Andrey Klyuev: Will the "solar swindler" return the money?

Andrey Klyuev, Sergey Klyuev, Ukrpodshipnik, dossier, biography, incriminating evidence

Andrey Klyuev: Will the "solar swindler" return the money?

He was accused of "crimes against the Maidan," while he hid the stolen millions and laughed at the hapless and corrupt Ukrainian justice system. Thanks to Andriy Klyuyev's machinations, even the bright idea of ​​alternative energy was compromised in Ukraine and turned into a tool for embezzling state funds. And today, the money he funneled abroad, stolen from the budget and taken from the pockets of Ukrainians, is fueling the development of the economies of Europe and China, lighting the palaces of Arab sheikhs...

Andrey Klyuev. The Tale of the "Bearing King"

Andrey Petrovich Klyuev was born on August 12, 1964, in Donetsk, to an elementary school teacher and a miner. Exactly five years later, on August 19, 1969, his younger brother, Sergey, was born. Their father worked at the Gorky mine in Donetsk, operating a combine harvester and later becoming a foreman, earning a salary—a whopping 500-600 rubles at the time—that was enormous. The Klyuev family, it could be said, belonged to the Soviet "working middle class," and never had any problems with money—the only problem was finding something to spend it on. A car, a large apartment, annual seaside vacations, tape recorders, jeans, and other joys of the time made the Klyuev brothers' lives better than most of their peers even from childhood.

Andrey Klyuev and Sergey Klyuev: Will the "solar swindler" get his money back?

Sergei Klyuyev

True, in 1986, their father, whose salary was crucial to the family's well-being, was crushed by a conveyor belt and suffered serious injuries. According to Andrei Klyuev, after this accident, his father spent three years in the hospital. However, there is a clipping from the local newspaper "Shest Shakhtyora" (Miner's Honor) from September 1987, on the front page of which we see a perfectly healthy Pyotr Klyuev, among his fellow top workers.

Petr Klyuev

By enrolling in the Donetsk Polytechnic Institute (now Donetsk National Technical University) in 1982, Andrey Klyuev spared himself the obligation to serve his country in the military (his brother Sergey would later do the same). Four years later, with a mining engineering degree, he began working as deputy head of the mine's transport department. However, Andrey Klyuev only stayed at the mine for four months, after which he fled back to the polytechnic for graduate school, where the pay was mere pennies. Meanwhile, Pyotr Klyuev, who had been injured at the same time and was on sick leave, no longer received his bonus or other benefits. The family budget was at risk, and Andrey Klyuev's actions would have seemed rather strange had he not found another source of income while still a graduate student. It was a hectic time: in 1987, the first industrial cooperatives appeared in the Donetsk mines. Unlike the market sewing workshops, they handled huge volumes of production (and money) and were under the protection of regional committees, city executive committees, or the prosecutor's office, not bandits.

Andrey Klyuev's private enterprise, according to him, was engaged in "implementing developments into production." Interestingly, Viktor Pinchuk was engaged in a similar type of "individual labor activity" at the same time.Read more about it in Viktor Pinchuk: Ukraine's richest son-in-law), who created a “cooperative of inventors and innovators” at his research institute.

But the Pinchuk cooperative ended up being a rip-off of its employees. Andrey Klyuev never admitted how he actually earned his initial capital. For example, the private enterprise he founded in 1989, "Shelf," which attempted to sell mines a "special" patented support design was unsuccessful. Rumor has it it was a simple scam: having "rationalized" standard support, Klyuev tried to foist this model on manufacturers by including his own royalties in its price.

In 1990, having abandoned the "implementation of developments," Klyuev founded JSC Ukrpodshipnik. In his interviews, Andrey Klyuev often referred to this enterprise as a "factory," claiming that he "built his own plant from scratch," and even telling the tale that "I have a company operating there, new equipment, and over a thousand employees." But here's the strange thing: all attempts Skelet.Org Searching online for any trace of this plant yields nothing. There are only its offices (now relocated to Kirovohrad and Samara), numerous retail and commercial sites, and links to fifty bearing manufacturers, which Ukrpodshipnik sells—but there's no bearing plant. Not even a miniature one, some tiny factory. And, presumably, there never was one! "Podshipnik" (as the company was called from 1991-94) was originally a "cooperative" that supplied bearings produced by the Minsk Bearing Plant to mines in the Donetsk region.

