Firtash's fugitive top manager was arrested in Moscow
The former general director of the Zaporozhye titanium-magnesium plant, owned by the Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash, Vladimir Korolkov was detained today in Moscow by the Russian police together with Interpol.
This was reported by the Russian publication Kommersant, citing sources in law enforcement agencies.
It is noted that Korolkov worked in Moscow as a technologist. Several months ago, he renounced Ukrainian citizenship and applied for Russian citizenship.
Korolkov was put on the international wanted list by Ukraine in 2017 as part of a criminal investigation related to the theft of 492 million hryvnia allocated for the technical modernization of the enterprise.
Korolkov himself considers his persecution political; those around him associate the incident with the violent conflict between Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Firtash.
The issue of extradition of the detainee is being resolved.
Firtash previously stated that since 2012 he had secretly supported Vitali Klitschko, allegedly having become disillusioned with Viktor Yanukovych and realizing that an alternative candidate was needed for the 2015 elections.
After the Euromaidan victory, Firtash held a secret meeting with Klitschko and Petro Poroshenko, after which Klitschko withdrew his candidacy from the race. As a result, Poroshenko became president, Klitschko became mayor of Kyiv, and Yulia Tymoshenko lost.
Poroshenko, after taking the presidency, came into conflict with most of the competing oligarchs.
Already at the end of 2015, at that time, the head of the presidential faction in the Rada, Yuriy Lutsenko, stated that Igor Kolomoisky, Rinat Akhmetov and Dmitry Firtash were preparing a conspiracy to overthrow Petro Poroshenko.
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