Firtash biography nationality. Dmitry Firtash has a chance to repeat the fate of Pavel Lazarenko

In the village of Sinkov (formerly Bogdanovka), Zaleshchitsky district, Ternopil region of Ukraine.

Graduated from the Krasnolimansk Railway Vocational School and the National Academy of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.

In 1984-1986 it took place conscript service in the Armed Forces of the USSR.
After returning from the army, he founded his own business in the field of trade, first in Chernivtsi, and in the early 1990s he moved to Moscow.

In 1993, the businessman established trade relations with the Central Asian region and organized food supplies in exchange for Turkmen natural gas.

In 2002, Firtash created the company EuralTransGas, which entered into exclusive contracts for the supply of Turkmen gas to Ukraine.

At the same time, Dmitry Firtash began investing in the chemical industry, acquiring the Nitrofert (Estonia) and Tajik Azot (Tajikistan) enterprises that produce mineral fertilizers.

In the spring of 2002, the businessman made an unsuccessful attempt to enter parliament on the list of the All-Ukrainian political association “Women for the Future” (“Women for the Future”).

In 2003, Dmitry Firtash founded the company Emfesz in Hungary to develop gas and energy business, which later received a license to sell natural gas to Poland.

In the same year, he became a shareholder of OJSC Rivneazot, a major manufacturer nitrogen fertilizers in western Ukraine.

In 2004, together with the Russian Gazprom, he created the RosUkrEnergo company to sell natural gas in Ukraine and the countries of the European Union. Gas supplies continued until the end of 2008.

In 2004, Dmitry Firtash acquired the Austrian company Zangas Hoch- und Tiefbau GmbH, specializing in the construction of gas pipelines and infrastructure.

In the same year, he became the main shareholder of the Crimean Soda Plant (Krasnoperekopsk) and Crimean Titan (Armensk).

In 2007, with the aim of consolidating assets in various areas of business, he founded a private international group of companies Group DF (The Firtash Group of Companies), combining assets in the field chemical industry, energy, media, real estate, agricultural, banking and gas sectors.

In 2010-2011, Firtash began the process of merging Ukrainian nitrogen enterprises. The businessman became the owner of the Stirol Concern (Gorlovka), the Severodonetsk Azot Association and the Cherkassy Azot.

In 2010, Group DF launched the Mezhdurechensky mining and processing plant.

In July 2011, Dmitry Firtash became a shareholder of Nadra Bank.

In February 2013, GDF MEDIA LIMITED, part of Dmitry Firtash’s Group DF, acquired INTER MEDIA GROUP LIMITED, which includes the TV channels INTER, INTER+, NTN, K1, MEGA, ENTER-FILM, K2, PIXEL and Zoom.

In 2011, Firtash was elected chairman of the council of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine.

He was Chairman of the National Tripartite Socio-Economic Council (NTSC), Co-Chairman of the Council of Domestic and Foreign Investors under the Ministry of Education and Science, Youth and Sports of Ukraine, and a member of the Committee on Economic Reforms under the President of Ukraine.

Firtash is one of Ukraine's leading philanthropists. He founded the FIRTASH Foundation charity foundation.

Dmitry Firtash's fortune, according to Forbes, is $673 million. The businessman ranks 14th in the Forbes ranking of the 100 richest entrepreneurs in Ukraine.

Awarded the Order of St. Seraphim of Sarov, 2nd degree.

The businessman is married and has three children.

Wife Lada Firtash is the co-founder and chairman of the board of the FIRTASH Foundation.

Firtash was arrested at the request of the United States in Vienna and subsequently released on bail of 125 million euros. The United States has accused a Ukrainian oligarch and five other businessmen of bribing Indian politicians $18.5 million in exchange for mining licenses in India. The indictment requires Firtash to relinquish his stake in Group DF Limited and its assets, including 159 companies in several countries and 41 bank accounts. The formal reason for the participation of US federal prosecutors in the case is that the defendants allegedly used American banks for illegal financial transactions.

Firtash claims that the case brought against him in the United States is fabricated.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Firtash Dmitry Vasilievich(born May 2, 1965, Bogdanovka village, Ternopil region, Ukrainian SSR, USSR) - Ukrainian businessman.

In 1984 he graduated from the Krasnolimansky railway vocational school. In 1984-1986 he served in the Armed Forces of the USSR. Upon returning from the army, he worked as a firefighter in Chernivtsi. Graduated from the National Academy of Internal Affairs of Ukraine with a degree in jurisprudence.

In 1988, he began working in trade in Chernivtsi, then in Moscow. In 1993, he founded his own energy business - established trade relations with the Central Asian region and organized the supply of Turkmen gas to Ukraine in exchange for food products. In 2002, Dmitry Firtash created the Eural TransGas company, which entered into exclusive contracts for the supply of Turkmen gas to Ukraine. At the same time, Dmitry Firtash began investing in the chemical industry, acquiring a controlling stake in the Tajik Azot plant, one of the leading producers of mineral fertilizers in Central Asia.

In 2003, Dmitry Firtash acquired the Nitrofert chemical plant, the only manufacturer of ammonia fertilizers in Estonia with access to the ports of the Baltic Sea. He then created the company Emfesz in Hungary to develop the gas and energy business. Two years later, this company received a license to sell natural gas in Poland. In the same year, Dmitry Firtash became a shareholder of Rivneazot OJSC, a large producer of nitrogen fertilizers in western Ukraine.

In 2004, a Ukrainian businessman, together with Gazprom, created the RosUkrEnergo company to carry out gas transit to Ukraine and the countries of the European Union. In the same year, the Austrian company Zangas Hoch- und Tiefbau GmbH, specializing in the construction of gas pipelines, was acquired. In the same year, Dmitry Firtash became the main investor of the Crimean Soda Plant (Krasnoperekopsk) and Crimean Titan (Armensk). On July 7, 2014, the Russian Gazprom and the Austrian Centragas Holding AG, controlled by Ukrainian businessman Dmitry Firtash, decided to liquidate the company RosUkrEnergo AG (RUE, Switzerland).

In 2007, Group DF (The Firtash Group of Companies) was created with the aim of consolidating asset management in various business areas. It included a number of assets in the chemical industry, energy and real estate. In 2010, to strengthen Ukraine’s position in the global fertilizer market, Dmitry Firtash began the process of merging Ukrainian nitrogen enterprises. In September 2010, he acquired the chemical enterprise PJSC Concern Stirol. In March 2011, the Severodonetsk Azot Association and the Cherkassy Azot were added to its chemical assets.

In July 2011, Dmitry Firtash became the majority shareholder of the large Ukrainian retail bank Nadra. In November 2011, Dmitry Firtash was elected chairman of the council of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine. In February 2013, GDF MEDIA LIMITED, part of Dmitry Firtash’s Group DF, acquired U.A. Inter Media Group Limited (uniting TV channels Inter, Inter+, K1, K2, Mega, NTN, Pixel, Enter-film and Zoom).

On March 12, 2014, Dmitry Firtash was detained by Austrian law enforcement officers in Vienna at the request of the FBI, but in 2015, a Vienna court refused to extradite Firtash to the United States, ruling that the charges against Firtash were politically motivated. On March 21, 2014, he was released on bail, a record for Austria, of 125 million euros, transferred by a Russian businessman and friend of Vladimir Putin. In October 2015, the defense received a court decision allowing Firtash to leave Austria (but the businessman continued to live in this country).