"Rationalizer" Andrey Klyuev gleaned some useful information from his limited experience working in the mine: virtually every enterprise with machinery was constantly short of essential parts, including bearings. The Soviet system for supplying components was always prone to failure, so in the late 80s, resourceful people replaced it, making a killing. Klyuev's "Bearing" didn't need to manufacture anything: he collected orders from enterprises for the necessary bearings and then traveled to the manufacturers to purchase them. And since 1992, when the USSR collapsed and old production ties were severed, Klyuev's talent and know-how have allowed him to transport more than just bearings.

Thus, in 1992, the Podshipnik Trading House was founded, with Sergey Klyuyev, a recent graduate of Donetsk Polytechnic, becoming its commercial director. In 1994, Podshipnik transformed into Ukrpodshipnik OJSC, which the Klyuyev brothers owned equally and which became the foundation of the Klyuyev business empire. Within a few years, Ukrpodshipnik became the owner or co-owner of several industrial enterprises in Artemovsk (now Bakhmut) and other cities in the Donetsk region, becoming the Ukrpodshipnik Industrial and Investment Corporation in 2000. Here is a far from complete list of enterprises created or "swallowed" by the Klyuyevs between 1996 and 2013:

  • State Enterprise "Dzerzhinskenergoresurs"
  • DP "Ecotech"
  • State Enterprise Stone Processing Plant "Omphal"
  • JSC Konstantinovsky Metallurgical Plant
  • JSC Mashzavod
  • JSC Svatovskoye Maslo
  • JSC "Artemovsky Plant for Non-Ferrous Metals Processing"
  • OJSC Donbasskabel
  • OJSC Donetskgranit
  • OJSC Artemovsky Machine-Building Plant "Vistek"
  • OJSC IC Oradon
  • LLC "Agrex"
  • Promkomservis LLC
  • Prommonolit LLC
  • Service-Invest LLC
  • LLC PES "Gorenergo"
  • Donbass Financial Company LLC
  • PEO "Vetroenergoprom"
  • JSC "Ukrenergokomplektstroy"
  • JSC Zaporizhzhya Semiconductor Plant

Between 2003 and 2006, the Klyuev family's business structure was reorganized: their main assets were transferred to the Austrian company Slav Handel Vertretung und Beteiligung AG (SLAV AG). The Klyuevs had established it back in 1994 to conduct international commercial operations, but it later came in handy for transferring their main assets under Austrian jurisdiction. Firstly, this made them enterprises with foreign investment (and provided the necessary benefits); secondly, it gave them a solid image (Austria, after all, is not some kind of offshore zone); and thirdly, it somehow protected them from potential corporate raids by competing Ukrainian oligarchic groups.

Aktiv-Bank, Andrey Klyuev

Andrey Klyuev: Will the "solar swindler" return the money?

Slav AG

During this restructuring, the names of two Klyuev associates, Vadim and Artem Shpakovsky, appeared in the media. They were shareholders and heads of supervisory boards at several Klyuev enterprises (for example, the Artemovsky Non-Ferrous Metals Processing Plant). It was also later revealed that the Shpakovskys held Austrian citizenship: they may have already held it in 2011, when the media reported on two anonymous "Austrian nationals" business partners of Andrey Klyuev, and the press reported this directly in 2015.

But who are these Shpakovskys? Although the Klyuevs never revealed anything about them, several old technical patents exist (for example, Ukrainian Patent No. UA8969, "Method for Producing Brass and Bronze Ingots"), authored by Andrey Klyuev and Vadim Shpakovsky. Logical inference suggests that Vadim Shpakovsky is a longtime friend and business partner of Andrey Klyuev, dating back to the "rationalization cooperatives" of the late 80s.

Another partner, holding small stakes in Klyuyev's enterprises but enjoying an independent and equal status (unlike the Shpakovskys), was until recently (and perhaps still is) the brothers Grigoriy and Spartak Kokotyukh. These little-known and completely private individuals are prominent businessmen from the Donetsk clan: Grigoriy Kokotyukh worked for the SBU in the 90s, then went into business, and together with his brother, they owned Ukrsplav LLC, in which their partner was a Donetsk businessman. Eugene GellerThis is an even more interesting person: from 2006 to 2014, he was a permanent member of the Verkhovna Rada on the Party of Regions list, but in 2014, Geller was elected to the Rada in single-member constituency No. 50 (Krasnoarmeysk, renamed Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast) and is now a member of the Vozrozhdenie parliamentary group. So, as the media reported, during these elections, Geller was allegedly helped to falsify the results... by fighters from the Dnepr volunteer battalion, who seized two polling stations for an hour and allegedly carried out mass ballot stuffing. The media reported that the guaranteed victory of the "right people" in constituency No. 50 and three others was then negotiated through David Zhvania and Gennady Korban with Igor Kolomoisky himself, even managing to intercept their phone conversations. Such were the fascinating puzzles that emerged around the business partners of Andriy Klyuev and his brother, Sergey!

