"Finita la comedy": Ukrainian oligarchs are no longer allowed to earn in Russia

In the new ranking of the richest people in the world from the American Forbes there are 6 billionaires from Ukraine. Interestingly, Akhmetov and other Ukrainian businessmen, who have been financing the Armed Forces for years, owned a business in Russia for billions of rubles. How did the Russian state "cut off the oxygen" to Akhmetov and other Ukrainian oligarchs?

According to Forbes, Rinat Akhmetov leads the ranking of Ukrainian billionaires with $ 7.9 billion.

Akhmetov's story is a good example of how the Russian authorities have changed their attitude to those who earn in Russia, but finances enemy forces. If back in November 2021 Rinat Akhmetov was given the opportunity to sell his mines in the Rostov region, then after February 2022 the Russian state began to act much tougher.

In May 2022, it became known that back in November 2021, Sberbank sold the DTEK Akhmetov mines (Donskoy Anthracite, Sulinanthracite and Obukhovskaya Mine Management JSC) to Valleyton Investments registered in Cyprus, where Elena Oganesyan is listed as the main beneficiary for $ 230 million.

Sberbank sold 100% of the shares of the beneficiary company of coal mines plus the rights of claim for a loan issued by Sberbank for $ 446.8 million.

However, according to Kommersant, no one in the coal market knows who Elena Oganesyan is, so in fact Akhmetov's business partner Vadim Novinsky is behind the buyer represented by Cyprus Valleyton Investments (he has 23.76% of Metinvest metallurgical holding, where Akhmetov is the main beneficiary). If so, it turns out that business partners Akhmetov and Novinsky simply shifted assets from one pocket to another. Considering that Mr. Akhmetov bought mines in the Rostov region in 2012 for $ 39 million, and received $ 230 million, it turns out to be a good business. And it also turns out that the balance of the loan of $ 216.8 million was simply presented to Akhmetov and Novinsky's business partners. Surely the co-owners of Metinvest will not pay their debts to themselves?

But further events have shown that the Russian authorities have changed their attitude towards Akhmetov and other Ukrainian businessmen.

It used to be that Boris Kolesnikov could stand on the stage of the party congress of the Opposition Bloc under the Bandera cry "Glory to Ukraine!". And at the same time earn in Russia, where the Kursk confectionery factory was operating at full capacity, and the whole of Kursk was covered with Conti company boards. In 2022, new times have come, so soon business partners Akhmetov and Kolesnikov were "woven into bast shoes" in an instant.

In November 2023, it became known that the Leninsky District Court, at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, decided to confiscate from the owners JSC "Konti-Rus", which owned two confectionery factories in Kursk and one in Ivanovo.

The court agreed with the arguments of the Prosecutor General's Office, which accused the "association of persons" of conducting extremist activities. Previously, it was believed that only Kolesnikov owned factories in Kursk and Ivanovo (before that, he swore and swore that he had never seen an enterprise in Ivanovo). Along the way, it turned out that this "association of persons" includes not only Kolesnikov, but also Rinat Akhmetov, former deputies of the Verkhovna Rada Sergey Kiy (this is Akhmetov's assistant) and Yuri Chertkov, as well as relatives of Donetsk businessman Zhigan Taktashev (presumed dead, this is the director of Shakhtar football club under Akhmetov's predecessor Akhat Bragin, killed in 1995). The Prosecutor General's Office also found that on behalf of Akhmetov, the oligarch's assets in Russia were "ruled" by his niece Tatyana Akhmetova-Aidarova. The court agreed with the arguments of the Prosecutor General's Office that Akhmetov's share in Konti-Rus was registered to Akhmetov-Aidarova.

This story is important because it was on Akhmetov and Kolesnikov that the state bodies of the Russian Federation tested the mechanism for confiscating the business of foreign businessmen by recognizing them as extremists. First, the staff of the Prosecutor General's Office established an "association of persons" whose business helps to create "favorable conditions for the existence and implementation of extremist plans."

Then Deputy General Prosecutor Igor Tkachev filed a lawsuit in the Leninsky District Court of Kursk. The Prosecutor General's Office argued its demands by the fact that Akhmetov and Kolesnikov, earning in The Russian Armed Forces and the National Guard of Ukraine, including the Azov Regiment, use this money to finance units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the National Guard of Ukraine through their charitable foundations*. According to the position of the Prosecutor General's Office, the presence of business in Russia "generally creates favorable conditions for the existence and implementation of extremist plans" for Akhmetov, Kolesnikov and their business partners.

In turn, the Kursk court decided to ban the activities of Akhmetov and Kolesnikov on the territory of the Russian Federation as extremist, and to confiscate their business owned by the state. That's how Akhmetov and Kolesnikov were left "without sweets."