On June 7, 2015, 46 real estate properties belonging to the Ostchem group of companies, part of Group DF, were arrested in Ukraine. Charges were brought against Dmitry Firtash's companies of causing losses to the state in the amount of 5.742 billion hryvnia ($273 million). On February 24, 2017, the Vienna Regional Court rejected the request of the Vienna prosecutor's office to detain Firtash as part of the extradition case to the United States and released him without additional bail.

Married for the third time. He has three children: two daughters (one from his first marriage) and a son.

Dmitry Vasilievich Firtash(born May 2, the village of Bogdanovka (now the village of Sinkov), Zaleshchitsky district, Ternopil region, Ukrainian SSR, USSR - Ukrainian businessman, investor, philanthropist, Head of the Board of Directors of the Group DF Group of Companies, Head of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine, Chairman of the National Tripartite Social -Economic Council under the President of Ukraine (NTSEC), Co-Chairman of the Council of Domestic and Foreign Investors under the Ministry of Education and Science, Youth and Sports of Ukraine.

Biography

Business activity

Fixed Assets

Group DF enterprises and companies operate in Ukraine, Austria, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Tajikistan, Switzerland and Estonia.

The process of asset consolidation continues. Currently, Group DF combines assets in the chemical industry, energy and real estate.

The nature of gas trading is explained on the website of Dmitry Firtash’s group of companies (Group DF)

The enterprises in 11 countries of Europe and Central Asia that are part of Group DF employ over 25 thousand people.

Social activities

Investments

Over the past 15 years, Dmitry Firtash has become one of the leading investors in the energy, chemical and titanium industries in Central and Eastern Europe. His enterprises and companies operate in Ukraine, Austria, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Cyprus, Tajikistan, Switzerland, and Estonia.

Group DF's priorities include investing in the development of production facilities, improving product quality, promoting the comprehensive development of employees and their potential, as well as the development of the regions in which production facilities are located.

The total volume of investments in Rivneazot, Stirol, Severodonetsk and Cherkassy Azots for the period from September 2010 to September 2011 amounted to about UAH 1 billion.

In order to bring Ukraine into the ranks of the largest supplying countries of titanium products, Dmitry Firtash proposed to the Government to create a public-private titanium holding that would unite all titanium enterprises in Ukraine. To expand the raw material base of the titanium industry in Ukraine, Dmitry Firtash’s Group DF launched the Mezhdurechensky mining and processing plant in 2010.

Firtash with his mother Maria Grigorievna

Born on May 2, 1965 in the village of Bogdanovka (now the village of Synkiv), Zaleshchitsky district, Ternopil region. My father was an instructor in DOSAAF, my mother worked as a chief accountant at a sugar factory.

In 1984 he graduated from the Donetsk Railway College.

After serving in the Armed Forces, he got married and worked for some time as a driver in the fire department of the Chernivtsi shoe factory.

Afterwards he went into business in Chernivtsi.

In the early 90s he left for Moscow, where he started doing business.

In the 2002 parliamentary elections, Dmitry Firtash ran for parliament on the list of the All-Ukrainian Political Association “Women for the Future” (No. 12). As a resident of the city of Chernivtsi and director of the KMIL society, he ran for the Ukrainian parliament on the list of the All-Ukrainian political association “Women for the Future,” supervised by Lyudmila Kuchma, the wife of Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. Firtash took 12th place on the list, but the association lost the elections to the Verkhovna Rada. But he did not get into parliament.

In 2006, in the “Top 100” of the most influential people in Ukraine, which are determined annually by the Korrespondent magazine, Dmitry Firtash took 21st position.

In 2007, in the “Top 100” of the most influential people in Ukraine, which are determined annually by the Korrespondent magazine, he took 18th position.

In 2008, he took 20th position in the Top 100 of Korrespondent magazine.

President of Highrock Properties Ltd., a subsidiary of Highrock Holdings Ltd.

Family and connections

Firtash with his wife Lada

The first wife is Lyudmila Grabovetskaya, whom Dmitry knew from childhood. From his first marriage he has a daughter, Ivanna.

Since 2001 he has been married to Maria Kalinovskaya. In 2005, information appeared about their divorce and disputes surrounding property. In 2006, the spouses signed a settlement agreement on the division of property. Children: daughters Ivanna (born 1988) and Anna (born 2005), son Dmitry (born 2007).

Stepson Killer

On May 30, 2007, at dawn in the center of Kyiv, the convertible of Sergei Kalinovsky (Firtash’s stepson) crashed into a policeman’s car standing on the side of the road. Sergei’s beloved girlfriend, sitting next to him in the car, Anastasia Bronnikova, also died. Immediately after the accident, the accused driver was in the hospital, from where he escaped on September 14, 2007.

The former stepson of businessman Dmitry Firtash, Alexander Kalinovsky, admits that the accident for which his brother Sergei Kalinovsky is accused and which resulted in the death of two people could have been organized by Firtash. Kalinovsky said this in an interview with the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda in Ukraine.

He connects what is happening with the fact that his mother decided to enter into a property dispute with Firtash.

Estates

Business dossier

Without entering the university in 1986, Firtash moved to Chernivtsi, got married and for some time worked as a driver in the fire department of the Chernivtsi shoe factory. At the end of the 1980s, he began trading food products - first in Chernivtsi and then in Moscow. During this period, Firtash, according to some sources, became one of the founders of the company "KMIL" ("Kalinovskaya Maria and Lyubov"), which produced canned foods and juices. He called his first major deal the exchange in 1988-1989 of 4 thousand tons of Ukrainian milk powder for a batch of Uzbek cotton, which was then sold in Hong Kong. Firtash earned $50 thousand from this deal.

In 1990, Firtash began working in Moscow, still supplying food. As a result of the search for new markets, Firtash entered into the first contract with the government of Turkmenistan in 1993, providing for barter supplies of food products to the country in exchange for natural gas. Then Firtash sold his goods to Ukrainian businessman Igor Bakai, who had a quota for gas supplies to Ukraine. It was noted that this deal was the beginning of Firtash’s “gas career”. The entrepreneur lived in Ashgabat for most of the 1990s.

After Bakai’s company, according to Firtash, “left the scene,” he continued similar cooperation with the Omraniya company, and later with the large gas trader Itera, which in 2000 invited Firtash to jointly engage in a food-for-food program gas through Cypriot Highrock Holdings and Israeli Highrock Properties.

After a change in the leadership of RAO Gazprom and the weakening of Itera’s position, Firtash’s company Eural Trans Gas (created, according to some sources, in October 2001) managed to take the place of the latter in relations with the Russian gas monopolist in transporting Central Asian gas. Already in November 2001, Eural Trans Gas signed a contract with Gazprom. According to other sources, the company was registered on December 6, 2002 in Hungary. In 2004, the Hermitage Capital Management Ltd fund noted in its report that, under an agreement with Gazprom, Eural Trans Gas has the exclusive right to supply gas from Turkmenistan to Ukraine. It was indicated that Eural Trans Gas received 38 percent of the gas for its services, that is, about 13 billion cubic meters per year. By selling this gas, Eural Trans Gas captured 57 percent of the Ukrainian gas market. According to Hermitage, Eural Trans Gas's net profit in 2003 amounted to $767 million. On the other hand, according to the Eural Trans Gas website, gross profits in 2003 were $220 million.