Andrey Klyuyev. In Yanukovych's orbit

The press once wrote that Rinat Akhmetov disliked Andriy Klyuev somewhat because he had built his career using administrative resources, siding with the right people. And this is indeed true: who knows if Klyuev would have achieved such impressive success if he hadn't joined the Donetsk Regional Council and managed to secure the position of deputy chairman of Volodymyr Shcherban's regional council for organizational work. A year later, he was deputy chairman of the Donetsk Regional State Administration (under the same Shcherban) for the coal industry, market relations, privatization (!), and economic reform. There, he became closely acquainted with a "young talent," a 19-year-old former street gang member. Vitaly Khomutynnik, who retrained as a "fixer" and businessman.

The major reshuffle in Donetsk, during which Akhat Bragin and Yevhen Shcherban were killed, and Volodymyr Shcherban was removed from his post by Pavlo Lazarenko, was painless for Klyuev. Moreover, in 1995, "just in case," Klyuev became closely acquainted with Pavlo Lazarenko and Yulia Tymoshenko, who had significant interests in the Donbas. In 1996, Andrey Klyuev was elected to the Donetsk City Council and immediately found a rapport with the new mayor of Donetsk, Volodymyr Rybak, becoming his first deputy. The piquancy of the situation was that Rybak was a man Efim Zvyagilsky – whom President Kuchma, in turn, had planned to appoint as the "overseer" of Donetsk. However, Akhmetov's group began to gain the upper hand in the region.

No problem: less than a year after Akhmetov's protégé Viktor Yanukovych was appointed head of the Donetsk Regional State Administration, Andriy Klyuyev became his deputy! And in the spring of 2002, as if he knew in advance that his boss would soon be moving to Kyiv, Klyuyev ran for the Verkhovna Rada as a member of the For a United Ukraine bloc, where he somehow landed the truly golden portfolio of chairman of the Committee on Fuel and Energy and Nuclear Safety. And then, from December 10, 2003, until late 2004, Klyuyev held the chair of deputy prime minister for the same fuel and energy complex. But who gave him the keys to the oil and gas schemes, and why? The answer is simple: Klyuyev was appointed there as a replacement. Vitaliy Gaiduk (with whom he worked as Shcherban's deputy) as a counterweight to the then head of Naftogaz Yuriy BoykoThey apparently jailed him deliberately: Klyuev wasn't involved in the gas schemes; he was involved in metallurgy, and in the energy sector, he was involved in trading petroleum products (in the 90s) and coal, and later, solar power plants.

The dualism between Klyuev and Boyko lasted for several years, and later even led to a quarrel between Klyuev and Sergei Levochkin, who supported Boyko. They had already had a serious falling out over the privatization of Severodonetsk Azot in 2004. Boyko, being from the area, had long had his eye on the company, which consumed colossal volumes of gas, allowing him to make money not only from its products but also from gas schemes. But, according to Skelet.OrgIt was Klyuev who made an effort to ensure that during the privatization of the plant, which began in 2004, 50% + 1 share were sold to an American-Israeli businessman To Alex RovtAnd only in 2011, Azot will become the property of Dmitry Firtash  – to the great satisfaction of Yuriy Boyko.

But in 2004, Andriy Klyuev's name was most often mentioned in connection with the elections, as he headed Yanukovych's "shadow headquarters." Klyuev was suspected of orchestrating the poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko, but the case initially proved so murky, and then devolved into farce, that Klyuev's role as the poisoner was forgotten, and people began to wonder whether the "poisoning" had been planned. Klyuev, however, was long accused of direct involvement in the creation and operation of the so-called Central Election Commission transit server, which allegedly facilitated mass voter fraud during the November 2004 vote.

However, he wasn't even "dragged"—and this was explained by Klyuev's rather warm relationship with Yulia Tymoshenko, as well as several top officials of the Socialist Party. This, in turn, made him one of the key negotiators regarding the creation of a "grand coalition" in 2006. Then Oleg Lyashko claimed to have a recording of a telephone conversation between Andrei Klyuev and the socialist Nikolai Rudkovsky, in which the Socialist Party of Ukraine allegedly offered $300 million to join a coalition with the Party of Regions. Several months later, Kyiv's Pechersky District Court declared these recordings to be fake.

