When news reports from the battle for Donbas arrive, a huge number of questions arise. Not only from ordinary citizens, whom the government affectionately calls voters, but also from those currently freezing in the trenches of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. One of the main unspoken questions remains: how, under the military blockade of the occupied territories, do the occupation authorities of the DPR and LPR manage to obtain the necessary resources to survive? One can nod all one's head at the so-called humanitarian convoy, which has arrived from the Russian Federation for the fourth time, but it's clear that half-empty trucks can't carry everything necessary for the functioning of terrorist organizations.
We have obtained fascinating documents from the so-called Ministry of Fuel and Energy of the DPR, which offer insight into the answer to this question. The department is headed by Alexey Ivanovich Granovsky, the former director of the municipal enterprise "City Parking Lots of the Donetsk City Council," who previously served as director of the municipal and commercial enterprise "Mir Cinema." Granovsky's first deputy is Yevgeny Anisimov, whose work history reveals he is a manager at Expodonbass LLC. Sergey Ladygin, director of the fuel department, also held a similar position.
The Director of the Electricity Supply Department is Igor Zakharevich, a man whose career is truly enviable. During the turbulent 1990s, he served as head of security for the Donetsk Control and Control Commission (part of the Delo Vseh enterprise, owned by the well-known Vladimir Shcherban), as the head of various associations of apartment building co-owners in Donetsk and Makeyevka, and as the director of enterprises involved in infrastructure development. Igor Zakharevich's socio-political connections are no less interesting: he is the honorary president of the Association of Heads of Housing Organizations of the City of Makeyevka. Since 2013, he has chaired the Commission on Basic Economic Sectors of the Public Council of the Donetsk Regional State Administration, and since February 2014 (when representatives of all public organizations independent of the Party of Regions left the Public Council), he has been elected deputy chairman of the Public Council under the Donetsk Regional State Administration. Sources link the activities of the aforementioned individual to former Party of Regions deputy Nikolai Levchenko and the same city council secretary, Sergei Bogachev.
The director of the coal industry department, Konstantin Kuzmin, is the former leader of the so-called "Kalmius" miners' battalion, known for his direct involvement in attacks on military units in Donetsk. He also participated in mobilizing workers from the region's mines to join terrorist organizations in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR).
As it turns out, the aforementioned departments of the terrorist ministry not only actively participate in the economic life of the newly formed entity but also control virtually all fuel resources located in the occupied territory. Fuel consumption and reserves in the DPR are monitored daily, and the operation of the gas transportation system and distribution systems in cities and villages is meticulously analyzed.
The DPR leadership even introduced its own excise tax on fuels and lubricants imported into its territory in the amount of 1 hryvnia per liter of fuel, excluding gas.
I'd like to know where the DPR gets its fuel and lubricants, thus replenishing the terrorist organization's budget while simultaneously fueling military equipment that kills Ukrainian citizens and members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Who profits from this business? This question should undoubtedly be addressed to the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine and the Military Prosecutor's Office, as fuel tankers are freely crossing into the occupied territories, mysteriously bypassing checkpoints in liberated territory. And not only by road but also by rail.
We, in turn, are ready to suggest and even illustrate the answer to this question. On September 13, 2014, DPR Minister of Fuel and Energy Alexander Granovsky wrote to DPR Minister of State Security Andrei Pinchuk.
The appeal was prompted by the fact that the company "Eurostandart Avtogaz" (registered in Poltava at 19-b Zinkivska Street) delivered 24 tankers of propane gas for resale to the company "Parallel" on September 11, 2014. Most interestingly, the cargo arrived at the Kalmius railway station, which is geographically located in the city of Makiivka. According to "Minister" Granovsky, enterprising militants from the "Vostok" battalion decided to dispose of the gas at their own discretion, which caused concern for the minister.
Parallel, in turn, is part of a community of companies that forms part of oligarch Rinat Akhmetov's business empire. Operating in terrorist-occupied territory, it not only contributes to the terrorists' budget by paying excise taxes, but also supplies fuel products. Is such activity legal?
The Parallel website is not only a feast for the eyes with its nude photos, but also a report on how many food packages were distributed in the occupied territory by Rinat Akhmetov's foundation. Interestingly, oil and gas product suppliers from Ukraine to the DPR also apparently have no particular qualms. It's pure business, reeking of oil products and blood, and nothing personal.
Stanislav FEDORCHUK, PRO-TEST
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