In April 2006, Firtash officially confirmed his involvement in a 45% stake in RUE. He owns 90% of Centragas Holding, a company that is a joint venture with Gazprom in RosUkrEnergo with equal participation. The remaining 10% of Centragas belongs to his partner, Ukrainian banker Ivan Fursin.

In 2000, according to Dmitry Firtash, one of the leaders of Itera, Igor Makarov, offered him cooperation in establishing control over the entire Turkmen “food for gas” scheme. He agreed to work through a company he controlled, Highrock Holdings. A little later, the government of Turkmenistan demanded not only food, but also money for its gas. These tensions, according to Firtash, became the reason for the break with Igor Makarov.

Afterwards, Dmitry Firtash founded Eural TG, which supplied gas to Ukraine.

Now most of Dmitry Firtash’s assets are included in the investment company Group DF.

He owns the Zangas company, which builds gas pipelines outside Russia. He also owns the Russian company Zangas. Its former owners, Mikhail Cherny and his partners, claim that Firtash owes them $5 million. The latter denies this.

In addition, Firtash owns the Kiev basketball club.

In August 2006, information appeared in the media that Dmitry Firtash’s structures began purchasing two Ukrainian regional gas companies through a friendly broker, Raiffeisen Investments. According to the Delo newspaper, negotiations were conducted with the companies Continuum of Igor Eremeev (controls Lvovgaz, Volyngaz, Rivnegaz and Chernovtsygaz) and Gaztek (controls Zhitomirgaz, Nikolaevgaz, Khmelnytskgaz " and "Tismennitsagaz").

“When I said that we control 75% of the market ( we're talking about about the gas market in Ukraine. – S.R.), I meant that two-thirds of the gas that Ukraine consumes is supplied by RosUkrEnergo. I also said, and this had nothing to do with the previous statement, that we have options to purchase some regional gas companies. Of course, not 75% of all regional gas companies in the country. As for these options, if we decide, we will buy out stakes in these regional gas companies. If not, we won’t buy it,” says Dmitry Vasilyevich (Kommersant-Ukraine, January 20, 2009).

In November 2008, information appeared that Group DF was going to acquire Nadra Bank.

As Dmitry Firtash says, his company has agreed to buy out the share of the second shareholder of Rivnoazot and by the end of 2009 it is planned to complete the development of a project to quadruple the capacity of this enterprise.

In addition, Firtash is interested in metallurgical projects in India, where the group owns an ilmenite ore deposit. In India, Firtash is going to build a complex that will include a block for the production of titanium and metal production. The project is planned to be launched by 2013-2014; its cost was estimated before the crisis at $2.1 billion.

Firtash is credited with owning the Ukrainian TV channels K1 and K2. And Yulia Tymoshenko claims that Dmitry Firtash actually controls the Inter TV channel.

“RosUkrEnergo – enough big company, for us, Ukrainian business has never been profitable. Therefore, if our obligations to supply to Ukraine are lifted, I will be even glad,” says Firtash (Kommersant-Ukraine, January 20, 2009).

New gas intermediary Ostchem

Less than three years have passed since the supply chain Russian gas the scandalous trader RosUkrEnergo, where 45% belonged to Dmitry Firtash, was excluded from Ukraine, as the ghost of an intermediary loomed on the horizon again. The first signs of the businessman’s return to this market appeared back in 2011, when his Ostchem received the right to directly import Russian and Central Asian gas for Mr. Firtash’s chemical enterprises in Ukraine in the amount of about 8 billion cubic meters per year.

Media assets

The new shareholders of Inter Media Group Limited will be companies owned by Dmitry Firtash and Sergey Levochkin. As the Group DF press service told Comments, Inter Media Group Limited, part of Dmitry Firtash's group of companies Group DF, has reached an agreement to acquire Inter Media. Group Limited (Inter TV channel).

After completion of the transaction, Sergey Levochkin transfers the shares of the television group belonging to his company to the management of Inter Media Group Limited.

Thus, Inter Media Group Limited will control 100% of the shares of Inter Media Group Limited. The majority shareholder of Inter Media Group Limited will be Dmitry Firtash's company.

Commenting on the acquisition of assets, Dmitry Firtash said: “We began discussing the idea of ​​acquiring Inter with Sergei Levochkin back in 2006, and then we first discussed this deal with the owner of the channel. Negotiations in several stages lasted throughout this period of time, and I am pleased that we have reached an agreement to close the transaction."

Ratings and status

Areas of interest: oil, gas, electricity, chemistry, finance, real estate. He returned control of the Irshansky Mining and Processing Plant and the Volnogorsk Mining and Metallurgical Plant

Dmitry Firtash is not engaged agriculture, but it is his business that has a powerful influence on the work of the Ukrainian agricultural sector. Especially in spring and autumn, when farmers apply fertilizers to the land, because Firtash owns four of the six Ukrainian nitrogen enterprises: Severodonetsk and Cherkasy Azot, Rivneazot and the Stirol concern. Also No. 5 on the Focus list is controlled by the Estonian “Nitrofert” and the Tajik “Tajikazot”. Having taken all these objects into his own hands, Firtash began to strive for a monopoly and last spring announced the need to create a single consolidated chemical market.

Nitrogen enterprises are Firtash's priority investment targets. Over the past year, the billionaire invested UAH 1 billion in them. As a result, at the beginning of December 2011, at the Gorlovka Stirol, an ammonia workshop was launched, which was idle for three years. Modernization of chemical enterprises made it possible to increase their production capacity up to 110%.

In addition to his activity in nitrogen chemistry, Firtash has begun implementing a large-scale project to develop petrochemical production in Ukraine, where he plans to invest $2.8 billion over the next 5-6 years. Things are also going well in the titanium industry - already this year the oligarch after two years legal battle, he regained control over the largest state-owned enterprises - the Irshansky Mining and Processing Plant and the Volnogorsk Mining and Metallurgical Plant.

Also, last year added a large bank to the list of Firtash’s assets - on April 29, Nadra completed the placement of additional shares in the amount of UAH 3.5 billion, after the purchase of which the businessman became the owner of 89.97% of the bank’s shares. Another investment is the construction of the largest greenhouse complex in western Ukraine in the village of Sinkov, Zaleshchytsy district, Ternopil region, in Firtash’s homeland.

Offshores

Ukrainian businessman Dmitry Firtash was included in the list of owners of offshore bank accounts in Cyprus banks. His name appeared in secret investigative documents from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism, which were leaked onto the Internet.

The documents note that he is a shareholder and director since 2007 of Group DF Limited in the British Virgin Islands.

Operational case

First attempt

On January 2, 1996, a shot rang out in Chernivtsi, the consequences of which could radically change modern history gas relations between Russia and Ukraine. Dmitry Firtash was shot. That night, the establishment celebrated the birthday of the owner’s husband, a respected man in the city, former shop worker Zinovy ​​Matveevich Kalinovsky. The holiday was a great success - the guests drank a lot, told jokes and wished Zuni long life in unison. The party guests left well after midnight.