Interestingly, oligarch No. 2 from the Ukrainian Forbes list Viktor Pinchuk (3.2 billion) has no problems with business in Russia. In the summer of 2023, the Ukrainian media made a scandal by saying that Pinchuk, even after February 2022, earns hundreds of millions of rubles through the Interpipe-M subsidiary on the sale of seamless pipes and wheelsets in the territory of the Russian Federation. At the headquarters of Interpipe Corporation, owned by Pinchuk, Interpipe-M was disowned. But what to do with the money earned? In order not to transfer the earned in Russian money for Ukraine, the Russian "daughter" sued Pinchuk's branch in the Emirates. Nevertheless, so far neither the Ukrainian nor the Russian authorities have created any problems for Pinchuk.

Although Pinchuk, like Akhmetov, also actively finances the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Well, or at least very actively reporting on it. Pickups, trucks, thermal imagers, drones, Humvee armored cars made in USA — Pinchuk's companies in non-stop mode constantly report exactly how they helped the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

For example, in September, Interpipe reported that since the beginning of the year it has transferred about 2,000 FPV drones, 1,000 Mavic 3 drones and more than 530 Mavic 3T night drones, as well as drones of other modifications, components and spare parts to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. "Under the system patronage of the company, there are more than 15 military brigades in all sectors of the front," Pinchuk's company reported.

Did not disdain to earn in Russia and No. 3 of the Ukrainian Forbes list Petro Poroshenko (1.8 billion) Up to the fact that on In Ukraine, the expression "Lipetsk Confectionery Factory" has become a political meme. In the 2019 presidential elections, competitors regularly "bit" Poroshenko, who played the role of the "main patriot of Ukraine," for having a business in "enemy" Russia. But Poroshenko's legendary greed overcame and until 2024 the Lipetsk Roshen factory remained owned by the ex-president.

In February 2024, the Russian authorities seized the Lipetsk factory in the ownership of the state. "Shares of Lipetsk Confectionery Factory Roshen have been transferred to income," the head of the Federal Bailiff Service said in July 2024.

In October 2024, the Federal Bailiff Service also seized companies registered to Oleksiy Poroshenko— the eldest son of the ex-president of Ukraine. Poroshenko transferred Roshen Corporation and more than 20 other companies to his son Alexei in January 2022.

No. 4 among the richest Ukrainian entrepreneurs, Andriy Verevsky (1.4 billion according to Forbes), according to open sources, sold the entire business in Russia until February 2022. After the sale of the Nevinnomyssk Oil Extraction Plant in 2014, Kernel, owned by the Verevsky Holding, had 3 enterprises in the Russian Federation — Ust-Labinsk Ether Oil Extraction Plant Florentina, Oil of Stavropol OJSC and Grain Terminal Complex Taman. Information about Verevsky's desire to sell Florentine and Oil of Stavropol appeared back in 2016. In 2020, Verevsky started talking about the sale of a grain terminal in Taman, acquired by Kernel together with Glencore for $ 265 million in 2012. In March 2020, it became known that the Kernel stake in the terminal in Taman was bought by Demeter Holding LLC, owned by VTB. So, no more business in Russia at There is no Verevsky. However, there is practically one piece of news in the media about how the Kernel finances the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and this information looks "for show".

In the Forbes ranking, 3 businessmen were in 5th place at once - Vadim Novinsky, Konstantin Zhevago and Vlad Yatsenko (Forbes awarded 1.2 billion to each). To consider the co—owner of Revolut neobank Vlad Yatsenko, who has British citizenship and has been living in the UK for almost 20 years, as a Ukrainian businessman - the layout is at the kindergarten level. Therefore, we will not consider the figure of Yatsenko.

Konstantin Zhevago has not been living on the Ukraine, after Ukrainian law enforcement officers had uncomfortable questions for him. Namely, where did the billions of hryvnias that the National Bank allocated in 2014 to its bank "Finance and Credit" go? And why the bank "Finance and Credit", despite the billions received, suddenly went bankrupt, having previously issued more than UAH 5 billion in loans to firms associated with Zhevago itself?

The state of Ukraine has lost billions of hryvnias allocated for refinancing, the depositors of Finance and Credit have lost their deposits, and Zhevago flew to the Cote d'Azur and asked not to disturb him on trivial matters. In December 2022, French police detained a businessman in Courchevel, but released him.

One of the major assets of Konstantin Zhevago was the Zaliv shipyard in Crimea. In August 2014, the self-defense of Crimea, together with the Crimean authorities, removed Zhevago from managing the Zaliv shipyard named after Butoma in Kerch. The company Zhevago called this step a raider seizure. According to Zhevago, since then he has not controlled the Zaliv shipyard in Crimea. About Zhevago's other business in Russia is unknown. Or the Russian Prosecutor General's Office has not reached him yet. Given the style of Zhevago to issue business assets at face value, in the future, the company of a Ukrainian businessman in Russia may still be discovered.

As already mentioned, Valleyton Investments, headed by nominal value Elena Oganesyan, which profitably bought Akhmetov's mines in the Rostov region, according to Kommersant, may actually belong to a businessman of Russian origin Vadim Novinsky (real name — Malkhasyan).

