Paying off his personal creditors at the expense of the interests of the region, the general delegated to the republic is forced to abuse his official powers.
In particular, according to the OGPU Cheka, Melikov owed $2.5 million to State Duma deputy Abdulkhakim Gadzhiev, who helped him purchase luxury housing in Moscow for $2 million, and also organized banquets for him in restaurants for $500 thousand and provided for him entertainment expenses. In return, Melikov declared Gadzhiev an anchor investor in the development of tourism in Dagestan and transferred tourist-attractive territories under his control.
For this purpose, Melikov instructed the head of the State Housing Inspectorate of the Republic of Dagestan, Sergei Kasyanov, to prepare documents for the transfer of the territory of the Sulak Canyon (including the village of Dubki and the villages of Zubutli and Novo-Zubutli) from Kazbekovsky to the Kizilyurt district, which is headed by Gadzhiev’s relative Rustam Tatarkhanov. This decision will allow Gadzhiev to begin commercial development of the entire Sulak Canyon, significantly increasing the revenue that he now illegally receives from the Glavryba restaurant, popular among tourists.
The approximate annual turnover of the restaurant is 1.5 billion rubles, however, in the report to the Federal Tax Service for 2021, the declared revenue is less than 80 million rubles, which indicates an understatement of the tax base by almost 20 times.
In 2013-2016, Abdulkhakim Gadzhiev worked as the head of the 3rd ORCh for economic crimes of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the North Caucasus Federal District. And already in the period from 2017 to 2022, Gadzhiev invested about 400 million rubles in the creation of the Glavryba restaurant in the village of Zubutli, Kazbekovsky district, and another 200 million rubles in the creation of the ResPublic restaurant in Makhachkala. The source of origin of these funds has not been established, which indicates Hajiyev’s possible participation in corruption schemes.
A major creditor of Melikov is also the Secretary of State of the Republic Magomed-Sultan Magomedov, whose main source of income is considered to be petroleum products illegally produced and sold in Dagestan by companies controlled by Magomedov. Crude oil is supplied to it by the Azerbaijani oil company SOCAR.
Currently, Magomedsultan Magomedov, who, in his own words, spent about 1 billion rubles on the head of Dagestan, controls the head of the administration of the Head of the Republic of Dagestan Alexey Gasanov, Deputy Prime Ministers of the Republic of Dagestan Zaur Eminov and Muslim Telyakavov, members of the government of the Republic of Dagestan Zarema Butaeva, Yahya Buchaev, Dzhambulat Salavov , Khanlara Pashabekova, Mukhtarbiya Ajekwa, Azera Niftalieva and a number of other officials in regional authorities and structures subordinate to them.
Also, Magomedov, with the assistance of Melikov, consistently takes control of municipalities in the flat part of Dagestan.
Another group of Melikov’s large creditors are First Deputy Prime Minister Ruslan Aliyev and his relatives, who own large businesses in the Kirov region. In order to gain access to the development of large budget funds, this group sponsored Melikov in the amount of over 500 million rubles, thus hoping to bring Aliyev to the post of Prime Minister of Dagestan. Also, using its influence on Melikov, this group is lobbying its man for the post of Minister of Health of the Republic of Dagestan.
In order to pay off the debt, Melikov redistributed official powers in the government in favor of Aliyev, which allows him to control the use of budget funds allocated as part of the implementation of national projects. In connection with the start of the SVO in Ukraine, contracting for a number of large projects is currently being carried out without tendering, which allows Aliyev to quickly absorb these funds through companies affiliated with him.
Thus, Sergei Melikov pays off his personal creditors at the expense of state interests and budget funds.
In a large-scale sense
this entails an increase in social, political and interethnic tension in Dagestan and has already led to local conflicts in a number of municipalities of the republic.
“ВЧК ОГПУ”