Dmitry Firtash and Marina Kalinovskaya. The photo was taken after Firtash recovered from his wound.

But there were still a few belated visitors in the hall. Suddenly, one of them, the famous crime boss Oleg Matiego, made a fuss, refusing to pay. Having jumped out into the street, he returned with a pistol and began to threaten the staff with violence for insulting him. Having somehow calmed the client down, the director of the establishment, the brother of Marina Kalinovskaya, together with one of his Moscow comrades, persuaded the violent one to sit down at a table and talk calmly.

“They had just started talking when Dmitry burst into the restaurant. Obviously, this friend of mine from Moscow managed to call him. Dmitry, angry, in a tracksuit, from the doorway began to run into this Matiego,” recalls the director. “And in such situations he was a very harsh guy . He sat down at the table with us and started yelling: “Do you hear, you freak, shoot if you’re so brave! Shoot, but tomorrow they will tear your head off! ". I say, Dmitry calm down, we will come to an agreement with him. No, he says, don’t shut my mouth and continues to scream. And this is stoned and stoned, it seems, he was just waiting for this. Dmitry jumps up and this scumbag - BANG! and shoots! Dmitry fell, he was wounded in the groin area. Everything around was covered in blood - the table, the walls, the floor - everyone was screaming, everyone was panicking...

The sight of blood did not frighten only that same Moscow friend. He was the first to jump up to the wounded man, tore off his pants and inserted two fingers into the wound from which blood was oozing, and with the fingers of his other hand he plugged the exit wound from the bullet.

Second attempt

On October 28, 2010, information appeared in a number of media outlets about an automatic burst of fire towards Dmitry Firtash by businessman Kropivnitsky. At first it was considered a newspaper duck, but two days after the shooting, the chief adviser to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Konstantin Stogniy, confirmed that shooting into the ground by Dmitry Firtash’s neighbor in Koncha-Zaspa, Ushinsky (?), had taken place. Stogny told the Segodnya newspaper about this, commenting on rumors about an alleged attempt on Firtash’s life and shooting near Firtash’s country house in the Obukhovsky district.

“A group of our employees went to the scene. According to the violator, he did not intend to shoot at people. A criminal case was opened under the article “Illegal storage of weapons and ammunition”, because the weapon was not registered, the violator was detained,” Stogniy said.

“On Friday he began to complain about his health, and he was released on his own recognizance,” added the adviser to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the shooter is also charged with hooliganism. He faces up to 7 years in prison.

Firtash’s press service denied information about the assassination attempt on the businessman and claimed that Firtash was actually in the office during the incidents described in the media.

Investigation

Race car driver, Vladislav Kushchinsky, owner of the Autolife network of service stations and tuning centers

It was possible to establish that the shooter was a famous racing driver, Vladislav Kushchinsky, owner of the Autolife network of service stations and tuning centers, a neighbor of Dmitry Firtash.

On October 28, 2010 at 15:46, the information “Firtash was almost killed in a restaurant” appeared on VVnews. Its essence boiled down to the following: they fired at the oligarch with live ammunition, he remained alive, the attacker was detained when leaving Kyiv in the Vyshgorod direction.

A couple of hours later, the portal of the Segodnya newspaper responded. Referring to Oleg Eltsov’s investigative journalism website “Tema”, an alternative point of view on what was happening to ours appeared under the title “No one tried to kill Firtash. An angry neighbor shot near his house.” The different course of events outlined in the material and different from the original composition of the characters was hastily picked up by the media close to Firtash or his business partners. At the same time, the time of publication of the “Topic” was dated October 27, 2010 (14:51)

Why it was necessary to deliberately change the time the article appeared on the Internet became clear from the first lines. “The day before yesterday, at about 10 p.m., 11 shots were fired near Mr. Firtash’s estate in Koncha Zaspa,” insisted a certain Stepanov. That is, shooting in the area where the entrepreneur’s villa was located was allegedly heard no later than Monday, October 25. At the same time, Dmitry Vasilyevich himself, who, according to our initial information, was the main target of the attacker, was not “near the estate.” The text mentions him only indirectly, in passing. And just three times in total: “near Mr. Firtash’s estate,” “Mr. Firtash’s estate,” “Mr. Firtash has the opportunity not to save on the removal of construction waste.”

It turns out that Firtash was not nearby at the time of the shooting. It is precisely this circumstance, obviously, that the producers of the hasty refutation so zealously needed to convey to the readership.

In this case, who or what was the shooting target? Not for anyone, just like that. To the ground...

The direction of the shots is emphasized three times. Only to the ground. And so several times in a row, for convincing. Not into the air, as is usually done in such cases, but into... the ground. And that the most important thing is exclusively “on our own territory” is specially emphasized in the communiqué that came from nowhere.

Why was the character named “Ushinsky” so indignant? The namesake of the great teacher on Monday evening turned out to be unable to bear the presence of construction workers in the neighboring summer cottage, modestly designated as “Firtash’s estate.” “Under the cover of darkness, workers brought timber to Mr. Firtash’s estate in Koncha Zaspa, where large-scale construction is underway. Having unloaded the cars, the builders, with a purpose unknown to us, began to shoot roofing material on the site.” Apparently, they wanted to warm up, so much so that they were not averse to being inspired by the tar stench.

An increased number of alarming “coincidences” and absurdities such as 11 (!) warning shots into the ground forced us to work closely over the past 24 hours to establish true reasons what happened, the identity of the attacker, his type of activity, biography and motives for criminal behavior.

As a result, the transmitted primary information has undergone changes, but the main components of the conflict remain the same. The shots were fired with live ammunition and fired towards Firtash. The shooter is on friendly terms with the oligarch and, indeed, has been involved in the illegal arms trade since the days of Kuchma’s presidency.

"Ushinsky" or Kushchinsky? Why the man who almost killed Dmitry Firtash was called by the fake surname “Ushinsky” and how deliberate such a journalistic technique can be considered, we do not know for certain. Moreover, his occupation and place of work on the Tema website were indicated correctly - the Autolife network of service stations and tuning centers (Autolife-Center LLC). The employees of this enterprise have never heard of a resident of Koncha-Zaspa with the Ukrainian surname Ushinsky, but they know very well about their own owner, Vladislav Kushchinsky, a professional racing driver and former crime boss.

We managed to find out that a regular participant in international competitions, incl. Rally "Paris - Dakar", born in Kharkov. He began to conduct serious business already in Kyiv, when he linked his fate with the first generation of Russian raiders in Ukraine from Igor Shagin’s TOP-Service, and thanks to Oleg Zlochevsky, he joined the friendly SDPU(o) family.

A banal stench at a nearby construction site would never make a world-class athlete lose his temper. And many questions also arise regarding the source of the unpleasant odor. Where does the oligarch get such wayward hired workers? Don’t they really know who lives next door to their customer, and how important relationships with these influential people are to him? We are talking not only about the racing driver Kushchinsky, but also about the long-term first deputy chairman of the board of the National Bank of Ukraine, Anatoly Shapoval, who lives here, to whom Firtash owes a lot, in particular, the favorable outcome of the case with the Nadra bank.

