Zelensky and Ermak became the newest oligarchs

Nominally state-owned companies operate for the benefit of specific individuals.

On June 7, the government agreed on the forced seizure of the Odessa oil refinery in the interests of the state, said ARMA Deputy Chairman Pavel Velikorechanin.

They will take 99.5766% of the company’s shares, its debt obligations to residents of the Russian Federation, as well as 100% of Energy and Gas Ukraine LLC.”

ARMA also reported that, on instructions from the president, the agency took part in the government’s development of a roadmap for the further development and use of the Omsk Refinery’s capacities, but did not provide details. They are still awaiting decisions from the government and the National Security and Defense Council.

In April, we noted that the Ministry of Economy had been unable to submit a draft government order for six months on the forced seizure of shares in the refinery.

The Lukoil group enterprise was sold in 2013 to Sergei Kurchenko, against whom indefinite sanctions have been in force since 2021. According to YouControl, the Cyprus company Empson Limited owns 99.57% of Odessa Oil Refinery PJSC. The company was inherited from Kurchenko to the Russian state bank VTB for debts.

Who is behind the Cyprus company?

ARMA has attracted an international investigation and is confident that the Russians are the ultimate beneficiaries.

There was no consensus among government agencies on how to take the asset. An elegant solution was proposed: to expropriate, according to the law on the forced seizure of assets of the Russian Federation, the right to claim the VTB loan. Then the creditor, Ukraine, could take all the property without obligations. The asset would have gone to the State Property Fund of Vitaly Koval, the president’s man, and would have awaited the holding of a competition.

But we went a different way.

They took the entire company with its assets and liabilities in criminal proceedings and handed it over to ARMA. The deputy head of the Presidential Office, Rostislav Shurma, gets along well with the agency to pump up Ukrnafta’s oil assets.

To restore production in Odessa, about UAH 2 billion is needed. Ukrnafta, with its ability to generate billions of dollars in profits on paper, can pull off the project.

It seems that the construction of a domestic concern similar to the Polish Orlen continues. Surely a group is being formed to manage the oil industry, replacing Privat.

This is the reality: Ukrnafta is led by some clans, Ukrgazvydobuvannya by others, and gas distribution by still others.

The leaders of the Naftogaz group are changing, but the real owners remain. Therefore, companies, formally state-owned, work for the benefit of specific individuals.