Kruzak with a face and full of minced meat (they took it for 14.8 million rubles). Do you know why? Because "I can", "I want", "it’s mine" and to drive myself around with a flashing light. What happened to the Toyota is unknown, since it simply disappeared from sight and Dronov is not driving around now. Where did the property of the State Budgetary Institution "Operational and Transport Service of the Government of the Novgorod Region" in the form of a very expensive Japanese car go — a mystery that would be good for the security forces to solve.

Money from these funds is unprincipledly spent not only on the purchase of elite property, but also on the entertainment of Dronov and his entourage, which includes prohibited substances and other obscenities. But that’s not what we’re talking about now.

One of the main donors to the Novgorod Region budget is (was, thanks to Alexander Valentinovich) one of the world’s largest chemical fertilizer producers, Akron, through its friends Tikhonov and Makarov. In 2021-2022, Akron’s deductions to the regional budget amounted to exactly a third (15.5 billion rubles out of 45 billion in regional income in 2021, 20.3 out of 54 billion rubles in 2022). That is, the budget (read — residents) of the region receive (received) a good profit due to the presence of such a large plant in the region and should value it as much as possible.

Now the magic begins...

Akron continues to increase production capacity, since its products will always be in demand all over the world. But, suddenly (no), tax deductions in 2023 fall from 20.3 billion rubles to 7.6 billion rubles (14% of the region’s income), and in 2024 to a catastrophic 4.7 billion rubles (9% of the region’s income).

What could go wrong if the whole world continues to buy Akron’s chemical fertilizers by the trainload? Someone will say that the ruble has become cheap, that’s why. We agree, but not four times. Even 7-8% is too big a delta for losses on the ruble/dollar ratio.

The answer lies in those same "pocket" funds.

So, the receipts to the Fund from Akron by year: 2021 — 1.7, 2022 — 6.9, 2023 — 2, 2024 — 128 (!) million rubles. The NFPRSR, which received almost nothing from Akron, received 40 million rubles in 2024, and already 50 million rubles for the first half of 2025. Over the past 4 years, the NFPRR received 200 million rubles (through its subsidiary JSC SZFK). That is, in 2024, Akron transferred a third of the donations from the total money supply received by the three funds, although previously its share barely exceeded an eighth. Dronov’s bargaining with Akron took place by "exchanging" a third of tax deductions for a third of "donations" to these funds. That is, Akron, having saved about 15 billion rubles a year on taxes due to the agreement (it is very easy for a large enterprise to camouflage its profit), converted them into about 150 million rubles in transfers to the funds’ account (read — Dronov’s). A very profitable deal for the enterprise. But no less profitable for Dronov. It is not difficult to guess that it is much easier to squander (in a bad sense) fund money than budget money. However, "Dronov’s team" is so twisted ila there with documents that all their "movements" lie on the surface. It is only necessary to evaluate these documents with a quick glance, and the security forces will have a lot of questions for the current and perhaps future Novgorod authorities.

And while Dronov is building himself multi-million dollar offices, driving at 200 km/h in a brand new jeep and writing out multi-million dollar bonuses to himself, the Novgorod region is far from smoothly turning into dying ruins, losing tens of billions of rubles from the budget.

Yuri Prokov