Having plowed up the plot of land with rifle bullets, having steamed with reloading, the auto racing champion, absolutely sober and in his right mind, was so frightened by the roofing felt specialists that he grabbed his wife and ran off aimlessly. The uneducated migrant workers scared him so much.

And to be sure, we are told that the wife is, in addition to everything, “pregnant.” And taken out into nature from stinking Kyiv only that same evening. This makes it easier to understand the absurd attempt to explain what happened “near Mr. Firtash’s estate.”

Meanwhile, it became known that instead of a “stinking fire made of roofing material”, good neighbors in the dacha Dmitry Firtash and Vladislav Kushchinsky at about 16-17 hours of the day had an ordinary friendly drinking session, smoothly flowing into the solution of current business issues. For some reason, a conflict arose at the end. Vlad, being more hot-tempered, rushed to his place for a machine gun and, jerking the bolt, “let a burst go over the heads of his interlocutor and his guards.”

Forensic experts found machine gun casings at Firtash’s dacha, and not in some other place.

I. Stepanov knows nothing about the machine gun and the physical presence of the gas baron at the shooting site. Instead, he features a “gun” and the desperate love of an athlete to shoot at his own feet. What kind of “gun” is this that can fire 11 shots at once?

And if Kushchinsky felt so confident that he stubbornly, several times in a row, without any hurry, reloaded the barrel for as many as 11 shots, then why did he then, having shot plenty of shots in his garden and having listened to a new portion of foul language from the neighboring workers, suddenly got ready and together with the “pregnant” (!) Did he move his wife in all directions?

He’s on “his own territory” (according to I. Stepanov)! Who is he afraid of? Uncouth roofers? Or the numerous guards of the taken aback Firtash?

The shooter-racing driver was detained at about 10 p.m. in the Vyshgorod area. Nothing is said about the current location of the athlete with I. Stepanov. The detainee is being held in the Vyshgorod district police department. A criminal case was initiated under the article “hooliganism”.

RosUkrEnergo

History of creation

According to some publications, in addition to Firtash, the founders of the creation of RosUkrEnergo were businessman Semyon Mogilevich, wanted by the US FBI. At the same time, Firtash allegedly represented the interests of the largest international financial and industrial group in Ukraine, headed by Mogilevich). Firtash himself denied information about this kind of confession, although, according to WikiLeaks, in a private conversation with US Ambassador Taylor, he admitted that, when starting to develop his business, he was forced to interact with representatives of Ukrainian organized crime, including Mogilevich. In January 2008, after Mogilevich’s arrest in Moscow, Firtash’s name reappeared in the press. Mogilevich, who then bore the surname Schneider, was detained by law enforcement agencies together with the owner of the Arbat Prestige chain of perfume stores, Vladimir Nekrasov, and accused of evading taxes and fees from organizations in particular large size. At this time, in the press, Firtash, along with Mogilevich, was called one of the real owners of the Arbat-Prestige network. It was noted that both of them formally had nothing to do with Nekrasov’s company. According to experts, Mogilevich’s arrest was only a pretext for eliminating the businessman and RosUkrEnergo from the market of intermediary services in natural gas trade.

History of the fall

The gas conflict between Russia and Ukraine at the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009 led to the fact that the prime ministers of the two countries, Vladimir Putin and Tymoshenko, agreed to get rid of the intermediary in the person of RosUkrEnergo: gas to Ukraine from 2009 was to be supplied directly by Gazprom. However, Firtash himself stated that RosUkrEnergo will continue to supply gas to consumers in Ukraine and Europe. In addition, according to him, over the years of activity, RosUkrEnergo has actually subsidized the Ukrainian economy in the amount of $5 billion, and the current situation is just an unfortunate episode in the activities of his company. However, already in February 2009 the company stopped supplying gas to Poland.

After concluding bilateral gas agreements, Tymoshenko and Naftogaz of Ukraine tried to withdraw gas belonging to RosUkrEnergo from underground gas storage facilities: this led to another scandal; President Yushchenko and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) opposed the withdrawal of fuel. Although the Russian side supported RosUkrEnergo’s claim in Stockholm arbitration court, gas from the company’s storage facilities remained with Naftogaz. After this, Tymoshenko announced that by the end of the year she would take away control over 75 percent of Ukrainian oblasts from RosUkrEnergo. However, in April 2009, Firtash's gas business was again seriously damaged: the CEO of Emfesz, Istvan Goczi, sold 100 percent of the shares of the Hungarian gas trader to the Swiss-registered company RosGas AG for one dollar, without the owner's knowledge. The formal reason for this was the probable bankruptcy of the company, although, according to Group DF, Emfesz had about $150 million in its accounts at that time. Firtash fired Gozzi but was unable to regain control of his holding's most important company. The case regarding the sale of Emfesz will be considered in the Moscow Arbitration Court. There were rumors that the Russian-Bulgarian gas trader Overgas, which is owned on a parity basis by Gazprom and the Bulgarian businessman Sasho Donchev, was preparing to acquire Emfesz shares. It is noteworthy that at the end of June 2009, Vedomosti published material that before its sale, Emfesz received preferential gas loans from Gazprom with deferred payments for up to a year: this was done contrary to the official export policy of the Russian company.

Problems also began at the Ukrainian enterprises of Group DF: two chemical plants located in Crimea were forced to stop working after Naftogaz stopped supplying them with fuel.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk, presidential candidate

In the fall of 2009, the press wrote that Tymoshenko intended to take away Firtash’s titanium business. In September 2009, a five-year lease agreement for the Irshansky Mining and Processing Plant and the Volnogorsk Mining and Metallurgical Plant, controlled by Crimean Titan, was ending. The Ministry of Industrial Policy decided to create state companies on the basis of these two enterprises and transform them into joint stock companies, and then be included in a new titanium holding - "Titan of Ukraine", the decision to form which was made in February 2009. However, in October of the same year it became known that the lease terms had been extended, and Firtash retained control over both enterprises. Yushchenko blocked the process of creating a holding company, prohibiting it from including one of the key enterprises, the Zaporozhye Titanium-Magnesium Plant, but later he reversed his decision: according to some reports, the President of Ukraine was able to agree with Tymoshenko on Firtash’s entry into Titan of Ukraine. The creation of the holding itself was postponed until the presidential elections in Ukraine. On the eve of the elections themselves, Firtash was called in the press as a sponsor of both the Party of Regions, Yushchenko and Arseniy Yatsenyuk. According to information as of January 2010, he remained the owner of Crimean Titan.

At the end of October 2009, it became known that Emfesz, controlled by Firtash, demanded that RosUkrEnergo pay $1.7 billion: this amount included compensation for lost profits from gas shortages since the beginning of 2009, compensation for damages for the early termination of the supply contract (RosUkrEnergo should was supplying gas to Hungary until 2015) and the debt to Emfesz of its former owner, the Cypriot company Mabofi. In January 2010, the Budapest court invalidated the sale of Emfesz due to the fact that legal standards were violated - some were missing during the transaction necessary documents. This decision, according to Kommersant, could lead to the disclosure of the list of Rosgas beneficiaries.