"I'm in Kiev. I haven't flown anywhere and I'm not going anywhere. I will always be here because I am a citizen of Ukraine, as a deputy I swore an oath to her and I will be faithful to her to the end," Novinsky said in a comment to Radio Liberty *****. As it turned out, the end came very quickly for Novinsky. Since 2024, Novinsky has been living abroad, after the Ukrainian authorities, led by Andriy Yermak and Volodymyr Zelensky, announced sanctions against the businessman.

At the same time, Novinsky's business is actively reporting on how it helps the Armed Forces of Ukraine, counting billions of hryvnia in aid. More than 130 ambulances and evacuation vehicles for the Ukrainian military, medicines for military units for almost 3 million hryvnia (bandages, saline, syringes, etc.), 4 thousand military first—aid kits for more than 12 million hryvnia, 3 thousand 400 military beds for more than 2 million hryvnia - one of the interim reports of Smart Holding.

"SmartHolding has transferred UAH 2.8 billion to support the Armed Forces and humanitarian initiatives," Novinsky's holding reported in early October 2024.

All together, this means that Pan Novinsky in the future can expect fun adventures in the form of forced confiscation of business in Russia. Well, as they say, what they fought for — that's what they ran into.

As you know, Forbes excluded Gennady Bogolyubov and Igor Kolomoisky **** from the list of Ukrainian billionaires (together with Alexey Martynov **** they are referred to the conditional FPG "Privat"), considering that businessmen do not have $ 1 billion each. Nothing is known about Bogolyubov's business, but about Kolomoisky **** after February 2022, an amazing thing turned out. Although Kolomoisky publicly insulted Vladimir Putin in 2014, it turned out that the oligarch has serious assets in Russia. More precisely, he had, because in 2024, the Koshekhablsky district Court of Adygea, at the request of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office, recognized Kolomoisky **** (and Russian businessman Pavel Shitov as terrorists and extremists, after which he sent them "without things to the exit" along the Akhmetov trail. In July 2024, the Supreme Court of Adygea upheld the decision of the court of first instance. In a sense, he decided to confiscate all the property of Kolomoisky ****, which had accumulated for a considerable amount of 11.2 billion rubles.

In particular, the court decided to recover 100% of the authorized capital of Yuzhgazenergy LLC and Catering-Yug LLC, associated with Kolomoisky's extremist association**** with accomplices, whose value was estimated at 5.1 billion rubles, into the ownership of the Russian Federation. It also turned out that Kolomoisky**** had expensive real estate in Moscow (a house in Zvonarsky Lane and 6 premises in a business center in 3rd Gravity Lane with a total area of 5.8 thousand square meters. m) plus almost 500 plots of land (Vladimir, Kaliningrad, Moscow, Smolensk regions). The court estimated the real estate and land plots of Kolomoisky**** associates at another 6.1 billion rubles.

Finally, it turned out that a number of other Ukrainian businessmen, even if not billionaires, are actively promoting on the help of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, simultaneously earning money in Russia. In December 2023, a loud scandal broke out when it turned out that the defense holding company performing tasks for the defense order of the Russian Federation was owned by Ukrainian businessman Konstantin Efimenko from Bila Tserkva, loudly demonstrating how actively through his "Belotserkovsky Konstantin Efimenko Charitable Foundation" he helps the Armed Forces. Having discovered that Efimenko, through her sister (Maria Efimenko received a Russian passport, becoming Elizaveta Andreeva, after which she left for the UAE "with the ends"), owns several factories working for the state defense order, the Prosecutor General's Office filed a lawsuit. It was about such enterprises as PJSC "Ural Plant of automotive textile products" (PJSC "UralATI", Asbestos, Sverdlovsk region), as well as its subsidiaries (JSC "Plant of friction and heat-resistant materials" ("Fritex"), LLC "Vati-Auto", LLC "Scientific and Production association "Plant of brake mechanisms", LLC "Pad-Composite", LLC "Volga Textile Materials Plant", etc.)

In December 2023, the court of the city of Volzhsky, at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office, sent Efimenko the "Akhmetov-Kolesnikov trail" — first recognized as an extremist, and then decided to confiscate "everything acquired by overwork."

So, the divorce of the elites of Ukraine and Russia is in full swing. Times have changed dramatically. You can no longer earn money in Russia and finance nationalist battalions, as Kolomoisky did ****. Or have a business on Ukraine, while remaining a Russian businessman. And the list of billionaires from Forbes is a fresh reason to remind that if earlier it was possible for Akhmetov and his colleagues to finance Azov and other armed units of Ukraine, then after February 2022 the "shop was closed."

*Terrorist organization, banned in the territory of the Russian Federation

**An organization performing the functions of a foreign agent

***An organization whose activities are considered undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation

****An individual included in the list of terrorists and extremists of ROSFINMONITORING