Maxim Kozitsky and Zinovy Kozitsky: Father under the gas, son in power. Part 2
Gazprom's henchmen Maxim Kozitsky and Zinovy Kozitsky
However, the oldest of Kozitsky's energy enterprises is Geological Bureau Lviv LLC (EDRPOU 31978102), founded back in 2002. Its early history is shrouded in obscurity and the dust of oblivion, and leads, in turn, to the scandalous history of Nadra Ukrainy, the national joint-stock company whose leadership was constantly changing, replaced by one corrupt clan after another. And it's no wonder, as private firms, one of which was Geological Bureau Lviv, have been parasitizing on Nadra Ukrainy from the very beginning. Initially contracted to provide Nadra Ukrainy with some geological exploration services, in 2004, when Petro Demchenko was managing Nadra, Geological Bureau Lviv acquired its own equipment (either purchased or leased) and received a license for its own production. And then Zinovy Kozitsky came into it, investing his capital accumulated in the drug trade.
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It's worth noting that the Geological Bureau Lviv has been the subject of numerous investigations and court proceedings. For example, along with several other private companies, it was involved in the " Onishchenko case ," which the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) never brought to a conclusion.
However, Zinoviy Kozitsky's partnership with the Czech Karel Komárek could have sparked another scandal. For ten years now, Komárek has not only collaborated with Russia's Gazprom , but also helped it build new gas storage facilities in Europe. One of these, being built by Komárek's company, Moravské naftové doly (MND), is designed to "ensure the reliability of Russian gas supplies via the OPAL and Nord Stream pipelines," as stated explicitly on Gazprom's official website . And this is only part of Komárek's extensive partnership with Gazprom and Kremlin politicians, which you can read more about here.
Karl Komarek
Of course, from a business perspective, there doesn't seem to be any criminal element to this. However, Ukraine has been declaring for several years that it is waging a "war against the aggressor," and any ties to Russia are denounced as anti-state attacks. From this perspective, Komarek is a true Kremlin henchman in the "gas blackmail of Europe," advancing Gazprom's interests while bypassing Ukraine. So what should we call Zinoviy Kozytskyi, Komarek's strategic partner? After all, it was thanks to him that Komarek was able to enter Ukraine through his companies Gorizonty , Lviv Geological Bureau, and Prykarpattia Energy Company (36042045), having purchased, according to Skelet.Org , a portion of their shares. Moreover, the process of their business merger began in April 2014 – immediately after the annexation of Crimea and at the very beginning of the war in Donbas! This is hardly a coincidence. And how could a representative of such a family be appointed chairman of the Lviv Regional State Administration? While we're on the subject, why not appoint Ilya Kiva as governor of Kharkiv?
But beyond political issues lie other, more pressing economic questions. For example, in September 2021, at the height of the gas crisis in Europe, the State Service of Subsoil and Geology issued a special permit to Kozytskyi and Komarek's company, Gorizonty, to extract gas in the Mykolaiv district (Lviv region). In other words, the government is cutting state gas production and handing out fields to private companies (some linked to Gazprom), which then resell the gas at exorbitant prices "at market prices," causing an energy collapse for Ukrainians at the very onset of the cold season!
And we're talking about very large volumes of gas. According to Stepan Kozitsky , whom his father appointed to manage the Gorizonty company, the Zakhidnadraservis group alone, which in addition to Gorizonty includes four other companies owned by Kozitsky and Komarek, holds licenses for five gas fields and one oil field, estimated at 12 billion cubic meters of gas and 3 million tons of oil!
His people are in power
The business partnership with the Klyuev brothers , which Zinoviy Kozitsky was accused of, is a thing of the past. However, it demonstrated that, despite the masquerade of "patriots"—the Kozitskys' businesses are full of former and current members of "pro-Ukrainian" parties—money and connections in power are far more important to them than political slogans. His son, Maksym Kozitsky, has diligently adapted to current trends: in 2015, he ran for the regional council as a member of Samopomich, and in 2019, he and his brother Stepan rushed to join the green flag of Servant of the People.
But the most intriguing story, of course, is the long-standing friendship between the Kozytskyi and Shmyhal families, which began many years before Denys Shmyhal's appointment as Prime Minister of Ukraine. It was first mentioned in the media back in 2016. Back then, a bike-sharing company called "NextBike" opened in Lviv, co-owned by Zinoviy Kozytskyi (through the Cypriot company "Ivena Limited") and Kateryna Shmyhal, Denys Shmyhal's wife. "But that's just what's being declared. Shmyhal and the Kozytskyi families also have other businesses in the energy sector," the media reported at the time. The question immediately arose as to when they became so close: when Shmyhal was deputy head of the Lviv Oblast Tax and Duties Department (2014) or earlier, when he was head of the Lviv Regional State Administration's Department of Economy (2009-2011)?
It's therefore unsurprising that when Denys Shmyhal went to Kyiv and became prime minister, he was called not only Akhmetov's protégé (Shmyhal's last job was at DTEK Zakhidenergo) but also something of an Akhmetov protégé. It's especially worth noting that Akhmetov and the Klyuyevs were, at a minimum, allies. Skelet.Org also wants to remind you that in 2019, Denys Shmyhal and Maksym Kozytskyi were two of three candidates for the position of head of the Lviv Regional State Administration. Zelenskyy then approved the third, Markiyan Malskyi, but he served less than six months in the position, after which Maksym Kozytskyi was appointed governor and Denys Shmyhal was appointed prime minister.
But as has been aptly noted, only a small fraction of the Kozitsky family's extensive connections are revealed in journalistic investigations. They have established connections everywhere possible, including within the Prosecutor General's Office. They are so successful, in fact, that, regardless of successive Prosecutor Generals, the Kozitsky family's firms have won multimillion-dollar tenders for technical support of official web portals for years. For example, in December 2014 (under Prosecutor General Yarema ) , contracts were awarded to Finport Technologies Inc., a 42% stake in which is owned by Zinoviy Kozitsky. And in April 2019 (under Prosecutor General Lutsenko), contracts for the websites of almost all regional prosecutor's offices were awarded to Technical Information Service LLC . Its co-founder, Maksym Nechiporuk, is also the director of Finport Technologies Inc.
Therefore, questions like how long Maksym Kozitskyi will remain in his position are essentially meaningless. His family has been leveraging its countless connections in various government bodies for twenty years, so after the resignation of the current Lviv region governor or even the prime minister, they won't lose much—they will be replaced by other acquaintances and relatives. These people will issue the Kozitskyi family new licenses for oil fields, guarantee them new loans for the "development of green energy," and shield them from criminal investigations.
Mikhail Shpolyansky, for Skelet.Org
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