Khortitsa vodka owner Evgeny Chernyak continues to sell alcohol in Russia using a simple scheme.
About a month ago, Ukrainian oligarch and vodka producer Yevgeny Chernyak gave a wonderful gift to Russian propaganda, writes Antikor.
Almost no Russian publication ignored the news that Chernyak's enterprises operating in Russia had changed ownership.
And everyone, from the respectable Kommersant to the tabloid Kompromat, insisted that the change of ownership was a pure formality, aimed at concealing the presence of yet another Ukrainian oligarch in the Russian alcohol market. Unfortunately, the Russian publications are absolutely correct: the change of ownership of the Russkiy Sever distillery in the Vologda region and Rodnik i K distillery in the Moscow region, both part of Chernyak's Global Spirits alcohol holding company and producing Khortytsa, Morosha, and Pervak vodkas in Russia, is a pure formality.
The man who formally became the owner of these factories is a certain Alexander Bespalov. He also acquired ownership of the Megapolis Trading House, the official distributor of the aforementioned vodkas:
Khortitsa vodka owner Evgeny Chernyak continues to sell alcohol in Russia using a simple scheme.
It has not been possible to determine the identity of Alexander Stepanovich Bespalov, who suddenly became the owner of three companies previously owned by the Cypriot offshore companies Oxford AMG-77 Ltd and MSD Marketing System Distribution Ltd. All that is known about him is his ownership of controlling stakes in the listed companies:
Khortitsa vodka owner Evgeny Chernyak continues to sell alcohol in Russia using a simple scheme.
The dates on which the changes in the ownership structure took place suggest that the entire operation was carefully planned, and confirm the unanimous opinion of Russian market experts that the change in ownership is aimed at formally distancing the company from the Chernyak family name.
In addition, it is known that in April Rodnik i K filed applications for registration of the trademarks Shustov, Pervak, and Morosha Lesnaya.
Forbes analyzed the events surrounding the factories that changed hands and even created a chronological chart of the events:
Khortitsa vodka owner Evgeny Chernyak continues to sell alcohol in Russia using a simple scheme.
However, this time-event schedule only confirms all the above facts.
Although the previous owner of all the companies was hidden behind the offshore companies Oxford AMG-77 Ltd and MSD Marketing System Distribution Ltd, the financial statements submitted to the Russian Federation tax authorities by TD Megapolis in 2021 list Ukrainian citizen Alexander Borisovich Chernyak, the father of Yevgeny Chernyak, as the company's beneficiary.
Since, according to the data on the change in the ownership structure of TD Megapolis, 95% of this enterprise's assets were previously held by Oxford AMG-77 Ltd, it can be unequivocally concluded that this same owner controls both Russkiy Sever and Rodnik i K:
Khortitsa vodka owner Evgeny Chernyak continues to sell alcohol in Russia using a simple scheme.
It should also be noted that Evgeny Chernyak has something to lose, and such re-registration of Russian enterprises has a clear economic justification.
Last year, Khortytsya was the leader of the Russian vodka market with a 5,3 percent share, while Morosha was in second place with 4,4 percent. The popularity of these brands was primarily attributed to their relatively low price.
In mid-April, when Chernyak was changing the formal ownership of his Russian businesses, NielsenIQ calculated that vodka sales in Russia had increased: peak sales occurred in mid-March, when retailers sold 10-13 percent more vodka than in the same period last year.
So, from a pure profit standpoint, Yevgeny Chernyak's attempt to retain nearly ten percent of the Russian alcohol market is entirely understandable. From a moral standpoint, it's probably pointless to argue—if someone with a Ukrainian passport believes that a blood-based business is appropriate in this case, then there's no point in trying to prove anything.
The question is: where are the national National Security and Defense Council and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), which so loved to throw around sanctions that sometimes were completely inexplicable from a logical standpoint? But in the case of Yevhen Chernyak, these agencies are strangely silent, even though information about how Chernyak attempted to "de-Ukrainize" his business in Russia emerged back in April.
Khortitsa vodka owner Evgeny Chernyak continues to sell alcohol in Russia using a simple scheme.
Moreover, not only Russian publications wrote about this, but also a number of domestic ones, in particular, an article entitled “Vodka ‘King’ Evgeniy Chernyak Transferred His Assets in the Aggressor Country to a Front Man” (appeared on May 6 on the Antikor portal), and at the same time, an article entitled “Evgeniy Chernyak Transferred His Russian Assets to Some ‘Pound’” was published on the Ukrrudprom website, which, albeit briefly, described the scheme that Evgeniy Chernyak used to distance his Russian assets from his own name.
More than a month has passed since then, but the National Security and Defense Council or other competent authorities have still not made any decisions on this matter. The secret behind the Ukrainian government's "blindness" toward Yevhen Chernyak, a Ukrainian alcohol trader in Russia, remains unknown.
DOSSIER: Yevhen Chernyak, the "Vodka King" of all Ukraine
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