It was also reported that it was thanks to Andriy Klyuyev, who rendered a great service to the ailing relatives of Taras Chornovil, that the Party of Regions managed to attract this young politician into their ranks (in whose ranks he, as a politician, later disappeared).

Solar energy and the count's mansion

In the 2006 elections, the Klyuyev brothers won seats in the Verkhovna Rada on the Party of Regions list (Nos. 14 and 62). From August 2006 to November 2007, Andriy Klyuyev again served as Deputy Prime Minister for the Fuel and Energy Sector, and his brother, Serhiy, became a member of the Finance and Banking Committee. During this time, the brothers became involved in, to put it mildly, dubious business ventures. For example, in 2006, their company, Ukrpodshipnik, received a 38 million euro loan from the state-owned Ukreximbank—a loan they still haven't repaid! A lawsuit is underway, attempting to repay the debt in shares of the companies, but the Klyuyevs are bankrupting them one after another, and their value is low. Representatives of Ukrpodshipnik asked the court to defer repayment of the debt "for two years, six months after the end of the Anti-Terrorist Operation in Donbas." This sounded almost like a mockery: after all, if the request were granted, it would be beneficial for the Klyuevs if the ATO never ended!

Andrey Klyuev: Will the "solar swindler" return the money?

Andriy and Serhiy Klyuyev in the Verkhovna Rada hall

In 2007, the Klyuyev brothers began privatizing the Zaporizhzhia Semiconductor Plant, which they considered a promising production facility for their solar, or more accurately, "green," energy business. Apparently, the idea of ​​creating a monopoly in solar power generation (on an industrial scale) occurred to Andriy Klyuyev during his tenure as Deputy Prime Minister for Fuel and Energy: instead of displacing competitors from existing niches in the Ukrainian energy sector, he decided to create his own. And this would have been a positive development for Ukraine, had the Klyuyevs not turned it into a massive scam.

It began with the privatization of a semiconductor plant capable of producing solar panels. The entire undertaking looked suspicious: the plant's imported equipment had been purchased during the Soviet era, and 20 years later, this technology was outdated, while modernizing the facility would require nearly a billion dollars in investment. This is precisely why Dmitry Firtash refused to buy the plant, but it was bought, or rather privatized, by the Klyuyevs. Moreover, they used some kind of elaborate fraudulent scheme. In the fall of 2007, 75% of the shares of Zavod Semiconductor Plant PJSC were transferred from the state to Silicon LLC, whose principal owner was businessman Gennady Kogan (with a reputation for raiding state enterprises). By early 2008, he had already acquired 99% of the plant's shares, which he later ceded to Activ Solar GmbH, a company registered in Austria on February 15, 2008. Its founder was the company "Slav Beteiligung GmbH", founded in December 2005 by the company SLAV AG of the Klyuev brothers.

Then the manipulations began. At the end of 2008, Kaveh Ertefai, who turned out to be Sergey Klyuev's son-in-law, became the sole owner of Activ Solar.

Furthermore, Ertefai turned out to be the director of Activ Solar's offshore subsidiary, the Cypriot company AST ACTIV SOLAR TRADING LTD. In the summer of 2009, 100% of Activ Solar GmbH's shares were transferred to the management of a Liechtenstein trust company, P&A Corporate Trust, owned by Austrian Reinhard Proksch. Subsequently, the assets of Activ Solar and its Ukrainian subsidiary, Activ Solar LLC, were entangled in unimaginable schemes. This is unsurprising, given that Reinhard Proksch was already being called one of Europe's leading "laundresses" back in 2013, laundering money not only for the Klyuyevs but also for the Yanukovych and Azarov.

Klyuev brothers

Andrey Klyuev: Will the "solar swindler" return the money?

And yet, in 2009 (a year of crisis!), PJSC Semiconductor Plant managed to persuade the state to issue it several loans totaling 458 million euros from Ukreximbank! The money was supposed to be used for plant modernization, but where it actually went is unknown. The fact is that the plant itself and its equipment were supposed to serve as collateral for these loans, but when debt collection efforts began in 2015-2016 (8,68 billion hryvnias, including 5,14 billion hryvnias to Ukreximbank) from the bankrupt plant, it turned out that the fair value of its shares was just over 15 million hryvnias.

