While portfolios and financial flows are being divided up in Kyiv, and the terms "reform," "peace," and "revanchism" are being tossed around on various talk shows, while patriots are dying in the ATO zone and citizens are donating their last hryvnia to the army, Mr. R.L. Akhmetov is slowly but surely, like a cancer, taking over the government and business in the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Taking advantage of either agreements with the current government or its impotence, or perhaps both, Rinat Leonidovich has begun actively "subjugating" the regions. More precisely, he has launched an active effort to seize power and strategic assets in the region through economic and political means. As before, Rinat Leonidovich's methods for "expanding his sphere of influence" remain the same and have remained virtually unchanged, with the exception of the fact that, after all, the country is at war. Now, in order to protect his property from the "armed outlaws from the Maidan," Akhmetov actively uses his personal guard with the quite peaceful name "Security Holding."
So what exactly is a "Security Holding"? A quick search reveals that the company, Security Holding LLC, was registered in March 2012 in Donetsk at the same address as R.L. Akhmetov's management company, SCM. The creation of this holding company was linked to the oligarch's concern about the rapidly growing influence of the Yanukovych family and the fear that they would one day covet his assets. As part of the launch of the "holding," SCM security officers actively screened candidates from law enforcement agencies in Donetsk and the Donetsk region, underscoring the status and goals of this firm. The company was registered to Stanislav Melnyk, a member of the Party of Regions (RP) and former CEO of the "famous" company "Lux." Upon learning of Akhmetov's creation of such a significant security organization, Yanukovych's entourage perceived it as an unfriendly move. To avoid exacerbating relations with the "family," the project was shelved. However, the groundwork, personnel reserve, and legal status remained, ensuring that all resources could be mobilized as quickly as possible if necessary. In the spring of 2014, part of this base and resources were used to create two notorious separatist battalions, "Vostok" and "Oplot." The former was often referred to in Donbas as "Akhmetov's personal battalion," which, among other things, guards the oligarch's property in separatist-controlled territories. As for the "Security Holding" itself, with the onset of the ATO, it successfully re-registered in Kyiv and changed owners. These were the former director of the "holding," A. Moskalenko, and the former deputy head of the State Security Service Directorate at the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Donetsk Region, D. Nikolenko. As for the fate of the company's first owner, S. Melnik, according to the official investigative version, he committed suicide in March 2014. I'll just add that this isn't the last mysterious death among the holding's management. In the spring of 2015, the chief accountant of the Security Holding died in a car accident.
In April 2014, the "Security Holding" company won a tender to protect Kyivenergo, a company owned by Akhmetov. At the same time, the company began securing facilities within Rinat Akhmetov's empire located in separatist-controlled territories. Today, the "Security Holding" company manages to conduct business in separatist-controlled territory, where, in addition to directly protecting facilities (Krasnodonugol, Yenakiieve Iron and Steel Works, Metinvest, DTEK, and several other enterprises), it also provides cargo escorts, services for moving cargo through checkpoints, and personal security. How this is possible is a question for the relevant authorities.
But let's return to Akhmetov. To describe his activities in the ATO border regions and the scale of his appetites, I'll focus on two cities: Zaporizhzhia and Kryvyi Rih. Why these two? The answer is simple: Kryvorizhstal and Zaporizhstal. Between them, these plants produce more than half of Ukraine's steel and rolled metal products. What does metallurgy mean to our country? It provides hundreds of thousands of jobs, a significant influx of foreign currency into the country, and significant tax revenues to local and state budgets. Furthermore, Ukrainian metallurgy is a thorn in Russia's side. Our northern neighbor has long dreamed of getting rid of Ukrainian steel on global markets and has been acting in this direction for years.
So, Zaporizhzhia. The city's largest enterprise is Zaporizhstal, a steel mill 50/50 owned by R. L. Akhmetov and Russian businessmen, and logically protected by the same "Security Holding." In the fall of 2015, Rinat Leonidovich's man, Zaporizhstal's chief engineer, V. V. Buryak, won the mayoral election. With the arrival of the new mayor, significant changes began, including in the concept of protecting the city's government institutions. For decades, the police were responsible for protecting government facilities, but with the arrival of the new mayor, a tender was announced, the outcome of which is already known to many. For example, according to activists, today, plainclothes employees of the "Security Holding" are present in the city and regional councils during sessions. The purpose of their presence is to restrict the movement of "undesirable individuals" through the corridors of power and to combat activists and journalists. If necessary, the parliamentary corps will be blocked in the session hall until the necessary decision is made. The actions of these plainclothes "guys" are supervised by Zaporizhstal's Security Director, Tatyana Bushman. She determines when and how the holding's security guards should act, who should be allowed in, and who should not.