In February 2010, Yushchenko was replaced as President of Ukraine by Viktor Yanukovych, who served as Prime Minister of the country in 2006-2007, 2004-2005, 2002-2004. In the same month, it became known that Firtash’s “Crimean Titan” agreed on the project proposed by the Cabinet of Ministers for the return of the Irshansky Mining and Processing Plant and the Volnogorsk Mining and Metallurgical Plant, thereby removing obstacles to the creation of the “Titan of Ukraine”. However, already in May 2010, Firtash stated that Titan of Ukraine could not function due to the actual bankruptcy of Sumykhimprom, a member of the holding, and he himself was negotiating with the state about exchanging his titanium assets for shares of Titan of Ukraine.

At the beginning of May 2010, sources close to Gazprom reported that Fursin intended to leave the shareholders of Centragas and was negotiating with Firtash about the sale of shares.

Putin buried Firtash

In June 2010, the Stockholm Arbitration Court ruled that Naftogaz of Ukraine was obliged to return commodity form RosUkrEnergo seized gas from storage facilities, as well as pay a penalty to the gas trader. In total, the court demanded that Naftogaz give the Swiss company 12.1 billion cubic meters of gas. Yuriy Boyko, who returned to the post of Minister of Fuel and Energy at the beginning of 2010, said that the Ukrainian side is not going to return the gas and intends to appeal.

In November 2010, the Hungarian Supreme Court confirmed that the sale of Emfesz was carried out illegally, but it was unknown whether Firtash would be able to return the company to himself.

Gas traders

Firtash's orbits

Semyon Mogilevich

He is one of the FBI's ten most wanted people. According to the assumption of most law enforcement agencies in the EU and US countries, he is one of the leaders of the Russian mafia in the world. According to the FBI, he headed one of the branches Solntsevo organized crime group. Mogilevich, together with Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash and official Yuri Boyko, was called one of those who stood “at the origins of the creation in 2004” of the offshore company RosUkrEnergo.

Mogilevich is a citizen of Russia, Ukraine, Israel, and Hungary. Married (according to some sources, a polygamist), he has four children. IN recent years Mogilevich permanently resides in Russia and Israel. He reportedly has about 15 different passports, but according to the FBI, he uses a Russian passport. In criminal circles in Russia and abroad, he is known as Seva, “Don Simenon” and “The Man with Seven Faces”, as well as under the names Palagnyuk, Telesh and Fisherman.

Yuri Boyko

In May 2005, the US Department of Justice completed its investigation into RosUkrEnergo. Among its owners, the Americans named Yuri Boyk and Russian businessman Semyon Mogilevich. This is confirmed by WikiLeaks documents that were published in Ukraine. Boyko, paired with Firtash, are proteges of the “Red Don” (according to the classification of Western intelligence services) Syoma Mogilevich.

Sergey Levochkin

Levochkin is associated with the creation of RosUkrEnergo, an intermediary structure that supplies gas to Ukraine. Levochkin says that he has never lobbied for this company: “I ... did not lobby, but I don’t want to talk about it” (“Ukrainian Pravda,” April 28, 2006). True, he confirms that he knows one of the co-founders of RosUkrEnergo, Dmitry Firtash, well.

In February 2007, Levochkin even announced that he intended to sue the deputy editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Zerkalo Nedeli” Yulia Mostova, who in one of the publications stated that the current head of Prime Minister Yanukovych’s service participated in the organization and functioning of RosUkrEnergo.

Inter

Owner Inter

Businessman Dmitry Firtash acquired a 61% stake in the Inter media group. This is stated in the report of former US Ambassador William Taylor about the meeting with Dmitry Firtash, which took place on December 8, 2008.

The diplomat noted that the media group is “the owner and co-owner of 7 television channels and the news agency UkrainianNews Agency.”

Khoroshkovsky sold Inter to Firtash

On February 1, 2013, it became known that ex-First Deputy Prime Minister Valery Khoroshkovsky sold U.A. Inter Media Group to billionaire Dmitry Firtash.

The seller of the holding was the company owner K.H. Media Limited, the buyer of Group DF. Notice of change of ownership of U.A. Inter Media Group will announce it soon. Group DF has not yet commented on the information.

U.A. Inter Media Group owns a 61% stake in the largest Ukrainian TV channel Inter, 90% shares in the TV channels Enter Film and Enter Music, 100% of the television channels K1, K2, Megasport, NTN, MTV-Ukraine and the news agency Ukrainian news. Also has other media assets in Ukraine and abroad.

The $2.5 billion that Dmitry Firtash allegedly paid for Inter media group limited may not be a market price, but a political price for one of the most influential media assets in Ukraine. Nikolai Knyazhitsky, former general director of the TV channel, stated this in a commentary to LIGABusinessInform.

Answering the question whether Inter is worth that kind of money, Knyazhitsky said: “The Inter group, according to the media, is unprofitable, it does not bring any profit. This means that the price is created politically. The political price is the price of the political influence of the largest media asset in Ukraine. And political influence is a subjective assessment of the agreements between the parties. If Firtash agreed to a price of 2.5 billion, it means that in his other businesses he expects to receive profits that will cover these expenses."

WikiLeaks

A report by US Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor published by WikiLeaks recounts his meeting with RosUkrEnergo owner Dmitry Firtash on December 8, 2008, during which the oligarch admitted his ties to Russian crime boss Semyon Mogilevich and stated that he supported the third President, Viktor Yushchenko. .

"The essence of what Firtash said was that he did not deny connections with people who are associated with organized crime. Instead, he argued that he was forced to deal with members of the criminal group, including Semyon Mogilevich, and otherwise he would never have built a business," the document says.

In addition, Dmitry Firtash stated that he provided all possible support to Viktor Yushchenko as an unofficial adviser when he was the President of Ukraine.

This information was confirmed from other sources. The former Head of the Secretariat of President Yushchenko, Oleg Rybachuk, in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper, said: “He (Firtash) had no official status. But I know that in January 2006, in the Carpathians, where Yushchenko was vacationing, a meeting was held on the gas crisis, at which Firtash was also present. A narrow circle of people took part in it...”

Let us recall that it was in the winter of 2006 that Yushchenko “blessed” RosUkrEnergo’s entry into the Ukrainian gas market.

Firtash got fabulously rich from the Crisis - WikiLeaks

Official not allowed to travel

The West has already prepared proscription lists of Ukrainian officials who will be denied entry into Europe and the United States. This should be followed by blocking the accounts of Ukrainian officials and oligarchs. "Commander in Chief" published a list of officials who are subject to sanctions, which in itself means that they are becoming an increasingly real threat.

Long before the PACE adopted a resolution on the functioning of democratic institutions in Ukraine, the opposition handed over to the leadership of the United States and the European Union a list of Ukrainian officials to whom sanctions should be applied and entry into the territory of these countries should be prohibited.

Moreover, according to Glavkom sources, the received lists were taken more than seriously both overseas and in the EU. According to information, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton mentioned the possible legalization of such a list at a meeting with Viktor Yanukovych.

VIDEO

Case of operational surveillance

• June 27, 2011 District Court Judge southern district New York City Richard Sullivan summoned co-owner of RosUkrEnergo Dmitry Firtash and ex-Prime Minister and leader of Batkivshchyna Yulia Tymoshenko to court. According to the document, Firtash and Tymoshenko must appear in court on July 22 at 11.45.