Of course, the plant exists (unlike the Klyuevs' bearing plant), and it even produced products (polysilicon) in 2011-2012, which it then sold through several shell companies. However, unnamed sources barely whispered. Skelet.Org The volumes of actual production and those listed in the documents differ significantly, and the plant should have changed its name to "Horns and Hooves." Because its only purpose was to take out loans for supposed production (as well as 200 million hryvnias from the Cabinet of Ministers' Stabilization Fund, allocated to the plant in late 2010). This money was then funneled through other schemes to Europe, where it was invested in Activ Solar projects through numerous small investment firms registered in various European countries—and used to purchase ready-made equipment for solar power plants in China.

Activ Solar, Sergey Klyuev

Andrey Klyuev: Will the "solar swindler" return the money?

Aktiv Solar LLC did indeed build power plants in Ukraine: between 2001 and 2013, a dozen were erected, and almost all of them were operational. But this came at a hefty cost to the state and the population! Between 2011 and 2013, 382 million hryvnias were allocated to connect them to the national grid, with all the tenders won by Zvyazoktekhservis LLC, a subsidiary of Compaserve Holding GmbH, which is directly linked to the same Reinhard Proksch! 31 million euros, which Ukraine received from the European Commission in 2011 as part of its energy efficiency program, were also used for this project. Upon learning of this, the European Commission raised an uproar and shut down the program, depriving Ukraine of 160 million euros annually.

And now, the most interesting part, which concerns every Ukrainian citizen! In 2009, the National Commission for Regulatory Regulation of Ukraine, then headed by Serhiy Titenko (former deputy director of Ukrpodshipnik), established a new "green tariff" for solar power, which was yet to be generated by the Klyuyevs' solar power plants, which were still under construction. The tariff was 5,06 hryvnias per kilowatt! Yes, don't fall over! In comparison, Rinat Akhmetov's "Rotterdam formula," with his thermal power plants now selling electricity at 1,8 hryvnias, looked like a big Christmas sale. In other words, the Klyuyevs' audacity and greed, determined to recoup all their costs on the power plant construction at a Stakhanovite pace, far exceeded even Akhmetov's appetite! However, what kind of expenses are we talking about if the Klyuyevs invested loans, most of which they never repaid, into their solar energy business, as well as hundreds of millions of hryvnias of budgetary funds allocated to them free of charge! This isn't even counting the fact that in December 2013, Viktor Yanukovych, during an official visit to China, signed an agreement on Chinese investment (hundreds of millions of dollars) in Ukrainian solar energy. The specific recipient of the investment (under Ukrainian state guarantees) was to be Greentech Energy, one of Activ Solar's many spinoffs.

where the Klyuev brothers lived

The fence of the Klyuev estate

Andrey Klyuev: Will the "solar swindler" return the money?

The fence of the Klyuev estate

As early as 2006, Andrey Klyuev's fortune was estimated at $160 million, and in 2011, Focus magazine estimated the brothers' combined capital at $900 million. People with such real incomes had corresponding "huts." Not as ostentatious palaces as those of Yanukovych or Pshonki, but very respectable residential complexes, reminiscent of counts' estates. Both houses, those of Andrei and Sergei Klyuev, were built on a single plot of land (17 hectares) near the village of Radyki (near Koncha-Zaspa), surrounded by a stone fence stretching for hundreds of meters – nicknamed by locals the "Chinese wall." Andrei Klyuev's house is 2310 square meters, while his brother's house is even larger – it resembles a Soviet-era factory community center. Most interestingly, photographs of the Klyuev estate don't show a single solar panel! It seems that, while pushing their ultra-expensive solar electricity on Ukrainians, the brothers themselves didn't believe in it.

Andrey Klyuev's house Sergei Klyuev's house

An equally expensive real estate investment was Serhiy Klyuev's purchase of Tantalit LLC (Kyiv), which owns 127 hectares of land in the famous Mezhyhirya district, including the former residence of Viktor Yanukovych. This bizarre deal, which took place in 2013, cost Klyuev 146 million hryvnias—though it's not certain he came out of his own pocket. According to some lawyers interviewed by Skelet.OrgThe Klyuyevs simply registered this company as theirs. Perhaps we should entrust them with the honor of guarding the land on which Yanukovych's own homes stand. And it's worth noting that they've been up to the task even after the Euromaidan. Specifically, in December 2014, one of the Klyuyev lawyers, Oleksandr Pryimak, purchased Tantalit for just 44 hryvnias.

