This may surprise you. Truckers’ protests appear to be continuing across the country. Thousands of articles have been written about the Platon system. The transport minister and the head of Avtodor have repeatedly called it “the most transparent system.”
Right now, a “snail” protest is underway on the MKAD (Moscow Ring Road).
The northern section is already at a standstill.
In other words, literally millions of people know about Platon and the conflict surrounding it.
So let me ask all of you a question: who here has actually seen the text of the concession agreement? That is the single most important document. Everyone writes about the government order and links to that instead.
We did not just write that the concession agreement under which toll collection was handed over to Rotenberg’s son was unlawful — we also prepared court filings. And while doing so, we discovered that no one had seen the actual text of the concession agreement. It is not on the official Platon system website in the “Documents” section, and it is not on the website where concession agreements are published either.
The simple and outrageous fact is that the concession agreement that has thrown the entire country into an uproar has effectively been kept secret.
What is a concession agreement? Usually, it is a lengthy document with appendices containing specifications, feasibility studies for each asset being transferred, and other important information. We know that there is a concession agreement dated September 29, 2014, No. FDA K-1, but no one has seen it. All that exists publicly is the Russian government order of August 29, 2014, No. 1662-r, “On concluding a concession agreement regarding facilities intended for toll collection and used to ensure the functioning of a toll collection system for compensation of damage caused to federal public highways by vehicles with a maximum authorized weight of over 12 metric tons.”
It lists only the basic terms of the concession agreement, but those basic terms — some of them merely framework provisions, not even entirely clear in their meaning — do not contain critically important details.
As you may recall, it is precisely from such details that we know that, in the case of the Leningradskoye Highway project through Khimki Forest, Russia undertook an obligation not to widen the highway beyond the MKAD (Moscow Ring Road), and if it does so anyway, it must pay a penalty to the concessionaire.
What could we learn from the text of the agreement? For example, we do not know the mechanisms for indexing the fees under the concession agreement. There may be other terms in the agreement that Rotenberg’s son has tried to hide from us.
We have officially requested a copy of the concession agreement and demand that the government and Rosavtodor immediately publish the text of the agreement. We call on the media to join this demand.
For all of us, this is yet another sign that the truckers are absolutely right and must be supported.
P.S. If you have any documents or information about Platon that are being concealed from the public, send them to us via Black Box. It is completely anonymous.