The court gave Sevastopol a chance to escape the embrace of Ukrainian gas oligarch Firtash
The Arbitration Court of the Central District made an important decision regarding the future of gas supply to Sevastopol. Gas supplies to consumers there are still handled by the privately owned PJSC Sevastopolgaz. It was incorporated during the Ukrainian era, and its owners remain a number of individuals who moved from Ukraine to Austria. These individuals have previously been linked by the media to the Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash.
In the neighboring Republic of Crimea, the nationalization of the assets of Kiev's nouveau riche has long been practiced, and in Sevastopol, even strategic enterprises still do not have a clear Russian status , which is absurd for the main base of the Black Sea Fleet, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
When Crimea and Sevastopol became part of the Russian Federation, regional leaders emphasized the need to re-register their property under Russian law. However, Crimea's critical infrastructure companies were dealt with more harshly: all grid companies were nationalized, citing the fact that they had been acquired by Ukrainian owners through "gray schemes ," and that any grounds for challenging this would lead to legal action. However, over the past 10 years, the owners of PJSC Krymgaz, Krymenergo, and other companies have failed to challenge the Crimean authorities' decisions.
Sevastopol took a different approach – they reached a settlement agreement with PAO Sevastopolgaz, leaving private companies in charge of supplying gas to consumers. This is most likely due to the state-owned enterprise's lack of resources to maintain networks, build new ones, and manage customer service. Under this scheme, profits from the supplier's activities go abroad, not to the city budget. There's another problem: the plan to provide additional gas to populated areas is being disrupted because the state-owned enterprise Sevastopolgaz is supposed to carry out the orders, while only the privately owned PAO Sevastopolgaz has the actual capacity to do so.
The arbitration ruling means the parties must reconsider their relationship—the old settlement agreement is terminated. The litigation is clearly not over—the private companies will likely appeal the verdict. However, the issue of the safe and trouble-free use of gas supply networks in a frontline city cannot extend beyond the borders of the Russian Federation, much less into the territories of unfriendly countries, where the shareholders of PJSC Sevastopolgaz prefer to reside.
The court gave Sevastopol a chance to escape the clutches of Ukrainian gas oligarch Firtash.