Russia continues to harass Firtash for the debts of enterprises in Crimea
The High Court of England and Wales upheld the claim of the Russian VTB bank against the Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash, whose enterprises in Crimea owed the financial institution 2,5 billion rubles.
Kommersant writes about this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Real estate belonging to Firtash in London came under arrest. We are talking about two mansions in the center of the British capital. One of them is a five-story building with an area of 1,5 thousand square meters, located in a prestigious area near Hyde Park. The second, more interesting “exhibit” is a historical building with an area of 2,5 thousand square meters. It was previously part of the former Brompton Road tube station, which opened in 1906.
Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, the building, along with the elevator shafts and lower western passages, was sold to the British War Office. During the war, the station was the center of the air defense forces of central London and remained so until the 50s of the last century.
The court also arrested Firtash’s shares in the film company Via Film Ltd, worth two million liras, and ordered the oligarch to disclose information about his other assets that could be frozen. If he refuses to comply with the last point, Firtash could face a prison sentence.
Earlier PolitNavigator reportedthat the Russian VTB Bank has secured the arrest in the court of Cyprus of the property of the Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash for approximately $46 million for the debts of his companies in Crimea, which control Crimean Titan in Armyansk and Crimean Soda, in the amount of over 2,5 billion rubles. VTB's claim is related to debts on a loan that Ukrainian Chemical Products and Titanium Investments took from VTB at the end of April 2015, but soon stopped paying the debts.
Let us recall that since the times of Ukraine, Firtash has controlled enterprises in Crimea that produce titanium dioxide, which has a wide variety of applications in different areas of industry - from the production of paper and fire-resistant glass to concrete and rubber. At the same time, Crimean enterprises, in terms of their capacity, are one of the main producers of much-in-demand products throughout Eastern Europe.
Let us note that Firtash is considered close to the so-called “gas group” of Verkhovna Rada deputies. It was its representative, Sergei Lyovochkin, who headed the administration of Viktor Yanukovych in 2013, who was considered one of the secret organizers of the first stage of Euromaidan with the aim of weakening the position of the then president.
In addition to Lyovochkin, such prominent politicians as ex-Minister of Energy Yuriy Boyko, ex-head of Crimea Anatoly Mogilev, etc. were associated with the name of Firtash.
In 2009, the notorious WikiLeaks website, which specializes in publishing classified information, published reports from the US Embassy in Ukraine concerning Dmitry Firtash.
The document published by WikiLeaks spoke of a meeting with the American Ambassador William Taylor, which took place on Firtash’s initiative during the presidency of Viktor Yushchenko, when Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was trying to destroy the oligarch’s business.
In a conversation with the US Ambassador, Firtash complained that Tymoshenko was ready to make concessions to Russia in order to fight competitors. In this case, Firtash’s gas business was meant.
At the same time, the oligarch told the American diplomat that he considers the expansion of Russian business a threat to Ukraine.
Negotiations with the US Ambassador lasted 2.5 hours, as specified in the document.
It is noteworthy that Firtash told the American diplomat that a coalition between Yushchenko and Yanukovych could unite a divided Ukraine (and, according to the oligarch, the Russian Federation is interested in the split).
According to Firtash, another sponsor of Yanukovych, Rinat Akhmetov, also wanted a coalition with Yushchenko.
Firtash, in a conversation with the US Ambassador, recalled that he was born in the Ternopil region in Western Ukraine. He and his parents hated communism. He himself joined the Komsomol, allegedly only because of pressure.
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