In addition, according to the judge's decision, by July 13, the parties must jointly submit a letter in which they provide information about the essence of the claim and defense, justification for why this case, in their opinion, is within the jurisdiction of this court, about preliminary attempts to pre-trial resolve the conflict and estimated duration of the trial. The document also states that the plaintiff must give the defendant a copy of this order.

• On July 1, 2011, the third bill in the last month was registered in the Verkhovna Rada, proposing to exclude titanium enterprises from the list of objects prohibited from privatization, in which Ukrainian businessman Dmitry Firtash is showing interest.

The bill “On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine on Privatization Issues” dated June 24 No. 8723, authored by the Cabinet of Ministers, in particular, proposes to exclude the Irshansky Mining and Processing Plant, the Volnogorsk Mining and Metallurgical Plant, the Zaporozhye Titanium Plant from the list of objects prohibited from privatization. magnesium plant.

2014, Dmitry Vasilyevich Firtash, a gas magnate who is considered one of the richest people Ukraine and the country's most influential oligarch. He was released on a record bail of 125 million euros, but still faces possible extradition to the United States, where he is wanted by the FBI on suspicion of corruption and creating a criminal organization. According to the Federal Bureau, the charges stemmed from an international corruption conspiracy investigation it had been conducting for several years and were not related to events in Ukraine. Firtash's legal representatives issued a statement that he was confident that the arrest was politically motivated and completely groundless. All this raised questions about who he was and why the FBI needed him.

Dmitry Firtash: biography

Few people had heard of this man before his arrest in Austria. According to information on the businessman's website, he was born on 05/02/65 in the village. Bogdanovka (now Sinkov) Zaleshchitsky district, Ternopil region. Ukraine. Dmitry Firtash's parents are Vasily Dmitrievich, a driver, and Maria Grigorievna, who worked as an accountant at a sugar factory. The family received its main income from their plot where they grew tomatoes. After harvesting, father and son hired GAZ and transported vegetables to Belarus and the Baltic states. Dmitry learned to drive as a teenager.

He graduated from the Krasnolimansky railway vocational school, straight from which he went into the army, where he served from 1984 to 1986. Upon his return, he began to think about marriage. Dmitry Firtash met his first wife in the 3rd grade. Lyudmila Grabovetskaya was the daughter of a school principal, and her mother taught mathematics. After the wedding, Firtash decided to get a job at the depot as an electric locomotive driver, but only diesel engines were available. Having bought equipment for greenhouses with his parents’ money, he again began growing tomatoes, and when this became unprofitable, he began breeding arctic foxes, which brought in large profits. During perestroika, the business became unprofitable, and Firtash moved to Chernivtsi, where an uncle he knew got him a job as a fireman. In his free time he was engaged in trade.

In 1989, Firtash’s father became seriously ill and died 2 years later. The fire chief, a family friend, recommended him to his partners - Zinovy ​​and Marina Kalinovsky and Pyotr Moskal. Firtash's biography has received a new vector. They opened the KMIL company, which became the basis of the future RosUkrEnergo. They sold canned food, juices, and sugar. But the biggest profit came from the sale of 4 thousand tons of milk powder to Uzbekistan. Firtash and Marina Kalinovskaya went to negotiate. They were paid in wool, the sale of which brought in 200-250 thousand dollars.

Then Firtash moved to Moscow, where representatives of all former republics sought Soviet Union to exchange their products for essential goods. There he settled in the largest hotel in Europe (before its demolition in 2006) “Russia”. Located near Red Square, it was the city's business center. Here he met a representative of the Ministry of Trade of Turkmenistan, who was responsible for organizing food supplies in exchange for gas. The trade was organized after meeting Igor Bakai (NAK Naftogaz of Ukraine), who had a quota for the supply of blue fuel to Ukraine. Bakay was later replaced by Itera, which was replaced by Eural Transgas, created in 2002.

In 1995, Firtash began to be suspected of smuggling a large batch of alcohol. He started selling vodka after meeting an entrepreneur from the Russian Federation, Oleg Palchikov. He was arrested but later released. And in 1996, after he received it at the “European” restaurant in Chernivtsi and miraculously survived, Firtash and Kalinovskaya decided to take their families to Germany for permanent residence. We traveled along the “Jewish line”. This required documentary proof of one's nationality. Dmitry Firtash and Marina Kalinovskaya lived in Germany until 1999, where they founded the cargo transportation company MDF Transspeditions and established connections with influential Turkmen businessmen and officials.

Gas Baron

Many of the Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs who suddenly appeared on the economic scene after the collapse of the USSR and Ukraine's independence in the early 1990s started with almost nothing and quickly grew in wealth and influence during the country's transition to a market economy. The biography of Firtash was no exception. He founded his own trading company, established commercial ties in Central Asia, and established a food-for-natural-gas barter trade with the region.

In May 2000, KMIL received a license to supply blue fuel to Ukraine, and soon Firtash and Kalinovskaya were offered cooperation by the largest gas trader at that time, Itera. The Cyprus company Highrock Holding Ltd was established in 2001 to supply food to Turkmenistan. Firtash and Kalinovskaya owned 34%, and the same amount belonged to Agatheas Trading, which in 2001-2003. was led by Galina Telesh, the former wife of Semyon Mogilevich. She was later replaced by Firtash himself. In addition, they were connected with Mogilevich by lawyer Zeev Gordon, aka Vladimir Averbukh, who represented the personal and business interests of both.

In 2003, Ukrainian businessman Dmitry Firtash acquired the only plant in Estonia for the production of ammonia fertilizers, established a gas and energy company Emfesz, became one of the shareholders of OJSC Rovnoazot, which is the largest producer of nitrogen fertilizers in western Ukraine.

In 2004, Firtash and controlled Russian state The monopoly Gazprom together established the company RosUkrEnergo, which sold natural gas to the EU countries and Ukraine. At the same time, he became the owner of the Austrian Zangas Hoch und Tiefbau GmbH, whose specialization is the construction of gas pipelines, and also gained control of the Crimean Titan in Armyansk and the Krasnoperekopsk Crimean Soda Plant.

Later in 2007, in order to consolidate management, Firtash created the international group Group DF, whose main activities are the production of fertilizers and titanium, gas distribution, banking, agricultural production, media, energy infrastructure and real estate. The holding operates in Austria, Ukraine, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Switzerland, Tajikistan and Estonia.

Firtash began to gain influence outside the country in 2006, when the company RosUkrEnergo received a monopoly on everything sold from Russia to the Agreement was canceled in 2009 after a controversial contract signed by the prime ministers and Vladimir Putin, which aimed to eliminate middlemen in the gas sector. trade between the two countries. Tymoshenko was later sentenced to 7 years on charges of abuse of office in connection with this agreement.

In addition to business, the Ukrainian oligarch is also involved in charity work. In 2008, the University of Cambridge received $6.7 million from him to launch a research program “aimed at promoting the study of rich cultural heritage Ukraine in the United Kingdom and beyond." In 2010, thanks to his donations, 2 scientific positions were opened: teacher of Ukrainian studies and Ukrainian language.

Does he have political interests?

Although Dmitry Firtash claims that he is not a member of any political party or movement, he is believed to have been close to ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. He was also one of the main lobbyists for Russian interests. This explains the move, which surprised many. In October 2013, the Russian Federation offered Kyiv a discount on gas sold directly to the Osthem company, owned by Firtash, bypassing the state-owned Naftogaz. This was interpreted as an attempt to persuade Ukraine not to sign an Association Agreement with the EU at the Vilnius summit.

