Police say brothel planned for Mariinski Theatre apartment house in Helsinki

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Police in Helsinki have confirmed that they believe that there had been plans to set up a brothel in apartments used by the renowned Mariinski Theatre, based in St. Petersburg.
      Police sources told Helsingin Sanomat that they do not suspect the theatre itself, or the theatre’s partners in Finland of planning any illegal activities. Those involved in the project were said to be a group of criminals heavily involved in prostitution.
     
The police say that they learned about the plans to set up sex trade facilities in the Helsinki apartment house by listening in on phone calls of Russian-born Tatyana Viitanen in 2004. She gave more information in a police interrogation after her arrest.
      Viitanen said that the apartments at Punavuorenkatu 21 in the centre of Helsinki were to be refurbished and turned into a business hotel. Police do not believe that the activities would have been limited to housing businessmen.
      Last summer Viitanen was sentenced to two years and three months in prison for her involvement in a prostitution ring.
     
A large number of the apartments of Punavuorenkatu 21 are owned by the Russian trade mission in Helsinki. Russian businessman Vladimir Netrebine holds the proprietary rights.
      Netrebine flatly denies that there were any plans to set up a brothel in the building, saying that they were for the use of employees of the Mariinski Theatre during visits to Finland.
      As the visits comprise only a few weeks each year, Netrebine had planned housing Russian students of art in the building.
      Netrebine has lived long in Finland, and is well known in cultural circles. He has been a major figure in organising visits to Helsinki by the Mariinski Theatre. He set up an organisation called Art for Clean Water Revival, which organises performances of the Mariinski Theatre to help raise money to protect the Baltic Sea.
      According to a former business partner, Netrebine and the Art for Clean Water association were planning a refurbishment of the apartments in 2004, at about the same time that Tatyana Virtanen learned about the plan.
     
The association commissioned the remodelling work, which begain in August 2005. The work was completed in December 2005, and in the spring of this year about 20 of the 130 members of the Marinskii Theatre were housed in the building during performances in Helsinki’s Alexander Theatre.
      Other members of the troupe were housed in Helsinki hotels, leaving a number of unpaid bills. For instance, Hotel Arthur has enlisted the help of the police to collect EUR 11,000 in unpaid bills.
     
The alleged link between the remodelling project and the sex trade came out in conjunction with a dispute between Netrebine and building contractor Kyösti Pussinen over unpaid bills.
      Pussinen says that he is owed EUR 20,000, eight months after the end of the project.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Russian commercial representation in Helsinki denies receiving prostitution money (21.1.2005)
  Police say Russian diplomatic mission gets pimping money (20.1.2005)

Helsingin Sanomat