Kvartal Faces Bankruptcies and Criminal Cases Amid Power Outages
Light in the SNT has been disappearing periodically for years.
Blackouts in Voronezh SNTs (gardening non-profit partnerships) on the territory of Blizhnie and Dalnie Sady have long been no news for local residents. They have been suffering from power outages not just for the first, second, or even fifth year. In the bitter cold, as now, this problem has become especially acute. There are several reasons for this situation. The main ones are active settlement, increasing the load on local networks, and outdated infrastructure, including electrical.
Some of the debts.
The second reason is compounded by the fact that, essentially, there is no one to modernize the networks. Local residents are sure that this is the task of the network owner — the company «Kvartal», which has officially been servicing the networks in Dalnie and Blizhnie Sady in recent years. Meanwhile, Kvartal claims that the owners of the plots in the Sady should pay for replacing old cables, since the electrical grid facilities are common property of the SNTs themselves. The city administration tried to buy the networks, but Kvartal refused the deal, as Voronezh Mayor Sergei Petrin said in January.
From the court ruling in one of the arbitration cases.
While city and regional authorities are figuring out who is to blame and what to do, Voronezh1.ru investigates what the company Kvartal and its director Ivan Popenkov are all about. The findings are unexpected.
Bankruptcy and Debts
LLC Kvartal was founded in 2015. It operates in the field of electricity transmission and technological connection to power grids. It has two founders with equal shares: Ivan Popenkov (who is also the director) and Vitaly Kitsenko. The company’s office is located in the center of Voronezh at 5 Platonova Street.
According to data from Kontur.Fokus, Kvartal suffered losses in 2019 and 2020. In 2021, it managed to make a small profit of 1.2 million rubles (about $13,300 at current rates), but for some reason there is no more recent data on the company’s financial condition.
Last year, TNS Energo attempted to bankrupt Kvartal due to the latter’s accumulated debts — it did not succeed: the debts were still paid. But apparently not in full. Currently, according to the Federal Bailiff Service (FSSP), Kvartal has debts of about 4.6 million rubles (about $51,100 at current rates) for electricity payments and 1.7 million rubles (about $18,900 at current rates) for enforcement fees as a debtor.
However, these are only the debts that the court has already ordered to be paid. According to data from Rusprofile, there are 11 more lawsuits from electricity suppliers TNS Energo and Rosseti Center against Kvartal regarding improper performance of energy supply contracts. Simply put, according to TNS Energo, Kvartal distributed the energy received from suppliers but did not pay for it. The total amount of these lawsuits is 11.6 million rubles (about $128,900 at current rates), and they were filed between mid-last year and January 26 of this year.
However, Kvartal does not always act as a defendant in court: in September last year, the company filed a lawsuit to recover several hundred million rubles (equivalent to several million US dollars at current rates) from TNS Energo and Rosseti Center. The essence of the claims is not disclosed. The hearing on the case is scheduled for early March in the Moscow Arbitration Court.
Characteristically, a certain Andrey Belokur — the temporary manager of Kvartal, appointed in the bankruptcy case — is involved as a third party in the arbitrations.
And one more detail. In October last year, according to Kontur.Fokus, the company received a warning from the Verkhne-Donskoye Department of Rostechnadzor for violations of reliability of electricity supply to consumers in Blizhnie Sady. In particular, for a four-day power outage.
Utility Connections
There is little information about one of Kvartal’s founders, Vitaly Kitsenko, in open sources. From 2018 to 2024, he was also a founder of the fuel company Dvizhenie, but currently has no official relation to it.
There is much more data on the second founder, Ivan Popenkov. In addition to Kvartal, he is associated with several other companies. These are the management company Nash Dom, responsible for eight buildings in different districts of Voronezh, and two LLCs with the same name — Energosbyt.