At the same time, Tantalit stopped paying its electricity bills and began accumulating debt to KyivEnergo, owned by Rinat Akhmetov. KyivEnergo then began filing lawsuits to recover the debt—naturally, by transferring Tantalit and its assets to Akhmetov's company. Meanwhile, Priymak filed complaints with the police demanding that the Mezhyhirya residence be cleared of the displaced persons and activists located there, calling them "unknown armed men who seized the complex."

 

Andrey Klyuev. Come back, we'll forgive everything?

After two years as First Deputy Prime Minister, Andriy Klyuyev was dismissed in early 2012 and immediately appointed Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council. This played a negative role in his subsequent career, as the position was overly political. And when the second Maidan began, Klyuyev automatically became one of its "executioners"—a charge he was long accused of. First, he was blamed for the nighttime dispersal of November 30, 2013 (the so-called "Bloody Christmas Tree"), then for being tasked by Yanukovych with negotiating with the opposition, then for drafting the "dictatorial laws" of January 16, and then the most serious charge—shooting at protesters.

It's no surprise that Andriy Klyuyev hastened to flee Ukraine along with Yanukovych. Meanwhile, the new Prosecutor General, Oleh Makhnitsky (Read more about it in Oleg Makhnitsky: Is there a limit to the shamelessness of the former "Maidan prosecutor"?) effectively gave Klyuev time not only to pack his bags but also to sit on them before his departure: the Prosecutor General's Office's request for his arrest only appeared on February 28, and he was only placed on the wanted list on March 4. Moreover, Makhnitsky initially opened a case against Klyuev only for "crimes against the Maidan"—despite being well aware that Klyuev had been suspected of money laundering in Austria since February 2014. Only on April 10, 2014, did the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine charge him with large-scale embezzlement. But then, on June 11, Makhnitsky revoked the search order for Andriy Klyuev and also asked Austria to unfreeze his accounts. On June 18, the new Prosecutor General, Shokin, again placed Klyuev on the wanted list, but a week could easily have been enough for him to resolve his business problems.

As a result, while the Prosecutor General's Office was initiating new criminal cases against Andriy Klyuev under Article 191-5 of the Criminal Code (embezzlement), he was actively selling off or bankrupting his Ukrainian businesses from the fall of 2014 to the winter of 2015. He offered his most popular product, his solar power plants, to Chinese companies. It was known that he was preparing to sell six power plants in the Odesa and Mykolaiv regions to CNBM International Energy Pte., as well as that Klyuev had attempted to sell Crimean power plants as early as the summer of 2014.

CNBM International Energy Pte

Officially, they all belonged to the Austrian company Activ Solar, so Klyuev's name wasn't even mentioned in these transactions. The bankruptcy of the abandoned Ukrainian enterprises is a different matter. The Klyuevs abandoned both the Semiconductor Plant, with its multi-billion-dollar debt, and their own company, Ukrpodshipnik, which they split in two, transferring some assets to a Russian subsidiary. Thus, when in March 2016 the Pechersky District Court seized the shares of Ukrpodshipnik and its Ukrainian enterprises for debt, the Ukrainian justice system only seized the securities of Klyuev's already ruined Ukrainian assets, which had become less valuable.

Andrey Klyuev: Will the "solar swindler" return the money?

Andrey Klyuev: Will the "solar swindler" return the money?

There's no clear answer to the question of where Andrey Klyuev and his brother, Sergey, are currently hiding. They were stripped of their parliamentary immunity in the summer of 2015 and placed on the international wanted list. It could be in Russia. Or perhaps anywhere in Europe, even under a different name. For example, in Austria, the Klyuevs not only own their own companies but also own a 558-square-meter house on a 27-hectare plot of land—not exactly Koncha-Zaspa, but still pretty good! This house is registered to GBM Handels-und Vertretungs GmbH, whose office is located at Wipplingerstraße 35 in Vienna—the same office as Klyuev's companies, Activ Solar and SLAV AG.

The Klyuyevs' European connection is supported by the activities of Activ Solar, which is currently implementing solar power plant projects in southern countries like Saudi Arabia in partnership with the Chinese. Of course, they don't charge Arabs significantly more for electricity. Having amassed enormous capital in Ukraine and transformed themselves into Austrians, the Klyuyevs are now involved in green energy internationally – through proxies, their sons-in-law, and trusted associates. Can this money be returned to Ukraine? The answer is most likely no.

Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org

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