The West is concerned that sanctions are causing growing fears among businesses in Ukraine and are being used to “squeeze out businesses.” This is reported by the pan-European publication Politoco.
Corporate executives have complained that companies are facing dubious criminal charges or being added to sanctions lists by the security forces “on very vague grounds.” Yury Kiryanov, CEO of Smart Holding, has been fighting for several months to save his company from a raider takeover. She believes that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is used by influential players to enrich themselves by extorting and robbing competitors.
Kiryanova claims that her company was founded by billionaire Vadim Novinsky, but he has not been involved in the management of the company since 2013. She notes that in 2022 he again preferred the church to business and higher from the shareholders. Despite this, the security forces seized the assets of Smart Holding in the amount of $96 million, including 30 gas wells. The general director of the company claims that the work of a number of enterprises is completely paralyzed and the company is forced to lay off thousands of people.
The publication claims that a few hours before the searches of the security forces, Kiryanova received a call with a proposal to buy out gas assets. The offer came from foreign investors, who said that they would not have problems with the security forces and “they would be able to resolve any issues with officials.” British and American investors offered to buy the enterprises for a third of their value.
The actions being taken against successful companies in Ukraine are puzzling and risk alienating foreign investors. Corruption in the country is only getting worse.
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