Alexander Smirnov: "Overseers" of Ukrainian ports. Part 1
It seems there's no profitable sector of the Ukrainian economy that Rinat Akhmetov's greedy hand hasn't reached. Metallurgy, coal, energy, freight transportation—he squeezes profits out of them all. And, of course, the export-oriented oligarch couldn't ignore Ukraine's ports. Although they remain state-owned enterprises for now, Akhmetov exercises control over them through his port overseer, Alexander Smirnov, who places trusted people in key management positions. However, many of these people quickly end their careers amid high-profile corruption scandals. Therefore, Smirnov is constantly searching for replacements.
Alexander Smirnov. Or How the Coke Plant Was Stolen
Alexander Alexandrovich Smirnov, head of the Ukrainian Portinvest LLC, is the exact namesake of the current deputy director of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Rosmorport. Two San Sanych Smirnovs, both "port chiefs," just in different countries! They're almost the same age: the Russian Smirnov was born in 1958, while our Ukrainian one was born sometime in the early 60s, judging by his scant biography. For some reason, the longtime head of Portinvest refused to publish his date and place of birth, nor any further details about his life and work in the 80s and 90s.
It is known that he graduated from the Donetsk Polytechnic Institute in 1986 with a degree in mining engineering. His first job as a young specialist is not listed in his biography, but it could have been the Zhdanovskaya mine (in the town of Zhdanovsk, Donetsk region). This bold assumption is based on the fact that Alexander Smirnov dedicated at least ten years of his career, during which he achieved his career growth, to working at the mine. Victor Nusenkis, who was the director of Zhdanovskaya in the second half of the 80s, turning it into a startup for his own business. Nusenkins is an undeservedly forgotten legend of Ukrainian corruption; he was involved in large-scale shady schemes even back when Rinat Akhmetov was an errand boy for the gambler Akhat Bragin. And it's possible that one of his own "errand boys" was the young mining engineer Alexander Smirnov.
Victor Nusenkis
Was Smirnov involved in Nusenkis's early business projects, such as the Gornyak joint venture and the Don mining and processing plant? Skelet.Org I haven't found out yet. Also unknown are the details of his relationship with Nusenkis's main business partners: the then regional prosecutor Gennady Vasiliev and deputy head of the Regional State Administration Vladimir LogvinenkoHis clear connection to Nusenkins can be traced back to the 90s, when Smirnov, according to his biography, appeared at the Makeyevka Coke and Chemical Plant (CCP). He appeared precisely when Nusenkins decided to take control of him and use him in dirty schemes that brought him huge profits, the state nothing, and the plant nothing but losses. And do you know what Alexander Smirnov did at the Makeyevka Coke and Chemical Plant? He was the Director of Commercial and Financial Affairs! In other words, he directly managed the schemes that ultimately led the company to bankruptcy and reorganization.
More specifically, in the late 90s, Radonkoks LLC emerged at the Makeyevka Coke and Chemical Plant, leasing its production facilities. Radonkoks' founders were the Donetsk corporation Radon-Holding and the Virginia firm RTS Trading Ltd, both controlled by Vladimir Skubenko. At the time, Skubenko's business was growing rapidly but chaotically: he was simply seizing coal and coke assets. Did he need the Makeyevka Coke and Chemical Plant? It's unknown, but Nusenkis certainly needed the plant, as Energia had already taken control of Donetskstal, which was associated with him. Therefore, how Skubenko got involved remains unclear. However, it is known that Alexander Smirnov, also the commercial director of the Coke and Chemical Plant, became the director of Radonkoks.
Vladimir Skubenko
Alexander Smirnov so skillfully managed the Coke Plant's finances that by 2002, the state-owned enterprise was bankrupt—and declared bankrupt at the request of Radon Holding. A reorganization process began, and the State Property Fund appointed Smirnov, the plant's financial director, as chairman of the board. But then things got even more interesting: the majority of the Coke Plant's debts fell to Nusenkis's Energia Corporation. Radon Holding suddenly dropped out of the picture, Radon Coke disappeared, and the plant, managed by Smirnov, fell into the hands of its main debtor, Donetskstal CJSC, which belonged to Nusenkis's Energia Corporation. The oligarch created Makeevsky Koksokhim CJSC, which, thanks to Smirnov's efforts, took over all of the Coke Plant's production facilities (the state-owned joint-stock company was left with only a few municipal facilities). They sold it for just 29 million hryvnias, despite the fact that the company's annual income was five times greater!