The first Energosbyt was founded in September 2014 in Voronezh and was engaged in electricity trading. Besides Popenkov, the founders include Olga Kamorina and Sergei Eremin. The company has been in bankruptcy proceedings for several years due to non-payment of taxes and debts for supplied energy. The management is carried out by the already familiar bankruptcy trustee Andrey Belokur. In 2025, TNS Energo Voronezh recovered 104 million rubles (about $1.16 million at current rates) from Popenkov as the former director of Energosbyt through the court. Last fall, a lawsuit was filed with the Arbitration Court of Voronezh Region by the first Energosbyt to declare Ivan Popenkov bankrupt. The first hearing is scheduled for February 10.
The second Energosbyt was registered in June 2016 at the same address as the first (the only difference is the office number in building 36B on Ordzhonikidze Street). The founders are Popenkov and Eremin. According to Rusprofile data for the fourth quarter of 2025, the company has tax debts of 2 million rubles (about $22,200 at current rates). The latest financial data dates to 2021 — remember, just like Kvartal? At that time, the LLC had revenue of 3.6 million rubles (about $40,000 at current rates) and profit of 3.5 million rubles (about $38,900 at current rates).
Ivan Popenkov’s name is also still associated with the major regional waste operator Vega, in whose management he previously served. The company’s legal address is on the same Ordzhonikidze Street in Voronezh, building 36B. The director of this company is Oksana Somova.
LLC Vega is among the top 4 municipal solid waste (MSW) operators in Voronezh Region. The company was registered in 2017, with revenue for 2024 of 518 million rubles (about $5.76 million at current rates) and profit of just 4 million rubles (about $44,400 at current rates). It fulfills contracts for waste removal throughout the region; among its recent winning tenders is the provision of MSW management services for the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations (EMERCOM) for Voronezh Region. Last year, Vega nearly went bankrupt, but the company paid off all its debts and avoided the proceedings.
Criminal Cases Too
Among other things, Ivan Popenkov has become a defendant in two criminal cases over the past few years. One of them is for causing property damage on an especially large scale and laundering illegally obtained money, also on an especially large scale. The maximum penalty is 7 years in a penal colony. In August last year, the Leninsky District Court delivered a guilty verdict for Popenkov in this case.
The text has not been published, but the verdict was appealed by everyone — the prosecutor, Popenkov’s lawyer, and Popenkov himself. And judging by the interim appeal ruling — which concerned the seizure of property of a company controlled by Popenkov — the businessman was accused of fraudulent schemes in electricity supplies. We quote:
Having received funds from electricity consumers under energy supply contracts, in the period from December 7, 2018 to January 10, 2022, <the defendant>, acting intentionally, with a mercenary purpose, using his official position and persons unaware of his criminal intent, secretly from the owner illegally seized and gratuitously turned to his own benefit and to the benefit of persons controlled by him the funds received as payment for services <...>. At the same time, with the aim of masking his criminal actions, he reported <...> deliberately false information about the lack of receipt of payment from electricity consumers and the impossibility of thereby repaying the resulting debt.
The property, by the way, was eventually seized — 53 vehicles. The regional court issued a final decision on the appeals on January 20, but its text is not yet available on the website.
The second criminal case is currently being heard by the Zheleznodorozhny District Court. Popenkov faces two environmental charges: violation of the regime of specially protected natural areas and natural objects, and violation of environmental protection rules during work. The maximum penalty is five years in a penal colony. On the dock alongside Popenkov is entrepreneur Irina Fomina.
According to the regional Investigative Committee, from August 2021 to September 2023, the accused carried out earthworks on four land plots belonging to Fomina and located in the Zheleznodorozhny district of Voronezh, which damaged the soil. It was aggravated by the fact that the work was carried out near the Usman River — a natural monument of regional significance — and, according to the investigation, caused environmental damage of 2.3 million rubles (about $25,600 at current rates).
Hearings in this case, which comprises 13 volumes, are regularly postponed. The latest scheduled date is February 6.