Thanks to his geographical location Between Russia, which produces oil and natural gas, and the European countries that consume them, Ukraine truly has strategic importance in the world of energy. According to EU statistics from 2010, a large percentage of energy imports into the EU are of Russian origin, including 35% of oil and 32% of gas. And most of them pass through Ukraine. In other words, the energy security of the European Union largely depends on these two states. Twice in the last decade (in 2006 and 2009), the Russian Federation cut off gas supplies during disputes over prices, which also affected some European countries. Thus, the gas agreement between Ukraine and Russia ensures the security of Europe's energy supply.

Compromising connections

However, all this does not explain the arrest of Dmitry Firtash. In the warrant, the FBI refers to an "international corruption conspiracy" without providing more precise details. The only concrete information is reports of his connections with the leader of the Russian organized crime group, Semyon Mogilevich. According to diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, in 2008 Firtash admitted this during negotiations with the US Ambassador to Kyiv William Taylor, to whom he told that he had asked Mogilevich's permission to create his business. The oligarch explained that in the early 1990s it was impossible to come into contact with government officials without first meeting with members of the organized crime group due to the lawlessness that reigned in Ukraine after the collapse of the USSR. He denied any close relationship with Mogilevich, but admitted that he needed and received Mogilevich's permission to create various enterprises, since it would otherwise have been impossible to do so.

The US considers Mogilevich a leading mafia boss - he is on the 10 most wanted list and is linked to a "multi-million dollar scheme to defraud thousands of stock investors." public company, incorporated in Canada, with headquarters in Newtown, between 1993 and 1998,” but there is no reference to Firtash’s participation.

Offshore "Great Britain"

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs have acquired their wealth primarily through corruption. Because of this method of enrichment, their fortunes are not entirely legal. In this sense, Firtash is no exception. Many oligarchs are free to travel and live as they please. Some have even invested heavily overseas, especially in the United Kingdom. The huge sums the oligarchs are pumping into this country will make it difficult for the UK government to crack down on them, according to The Economist. As long as they do not commit too obvious crimes in Western jurisdiction or directly threaten European or American interests, they are relatively safe. This may be why Firtash is not included in the list of people compiled by the EU after the annexation of Crimea whose assets were frozen on suspicion of misuse of public funds or human rights violations.

Why is he wanted by the FBI?

Firtash's bodyguards in Vienna did not prevent Austrian police from arresting him. The FBI has been on the oligarch's trail for almost 8 years, investigating his possible involvement in an organized crime syndicate. The DF Group, based in Switzerland, confirmed that his arrest was initiated in connection with an investment project that he began in India in 2006. The oligarch is accused of paying 18.5 million to obtain a license out of competition for the development of titanium deposits $.

Under threat of extradition

On February 21, 2017, a court in Austria in the case of Dmitry Firtash granted a request for his extradition to the United States, where he awaits a trial, the consequences of which could affect both Washington and Moscow. Vienna prosecutors subsequently arrested the oligarch after upholding an arrest warrant issued in Spain on charges of money laundering. The Minister of Justice of the Republic of Austria may now have to choose between the American and Spanish requests.

Authorities detained him in March 2014, days after his political patron, pro-Russian politician Viktor Yanukovych, was ousted as Ukraine's president by street protests. Since then, he has remained in Austria, paying a record bail amount of €125 million thanks to a loan provided to him by a Russian businessman close to Russian President Putin.

Spanish media, meanwhile, reported a year earlier that local authorities had filed a request for the extradition of Dmitry Firtash, claiming that he headed a network of enterprises involved in the legalization of illegal income in Catalonia. With two entrepreneurs of Syrian origin, Hares Youssef and his son, he is suspected of laundering 10 million euros through real estate transactions and through a restaurant business owned by companies based in the Virgin Islands and Cyprus. Law enforcement officers found the organization thanks to documents found during a search of the son of ex-mayor of Kyiv L. Chernovetsky Stepan, who was arrested as part of Operation Variola in July 2016.

Trump connection

According to media reports and court materials, 10 years ago, Firtash’s biography was supplemented by the fact of conducting transactions with American property with the participation of American political consultant Paul Manafort, who for some time managed Trump’s election campaign. Manafort stepped back from his role as campaign chairman amid questions about his business and political connections in Ukraine and Russia. Before that, he advised Yanukovych, helping the two-time prime minister become president in 2010. Dmitry Firtash stubbornly denied the incriminating evidence and argued that the United States, which supported the pro-Western post-revolutionary leadership, was fabricating a politically motivated case against him.

Unexpected verdict

A court in Vienna overturned an Austrian court's decision last year to reject the extradition request. According to the judge who upheld the appeal of the lower court's decision, this does not mean that someone is declared guilty without a trial, just that the question of guilt or innocence will be decided in another country. This came as a complete surprise to Firtash and his entourage. Now the extradition of the oligarch to the United States is a mere formality. The final decision on the extradition of Dmitry Firtash must be made by the Minister of Justice, who may “take into account the interests and legal obligations of Austria.”

Gloomy prospects

Even if the United States' request is refused, Vienna may be forced to deport the Ukrainian oligarch to Spain under a European warrant issued in Madrid.

Dmitry Firtash's fortune declined significantly after the post-revolutionary government tightened the gas market. Some of its chemical plants in eastern Ukraine have been closed due to more than three years of fighting by Russian-backed separatists. Forbes estimates Dmitry Firtash's assets at $251 million, although in 2012, according to the same publication, their value reached $673 million. Focus magazine puts the amount at $623 million, although in 2014 it reached $2.7 billion.

Ukrainian citizenship and nationality of Dmitry Firtash will not help him either. Returning to the oligarch's homeland is also risky, especially after the closure of his bank and allegations that his past actions as Russia's partner in the domestic gas market are being investigated and a warrant may be issued for his arrest.

Dmitry Firtash: personal life

He divorced his first wife two years later family life. In this marriage, his daughter Ivanna was born in 1988.

The second time Firtash married his business partner Marina Mikhailovna Kalinovskaya as a guarantee of her investment in his company. The divorce in 2005 was accompanied by a scandal over the division of property. Firtash met Lada Pavlovna, who became his third wife, in 2000. The relationship was officially registered in 2008. Dmitry Firtash’s children from this marriage are daughter Anna (2005) and son Dmitry (2007).

In 2008, together with his wife, he founded the Firtash Foundation, a charitable foundation whose office is located in Leeds, UK. The main direction of its activity is systemic support of education and culture, increasing creative and intellectual potential Ukrainian youth. For example, in 2013, the foundation financed the Days of Ukraine in the UK. In addition, Firtash established a scholarship providing the opportunity to obtain a master's degree at the University of Cambridge, where, with his support, a Ukrainian studies program is being conducted, including a course in the language, culture and history of the country. For his contribution to the development of education, he was awarded an honorary award from the Chancellor of Cambridge.

In 2011, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church awarded him the Order of St. Seraphim of Sarov, 2nd degree, for financing the construction of the Holy Trinity Cathedral in the village. Bancheny Chernivtsi region.