A similar situation is expected in Kryvyi Rih, with the only difference being that Kryvorizhstal is currently owned not by Akhmetov, but by Indian Lakshmi Mittal, whose company, ArcelorMittal, is a global leader in the metallurgy market. Apparently, the idea that Kryvorizhstal is someone else's has been haunting Rinat Leonidovych for a long time. For example, in the spring of 2013, Akhmetov and Novinskyi attempted another corporate takeover of the plant. They were actively assisted in this by the local branch of the Communist Party of Ukraine (not surprising, since P. Symonenko and R. Akhmetov are old friends), whose task was to organize protest rallies in the city and at the plant. Another active accomplice in this scheme was Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Oleksandr Vilkul (an old friend and business partner of Novinskyi). The situation surrounding the plant generated considerable media and political attention, and who knows how it would have ended had Europe not intervened. Ultimately, the plant remained with its previous owner, India, and the attackers retreated to lick their wounds and, apparently, prepare for future takeover attempts. As for the plant's operations, they stabilized, and until 2015, everything proceeded as planned, as they say, until changes began to be made to the plant's security service. In the summer of 2015, the plant's security management was almost completely replaced. In early autumn, on the eve of the city mayoral elections, where Yury Vilkul was considered the front-runner, rumors first circulated at the plant that a tender would be held to hire a new security firm with an expanded staff and budget. This news sparked outrage among workers and trade unions, as, at a time when the plant was undergoing another round of layoffs, the owner decided to hire a new security firm, one whose pay was clearly higher than all previous ones. For obvious reasons, Kryvyi Rih residents weren't able to elect a mayor until March 2016, and by then rumors of a tender had died down. However, just a few days after Vilkul's landslide victory, the plant's workers were informed that a new security firm was entering the enterprise… "Security Holding."
This development raises a host of questions and concerns for the future of ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih. The first and foremost question is why the plant's owner would need to hire a security firm with a highly questionable reputation, owned by a direct—and, let's face it, even its only competitor in Ukraine? Either the plant's security service is incompetent and couldn't find any suspicious details in the potential security team's history, or they knew about it but didn't inform the plant's owner for their own reasons. Although... a third option is also possible: Lakshmi Mittal is deliberately bringing Akhmetov's security company into his own crosshairs. For what purpose, it's unclear. However, it should be noted that back in 2014, there was a heated online discussion about a story claiming that representatives of the Russian Federation and separatists had allegedly guaranteed Kolomoisky and Mittal that their enterprises would not be harmed by the fighting. And Abramovich even gave the first of them lifetime season tickets to all Chelsea home matches in the VIP box.
As for Vilkul, I have no doubt he will follow in the footsteps of the mayor of Zaporizhzhia, and in the near future we will see the "Security Holding" protecting the mayor's office, the city council, and other government institutions in Kryvyi Rih. It is also clear that such a heated struggle in Kryvyi Rih was driven solely by the presence of a plant like Kryvorizhstal. I am convinced that we will soon see a new round of struggle for Akhmetov's takeover of the plant, as this is precisely why the elections in Kryvyi Rih cost Rinat Leonidovych so much (on the eve of the elections, Vilkul paid practically every Kryvyi Rih resident 500 hryvnias).
As this article was being written, it became known that Mr. Akhmetov is preparing to take sole control of six energy companies during the week of April 18th to April 25th by holding shareholder meetings: Dniproenergo, Zakhidenergo, Donetskoblenergo, Dniprooblenergo, Kyivenergo, and Krymenergo. Rinat Akhmetov holds a controlling stake in all of these companies, while the state owns 25%.
Today, news also came from Kryvyi Rih, where the city's Department of Ecology, at the direction of Mayor Yury Vilkul, demanded that ArserolMittal Kryvyi Rih address the cause of the exceeded emissions standards. The fight is on!... Or is it ongoing?
I still have questions for the Security Service of Ukraine and other regulatory bodies, namely:
1. Zaporizhstal and Kryvorizhstal are strategic facilities of national importance, representing not only economic value but also posing enormous environmental risks to the local population. What would happen if a terrorist attack occurred at such a plant?
2. If separatists and Russian troops do decide to advance deep into Ukraine, how will the Security Holding, which in a similar situation in 2014 took an active part in supporting separatism in Donbas, react?
3. Should the SBU monitor who exactly factory owners trust to protect their enterprises, and especially who officials trust to protect government institutions?
4. Does the SBU know that Ukraine is Russia's main and only metallurgical competitor in the region, and that Russia has long dreamed of destroying the Ukrainian metallurgical industry? And what will happen if all of Ukraine's major metallurgical enterprises fall into the hands of Akhmetov, or worse, separatists?
5. When will Akhmetov’s actions in the spring of 2014 be assessed and his role in the events taking place in Eastern Ukraine be established?
On the topic: Vadim Novinsky. From Raiders to Peacekeepers
Oleksandr Vilkul: The Forgotten Past of a Dnipropetrovsk Mayoral Candidate
04/14/16 Misha Kvakin
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