Crimea will be able to repel attacks by Russian raiders on Ukrainian companies in Crimea only until the New Year - Savelyev
Moscow - Simferopol, October 21 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Shtamm) – The Crimean government is struggling to fend off attacks by Russian raiders on private enterprises in Crimea, but if Ukrainian shareholders don't re-register them in Russia by the New Year, the fate of the enterprises will be decided without their participation. This was stated by Russian Minister for Crimean Affairs Oleg Savelyev in an interview with Kommersant.
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“Nationalization, let me remind you, is provided for by law,” Savelyev said. – Many systemically important infrastructure companies in Crimea belong to private individuals. They were asked to re-register and work in the legislative field of the Russian Federation. The problems of these companies create significant risks that the state cannot compensate for in any way—we cannot build a parallel infrastructure of our own. For the purpose of socio-economic stability, the state can introduce external management at such enterprises in order to ensure the livelihoods of citizens.”
In response to a question about the Zaliv plant, where “investors” came from the Zelenodolsk plant, and, in fact, a raider takeover took place, Savelyev admitted that “this is a private enterprise, it was not nationalized. As I understand, the enterprise has been remortgaged against unfulfilled obligations; it is not the property of the Republic of Crimea, nor the Russian Federation, nor the Zelenodolsk plant.”
The minister confirmed that “many people have an interest in Zaliv.” According to him, now “everyone is at the stage of negotiations, including with the holders of the controlling stake, in order to buy it out at a fair price.” “Today, the procedure related to the registration and re-registration of Zaliv has not been completed in Russian law,” says the official, “That’s why no one has taken anything away from anyone yet.” True, the official admitted that “in parallel, work is underway to load the plant, it has great prospects. Another thing is that nothing has been invested there for many years; more than one billion rubles need to be invested to get everything going.”
When asked whether it is true that the management of Crimean enterprises now acts independently of their Ukrainian owners, Oleg Savelyev replied that “management does not have the right to determine ownership,” but at the same time it can determine “how enterprises will develop.”
The minister also admitted that “when we began work on loading enterprises, most Russian counterparties began to raise questions about ownership instead of questions about the fulfillment of contracts: give us the plant, and we will load it.” According to him, “little by little we are able to break this trend.”
However, he recalled, the transitional situation in Crimea ends on January 1, 2015 - “that is, literally tomorrow.” “And all legal entities registered under Ukrainian law will lose the right to operate. There is a PJSC - a public joint stock company, an analogue of our OJSC. He has a register of shareholders in Kyiv, a supervisory board in Kyiv, blocks of shares in Kyiv or somewhere else on the territory of Ukraine, he cannot collect shareholders, he cannot even get their positions. And similar situations occur at most factories, which are objects of strategic interest not only of potential owners, but also of the state - as sources of jobs,” explains the minister.
“They suggest: let’s hold a meeting of shareholders with ten percent of the shares,” continues Oleg Savelyev. “Only this is worse than even going into self-defense, because there could be ten different meetings and the situation will get completely confused.”
“There is another proposal - changing the record,” he describes another scheme proposed to officials. – That is, the creation of details of a Russian legal entity does not change the ownership structure and can be carried out either by management or simply after the fact, as was done with the Russian citizenship of Crimeans. There will simply be a notification that the details, account, and so on have changed.”
“But re-registration should not affect the ownership structure,” argues the Russian Minister for Crimea. – Then you can do whatever you want within the framework of the purchase and sale procedures or nationalization, if you want. For the most part, the state doesn't care. If the shareholder fulfills his functions and does not block the work of the enterprise, everyone claps their hands. The position is agreed upon at all levels. But every second we are faced with problems that arise due to lack of interaction with shareholders,” he emphasizes.