The Kremlin-backed politicians who seized power in Crimea on Feb. 27 are deeply in debt, yet currently beyond the reach of banks and Ukrainian law enforcement agencies as they remain safely behind the barrels of Russian guns.
Sergey Aksyonov
According to the Center for Investigative Journalism, the self-declared prime minister of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov owes the Crimean government nearly $5 million, money reportedly spent on the election campaign for his Russian Unity party, which won only three of 100 seats. Former Minister of Industrial Policy of Crimea Aleksandr Malykhin sued Aksenov over the debt.
Aksyonov has a murky past and is reputedly linked with organized crime in the 1990s, when he worked under the street name Goblin. He has denied any crime associations and he has never been charged with a crime.
He headed a family firm involved in businesses ranging from vegetable processing to metal fabrication to wholesale furniture sales, according to Ukrainska Pravda news site.
Aksyonov joined the political camp of ex-President Leonid Kuchma, where he leveraged his position to buy state property in Simferopol. During the administration of President Viktor Yushchenko, Aksyonov found two new sponsors: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash, according to Ukrrudprom. He muscled his way into the leadership of the Kremlin-sponsored Russian Unity party, which advocates ethnic Russians in Ukraine joining Russia.
“Russian organized crime, which had ties with its Crimean cousins, recommended Aksyonov to Putin,” Batkivshchyna Party member and Crimean native Andriy Senchenko told the Kyiv Post when discussing the annexation of Crimea. “He was a nobody before that.”
Rustam Temirhaliyev
Alongside Aksyonov, Crimean Vice Prime Minister Rustam Temirhaliyev was reportedly close to Firtash, at least politically, according Slon.ru. The financial ties between the pro-Russian group and Firtash have not been disclosed, but Firtash has major economic interests in the peninsula, including the chemical plant Crimean Titan. Temirhaliyev was chairman of Crimea’s investment policy committee from 2010.
Firtash was one of a list of Ukrainian oligarchs who had their bank accounts frozen by European and American authorities in the wake of President Viktor Yanukovych’s abdication on Feb. 22. Firtash was arrested in Austria on March 13 at the request of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and is awaiting extradition to the United States to face racketeering charges.
Senchenko argues that the little-known Temirhaliyev was chosen by the Kremlin to help lead the Crimean rebellion because he has close business ties with Russian member of parliament Dmitriy Sablin.
Vladimir Konstantinov
Aksyonov is a small-time debtor compared to the head of the Crimean Parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, who reportedly owes upwards of $130 million to Ukrainian banks alone. A builder by trade, Konstantinov through his Konsol and Tsargradstroy construction firms and Crimea Finance is responsible for a string of unfinished apartment blocks across the peninsula, which he financed through bank loans and down payments of potential buyers, according to 1i.com.ua investigative website.
When these flats were not finished on time, the buyers went to court. To avoid criminal prosecution, the news site tsn.ua alleges that Konstantinov entered politics, supporting Yanukovych’s bid for president and eventually finding himself on the Party of Regions ticket in Crimea.
The business magazine Focus in 2013 estimated Konstantinov’s fortune at $118 million.
State-owned UkrExImBank, Konstantinov’s largest creditor, filed suit against his group of companies in September 2013 to get its money back, since he was long in arrears in servicing this debt. The case was reviewed in October and by February of this year the Commercial Court agreed to suspend proceedings pending assessment of the property belonging to the companies of Konstantinov, according to the State Information Resource Center. Since the Feb. 27 coup, however, everything is on hold.
Prominvestbank, owned by Russian VEB bank, and Kyivska Rus are other Ukrainian banks that went to court against several of Konstantinov’s companies for the return of $4.4 million and $5.5 million respectively, according to the Unified Register of Judgments. Batkivshchyna Party member Andriy Senchenko said: “Konstantinov also received very large loans from Russia’s Sberbank and VTB Bank. He is bankrupt.”
Aleksey Chaliy
The company of Sevastopol Governor Aleksey Chaliy, meanwhile, is not suffering as a result of sanctions against him, the Wall Street Journal reports. His Tavrida Electric, a major global producer of vacuum circuit-breakers, has only had trouble maintaining its operation in Estonia, Chaliy said, “which has a traditionally anti-Russian attitude.”
The company’s representative offices in North America and Europe all reported no interference from local authorities, the article stated.
Kyiv Post business journalist Evan Ostryzniuk can be reached at [email protected].
