Kaufman and Philip Morris will teach you how to “light up” a budget worth billions

Odessa schemer Boris Kaufman, who faces a long prison sentence for organizing a criminal group in Odessa and stealing a public airport, continues to play “big.”

Being a monopolist in the distribution of tobacco products in Ukraine since the time when his “Tedis” was still a division of the Russian “Megapolis” of arms baron Igor Kesaev, having entered into a conspiracy with the monopolist of the Ukrainian tobacco production Philip Morris International (a sponsor of the war that pays taxes to the budget of the Russian Federation), Kaufman decided to enrich himself by reducing the tax on electronic cigarettes by 20%.

It was initially planned that reducing the excise tax on “IQOS” (as electronic cigarettes are colloquially called) would bring Philip Morris and Kaufman UAH 15 billion until 2028, and after that it would bring at least UAH 5 billion annually. The corresponding bill No. 11090 was submitted by lobbyists to the Ministry of Finance and then passed through a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers, which sent the document for approval to the Verkhovna Rada.

After the tobacco monopolists’ idea to steal 15 billion+ from a warring country became public, Kaufman and Philip Morris decided to “play short.”

The people's deputy "Servant of the People" from the cohort of former "ligosmeshniki" Igor Krivosheev, who they bought, registered in the Verkhovna Rada an alternative bill No. 11090-2, in which a reduction in the excise tax on electronic cigarettes is proposed not by 20%, but only by 10%. The same theft of billions from the budget, but on a smaller scale.

The Verkhovna Rada is asked to choose the lesser of two evils, bargaining between the needs of the military budget and the needs of the wallets of Kaufman and the beneficiaries of Philip Morris.

In March, Ukraine’s state budget deficit exceeded UAH 100 billion for the first time, amounting to UAH 103 billion. In general, for the first quarter of 2024, the state budget deficit amounted to UAH 197 billion. Against the backdrop of this news, the last thing people’s deputies can think about is reducing the tax burden. And for whom? Kaufman is an eternal monopolist in the distribution of tobacco products, who is accused of serious criminal acts and is under investigation on several counts. Philip Morris is a recognized international sponsor of the war, who, in the third year of a full-scale invasion, remains working in the Russian Federation and pays taxes to the Russian budget, from which Putin’s army and the killing of Ukrainians are financed.

If any of the excise tax reduction bills that Kaufman and Philip Morris are lobbying in parliament are adopted, the military budget will lose billions, which will end up in the pockets of the tobacco mafia and will only make the sponsor of Putin’s war richer. Which people's deputies want to sign this with the blood of Ukrainians?