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05. 11. 09. - 16:00

Strabag keeps its Russian licence

By Lisa Chapman

Austrian construction firm Strabag SE has said it will not lose its Russian planning licence.

The company announced yesterday (Weds) it had received a letter from the Russian Anti-Monopoly Commission stating that it had rejected Moscow construction regulator Anatoli Saiko’s request that the licence be revoked.

Saiko had blamed Strabag for the collapse of a roof in a garage under construction by one of its sub-contractors that killed one worker and injured three others in September.

Strabag CEO Hans Peter Haselsteiner said: "We have been active in Russia for 19 years. We survived the ruble crisis, political developments in the 1990s, and a variety of attacks by organisations close to the Mafia. We will also survive this media campaign. We know who is behind it."

He added that Strabag had allowed the sub-contractor to plan the garage and it had botched the job. "What we can blame ourselves for is our failure to have supervised it more closely," he said.

Strabag spokeswoman Diana Klein was quoted in yesterday’s Die Presse as saying "a controlled media campaign" was being directed at the firm in Russia.

WirtschaftsBlatt reported yesterday that the firm Inteko, controlled by billionaire Yelena Baturina, the wife of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luschkov, was one of Strabag’s chief competitors in the Russian capital.

Strabag has contracts worth one billion Euros for construction work in Russia's Sochi in preparation for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

A tenth of Strabag’s annual turnover comes from its business in the Russian Federation.

Austrian Times

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