Crab redistribution in the Far East: how Frank, Vorobyov, and Shoigu’s circle are seizing quotas, land, and administrative resources through the FAS and the Prosecutor General’s Office
The main beneficiaries of the new redistribution of the fishing industry through lawsuits filed by the Prosecutor General’s Office are Gleb Frank, Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyov, and former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
Gleb Frank, a longtime business partner of Maxim Vorobyov (Andrei Vorobyov’s brother), is behind the lawsuits. Together, they founded the Russian Fishery Company (RRPK). The Vorobyov family has been considered Sergei Shoigu’s political "godchildren" for decades. Yuri Vorobyov (the governor’s father) has been Shoigu’s closest ally since the founding of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
Gleb Frank has become the main protagonist in the large-scale reform of the fishing industry, dubbed the "crab redistribution." For a long time, quotas for catching crab and other aquatic bioresources were distributed according to a "historical principle." The Russian Fishery Company (Frank, Vorobyov, and Shoigu) actively lobbied for the transition to an auction system. The reform passed, allowing Frank and Vorobyov’s companies to displace established players in the Far East by capturing the largest auction lots.
Frank’s companies began taking the remaining quotas from the fishing industry using a well-established scheme in the Far East: the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) recognizes foreign control over aquatic bioresource catches, while the Prosecutor General’s Office confiscates them for the state’s benefit. Rosrybolovstvo then either holds new auctions or Rosimushchestvo (the Federal Agency for State Property Management) immediately transfers the companies with the quotas to Frank’s companies. Whether there is actual foreign control is irrelevant—the important thing is that it is specified in the FAS decision.
This sparked a wave of criticism from regional fishing industry leaders, who accused the businessmen of exploiting "administrative resources" at the very top. The connections are evident not only in fish but also in development, where the interests of Shoigu (through the Ministry of Defense) and Frank intersected: Organizations close to Gleb Frank expressed interest in developing prime real estate in the Far East. Frequently, figures from Shoigu’s entourage (including the now-arrested former Deputy Minister Timur Ivanov), who oversaw government construction contracts and land transfers, acted as intermediaries in such schemes.