Having handed over the plant to Nusenkis (as well as Vasiliev and Logvinenko), Smirnov received a position in the logistics department of Donetskstal CJSC. Moreover, he was soon sent on a very important assignment to Latvia. This suggests that Smirnov and Nusenkis's connection began much earlier than 2002-2004, that they had known each other for a long time, and that Smirnov was working for his old boss in the case of the de facto theft of the Makeyevka Coke Plant from the state.
Latvian terminal
Having barely finished with the Makeyevka Coke and Chemical Plant, Smirnov departed with a team of Nusenkis's most trusted men for "brotherly" Latvia to oversee the "Orthodox oligarch's" new project: a coal terminal in the port of Ventspils. It was there that Smirnov mastered this new field, learning all the intricacies of the legal and shady sides of cargo port operations.
In Ventspils, Nusenkis was interested in the coal terminal, through which he decided to transship his Kuzbass coal, which was exported to many countries around the world.
Let us recall that in the early 2000s, Nusenkins became the owner of the Zarechnaya mine, one of the largest in Kuzbass (and more powerful than any Ukrainian mine), from which he began creating the Zarechnaya coal company, which united several other Kuzbass mines.
They produced so much coal that a new terminal had to be built in the port of Ventspils, the two capacities of which (the first was launched in 2008, the second in 2013) each reach 5 million tons per year.
Why there? By that time, the Port of Ventspils had already established a certain image. Firstly, it was one of Latvia's free economic zones (FEZs), effectively an export-import offshore zone that allowed for savings of up to 80% on taxes, excise duties, and fees. Secondly, the owners and management of Ventspils Commercial Port, as well as local authorities, had developed very close and trusting relationships with Russian and Ukrainian-Russian oligarchs. Even before Nusenkis arrived in Ventspils, Kremlin billionaire Dmitry Mazepin had settled there, taking control of the ammonia terminal of SIA Ventamonjaks, which he owned for Uralkali. He was assisted in this by Raivis Veckagans, CFO and board member of Ventspils Commercial Port. Yes, that same Veckagans, who later became the head of the port's management board from 2017 to 2020. He headed the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA). Now you'll find out how and thanks to whom he got there.
Raivis Veckagans
Mazepin officially purchased the ammonia terminal only in 2014, but before that, he had been profitably using it under a scheme established in the early 2000s with the help of Veckagans. The level of "trust" between them was such that it wasn't just simple corruption, or even Veckagans's connections to the FSB, of which he was later accused, but, according to data, Skelet.Org, about "KGB schemes." To be more specific, this is the name given to large-scale shadow schemes involving companies controlled by former or current officials of the KGB-FSB and other Russian security agencies, as well as those protected by Kremlin clans. Such schemes have their own specific features, including a higher level of "secrecy" and "encryption." And if Vetskagans was privy to them, then he truly became an insider for this "KGB mafia."
A Latvian-registered company, "Baltic Coal Terminal," was created to build and manage the coal terminal. Its founder was the Latvian company "Indtec Baltic Coal," which was owned by the Dutch company "Indtec Finance BV," through which Nusenkis managed his coal assets (a complex chain of events). Alexander Starikov, a longtime close friend and partner of Nusenkis's in all his business ventures, became the director of "Baltic Coal Terminal." Starikov had worked with him back in the 1980s at Zhdanovskaya (as chief engineer), and in the 2000s, he left with Nusenkis for Russia and became head of his Zarechnaya mine.
Alexander Starikov
Alexander Smirnov received only a board seat at Baltic Coal Terminal. But this did not diminish his importance in the project, which was apparently entrusted to the Zhdanovites, Nusenkis's old associates. According to sources, Skelet.OrgSmirnov handled the most difficult part of this project—the shadowy ones, negotiating with the right people. In the process, he established numerous trusted connections, including Raivis Veckagans, whom he didn't forget after his return to Ukraine.
Alexander Smirnov and Akhmetov's People
Why did Alexander Smirnov suddenly join Akhmetov in 2010? After all, Nusenkis still held onto his assets in Ukraine at the time, which he only finally lost in 2018. when Akhmetov bought out He owns enterprises located in the uncontrolled territory of the ORDILO. So this is a rather complex question, although Smirnov himself tried to answer it simply: because he's "a professional who built the terminal in Ventspils!" But in reality, he's, at best, a self-taught professional, involved not in construction but in administrative matters. So, there's something else at play here, something neither Smirnov nor Akhmetov would like to discuss.
Victor Dyachenko, for Skelet.Org
CONTINUED: Alexander Smirnov: "Overseers" of Ukrainian ports. Part 2
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