The Russian-appointed government in the occupied Ukrainian territory of Crimea plans to earn approximately $336 million this year from “nationalized” property of Privat Group, the head of the occupation authorities has said.
The occupation authorities raised nearly 1.5 billion rubles ($252 million) last year from selling six “nationalized” properties of the group, which belongs to Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, the press service quoted Sergey Aksyonov as saying on Jan. 13.
The increased earnings this year are expected to be used to compensate former depositors of PrivatBank in Crimea, whose accounts were frozen in retaliation to annexation of peninsula by Russia, Aksyonov said.
“For this year we have a list of properties which we expect to sell for 2 billion rubles ($336 million),” said Aksyonov. “We also take measures to increase staff to speed up the work.”
Earlier in December, the minister of property and land relations in Russian-occupied Crimea, Anna Anyukhina, announced that in 2017 it was planned to auction a chain of gas stations seized from Privat Group after the annexation, at a starting price of $11 million.
According to Oilnews, Privat Group owned 41 gas stations in Crimea. 15 of them operated under Ukrnafta brand name, 15 as ANP, four as Sentosa, and seven as Avias.
Overall, the Kremlin-controlled authorities in Crimea has seized 110 properties that belonged to Kolomoisky’s Privat Group. They include office premises, shops, hotels, gas stations, and spa resorts and recreation facilities in Foros, Yalta, and other towns.
In December, the Ukrainian government acquired 100 percent of the shares of PrivatBank, the country’s largest deposit holder. But for Crimean depositors of PrivatBank the nationalization took place much earlier. Before the occupation by Russia, it had the largest network of branches and ATMs on the peninsula and serviced nearly 800,000 clients.
In April 2014, the PrivatBank network in Crimea was seized by Russian-appointed authorities and handed over to Russia’s depositors protection fund. The bank then froze the accounts of its Crimean customers. Since then, the Russian depositors protection fund pledged to compensate depositors for losses by selling the Crimean assets of Ihor Kolomoisky and his Privat Group.
Kolomoisky and 12 Ukrainian companies, including Ukrnafta, filed claims against Russian government to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in Hague demanding compensation for losses incurred by Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea.
