RBC Daily
Voina art group members may face psychiatric tests
Members of the St. Petersburg radical art group Voina (War), famous for their provocative installations, fear that they may be re-incarcerated and subjected to psychiatric tests.
The group is known for its defiant performances in Moscow and St. Petersburg. One of the best known ones is the giant phallus painted on St.Petersburg’s Liteiny Bridge. At night, as the bridge was raised, the picture rose to its full height opposite the city’s FSB building. In September 2010, activists overturned several police cars.
According to group members and their lawyers, the investigation is demanding that they sign a written pledge not to leave the city. The activists say they have no plans to leave town and are preparing for their trial.
Voina members Oleg Vorotnikov and Leonid Nikolayev spent three months in custody and met the press on Thursday to tell them how the investigation was going. They had been indicted for hooliganism motivated by hatred or enmity towards any social group.
Nikolayev’s lawyer, Igor Dinze, said that his defendant had been released on February 22 on a 300,000 ruble bail. Oleg Vorotnikov was freed after bail set at the same amount was paid the day before. British artist Banksy contributed the money.
Dinze claims that last week the investigator turned down his application for the conditions of arrest and the legitimacy of the search conducted in Nikolayev’s apartment to be ascertained. “The wish has been expressed to carry out psychiatric tests of Vorotnikov and Nikolayev: this looks like the return of punitive psychiatry,” said Igor Ryabchikov, Vorotnikov’s lawyer.
The defense sent a petition to the European Court of Human Rights, to protest both the arrest of Nikolayev and Vorotnikov and the extended term in custody they both served. The defense counsel on the case said the investigator wants the defendants to provide additional notices on appearance, even though that is not mentioned in the bail conditions. Dinze believes “the investigation wants to blacken the character of my defendant and request his incarceration. They are doing this steadily and methodically.”
Nikolayev, for his part, reassured the investigator that he has no plans to leave the country whatever happens.
The activists are cheerful. “We are not scared,” they say. “Prison offered us an interesting and indispensable experience.”
On the same day, the Voina group had another encounter with the police. Natalya Sokol, Vorotnikov’s wife, said an incident involving plain-clothes policemen took place after the news conference. “I took a snap of my friends with these surveillance men in the background. Then six men approached us and produced Center E cards,” Sokol said. She claims the men, who were not in uniform, wrested the camera from her, smashed it and removed its memory card. Sokol’s hand was injured in the scuffle, while the men got into a car and drove off. The entire incident took place in front of the young son of one of the activists.
Kommersant
Mirax Group head says good-bye
Mirax Group head Sergei Polonsky unveiled the company board’s decision to discontinue their brand at a news conference Thursday. The news came as a shock to creditors.
Although real-estate developer Mirax failed to give its partners or creditors any advance warning of these plans, Polonsky assured the media that the group will fully repay its $590mn debt, including bonds and loans, and complete all its current construction projects.
“Please, from this moment on, stop thinking of me as a businessman,” the flamboyant developer said with tears in his eyes and walked out of the room, not answering any more questions.
All Mirax employees were given a week’s vacation. The group’s press office said it would not comment until March 14.
Mirax Group has 8.8 million square meters on their development portfolio. Polonsky controls the company with 78% of its stock and its managers hold minority stakes.
Maxim Pershin, a board member at Alfa Bank, one of Mirax’s largest creditors, said the news took him by surprise. “This sounds like the start of some PR campaign,” he said.
Former Mirax partner Dmitry Lutsenko told Kommersant Polonsky is probably just seeking attention: “This is a show-business kind of stunt.”
Boris Ginsburg, executive director of Uralsib Capital, which holds $14mn worth of Mirax securities, described Polonsky as a “marketing genius” and Thursday’s press conference as “a show preceding rebranding.”
Other Kommersant sources suggest that Mirax group may change hands soon. They predict a possible Mirax takeover by Sberbank, which approved a $370mn loan to Polonsky earlier this year to complete the Federation Tower, part of the 494,000 sq m Moscow City project. Mirax is currently negotiating another $100mn loan for a new residential project, Wellhouse, in Dubrovka.
Georgy Dzagurov, head of Penny Lane Realty, said Mirax creditors may take stakes in the company. However, Mirax sources earlier ruled this out claiming that the sale of completed property will fully cover their loans.
“The decision to bring the curtain down on the Mirax brand is not linked to Sberbank’s participation in the Federation Tower project, and the bank’s plans to finance the project have not changed,” Sberbank’s press office said.
Anton Sitnikov, a partner at law firm Goltsblat PLP, said this could mean that the company will be sold, or that the owners intend to stop investing in this brand.
It might also be the first step toward bankruptcy, said Vladimir Zhossan, head of the Wellhouse investor committee. “They might change the brand to keep a low profile,” he suggested adding that co-investors in the group’s projects do not believe Mirax will ever complete the construction work.
Mirax officially announced that its Mirax Plaza business center project will be handed over to Gazstroyconsulting and Promsvyazbank under a memorandum already signed. The $11.5bn worth of other projects that are currently at the design stage will be either taken over by creditors or dropped, a source said.
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