Firtash is accused of stealing 18 billion. Why is Zelensky making nightmares for the oligarchs?

While Zelenskyy is touring Europe, Kyiv is experiencing another round of "tough anti-corruption crackdown." This time, the victims are companies associated with Dmytro Firtash, one of the oligarchs from the old, pre-Maidan era, who has been under house arrest in Vienna for nine years now, facing the threat of deportation to the United States at the request of the FBI.

According to sources in Kyiv, operatives from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Bureau for Economic Security (BES), created shortly after the start of the war, conducted searches of the network of Ukrainian regional gas companies and the Regional Gas Company and E-Energy that manage them.

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_{According to investigators, for years Firtash’s structures sold and resold to themselves fuel that does not exist in nature - in reality, only a third of the gas that appeared on paper in the contracts was rushed back and forth. At the same time, the artificial deficit was covered by state-owned blue fuel, and the money ended up in Firtash’s accounts.}

According to rough estimates, damage to the Ukrainian budget over the past seven years has amounted to 18 billion hryvnias (half a billion dollars at the current exchange rate). The Viennese recluse himself and eight top managers of his companies have been charged in this case, according to the SBU.

This case has been dragging on for several months. Back in March, the same SBU conducted searches at fifteen regional gas companies owned by Firtash. At the time, state-owned Naftogaz was named as the victim of oligarchic machinations – the dealers were embezzling fuel belonging to it.

“The top management of 16 regional gas enterprises in the Kiev, Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk, Lviv, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Volyn, Transcarpathian, Sumy, Rivne, Khmelnitsky, Chernihiv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions, associated with one of the Ukrainian oligarchs, was involved in the organization of the transaction,” – “Izbushka” reported at the beginning of spring.

Among other accusations against gas companies, there was the illegal transfer of funds collected from consumers to offshore accounts. The funds were not used to purchase gas, as stated in the documents, but were instead siphoned off into the shadows. In 2021 alone, the losses amounted to almost 3,5 billion hryvnias.

_{To make it clear to the ignorant reader what scale of structures are involved in fraud cases, I will point out only one fact - regional gas companies, controlled only by Firtashev’s Regional Gas Company, which was affected by the searches, distribute about 70% of all gas in Ukraine.}

Moreover, the threat of nationalization has hung over Firtash's structures since the summer of 2022. Last May, a Ukrainian court seized the corporate rights of 26 regional gas companies under the pretext of their failure to pay UAH 1,5 billion in utility bills to the budget. The seized assets were then transferred to the management of the state-owned Naftogaz, followed by a cavalry attack on Firtash's regional gas companies with the aim of bringing their management under state control.

This attack was only partially successful —the management at Dniprogaz and Kharkivgaz was replaced, but Firtash's lawyers called these actions a "hostile takeover" and challenged them in court. The state responded with a new series of searches, this time at 14 gas distribution companies of Regional Gas Company, part of Firtash's DF-Group. The pretext remained the same: the illegal withdrawal of funds paid for gas consumption.

The RGK itself then burst out with an angry release, calling the searches a “crime against the country”:

“RGK considers the conduct of searches, which were accompanied by flagrant violations of human rights, as putting pressure on employees of critical infrastructure enterprises. The employees were taken out of their workplaces and kept in the corridor under the supervision of machine gunners, they were subjected to psychological pressure, their phones were confiscated and their personal belongings were searched.

In our opinion, the criminal case, which became the reason for the searches, was initiated only for the purpose of putting pressure on the enterprises that JSC NAC Naftogaz of Ukraine, represented by SJSC Chernomorneftegaz, is trying to seize by raider means.

Carrying out such actions during a war against enterprises that provide vital services to millions of Ukrainians is a crime against the country,” the corporate release stated.

And now, once again, searches are being conducted in Firtash's under-nationalized structures – our song is good, start over.

It's worth noting that the Viennese prisoner is not the only target of "educational measures" by anti-corruption intelligence agencies. Similar searches were recently conducted at the offices and home of another "old oligarch," Ihor Kolomoisky. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced the exposure of embezzlement schemes involving 40 billion hryvnias (over $1 billion) at Ukrnafta and Ukrtatnafta, two companies affiliated with him. Former top management of these companies has come under suspicion.

_{However, enough time has passed since then, and there have been no serious consequences for the oligarch enjoying life in Bukovel. From which we can conclude that the true goal of these actions is not to dispossess the kulaks, much less to imprison the main defendant, but simply to “keep him on his toes”, from time to time reminding him who is boss and stopping attempts to “sew at home” - then I mean, engage in political intrigue in the Rada against the will of Bankova.}

Firtash is likely the same story . It's no secret that the disgraced Viennese oligarch still maintains significant political connections, both in Ukraine and abroad. And it's not just the fragment of the banned Opposition Platform - For Life party led by Yuriy Boyko. According to a common belief in Kyiv circles, Firtash is behind the promotion of the solo political project of Oleksiy Arestovich, the regime's former top propagandist who has gone independent.

Firtash also has influence over the website "Strana," which is banned in Ukraine but still operates online, and its YouTube projects . Several smaller media outlets in the same network are currently on hold, awaiting a change in the political winds at the top.

The attack on Firtash may also be connected to the escalation of infighting within Bankova itself. According to Kyiv's swashbucklers, Zelenskyy's chief administrator has a good, albeit unpublicized, personal relationship with Firtash himself and his associates Boyko and Lyovochkin, who, by their own admission, actively support Bankova's initiatives in the Rada.

However, this tandem, like Yermak himself, is actively disliked by many in Zelenskyy's circle, and now the "King of the Hill" game is once again escalating among Kyiv's elite— this time, they're targeting Yermak himself. Therefore, the attack on his satellites could very well be aimed at weakening the chief administrator's influence.

Globally, without going into detail, the attack on Firtash fits into the same pattern as the recent confiscation of multi-billion dollar gas assets belonging to another disgraced oligarch, Rinat Akhmetov's partner Vadym Novinsky , against whom the National Security and Defense Council imposed personal sanctions at the end of last year and who was forced to resign his parliamentary mandate out of harm's way.

_{The Zelensky regime is quite consistent in its declared de-oligarchization, using it not only as a good reason to transfer the assets of the old oligarchs to the “friends of Bankova,” but also to deprive them of any political and media influence. From now on, the former oligarchic freedom has come to an end in Ukraine and only one center of influence remains - Zelensky himself and his immediate circle.}

_{Everyone else who, out of old memory, is trying to return to the top political league, is given a preemptive slap on the wrist. Fortunately, there will always be legitimate reasons for this in Ukrainian realities. If desired, anyone from the top league of Ukrainian business can be put behind bars for a long time. Well, or hang him on a hook with the help of such a threat.}