Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Leaked documents from the Russian occupation authority in the Kherson region show the arbitrary and likely extremely corrupt process by which Russian companies get approval to take over and loot Ukrainian firms in occupied regions. ⬇️

2/ Russia controls, fully or partially, five regions of Ukraine:
- Luhansk and Donetsk, controlled by Russian puppet 'People's Republics';
- Crimea, annexed into Russia proper since 2014;
- and Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, ruled by Russian 'military-civil administrations' (VGAs).

3/ A billionaire Russian businessman is reported to have planned in detail a takeover of the newly occupied territories' biggest industrial concerns. However, there are thousands of much smaller businesses that have been left abandoned due to the invasion.

https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1619990400508510208

4/ The VGAs are the means by which Russia has established administrative control of the occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. Documents obtained by the independent Russian media outlet ASTRA illustrate how the Kherson VGA has 'redistributed' Ukrainian businesses.

5/ As ASTRA summarises, "a formal “offer of cooperation” from any Russian company loyal to the occupying “authority” was enough [to transfer a Ukrainian company]. No experience, skills or professional competencies are required for this."

6/ The result is, as ASTRA says, that "a hand-picked company becomes the "owner" of someone else's property and does with it as it sees fit."

7/ Some of the leaked documents relate to the Kherson branch of a Ukrainian agricultural machinery business called Tekhnotorg LLC, located on the main highway just outside Kherson city.

8/ A Moscow-based company named Kvantum-M wrote to the Kherson VGA, offering to 'help' with "accounting for the storage and safety of property ... of enterprises that have not passed re-registration and suspended their activities on the territory of the Kherson region".

9/ In particular, Kvantum-M sought to take over Tehknotorg's Kherson branch to "guarantee the preservation of the property, [and] ensure uninterrupted work, taking into account the existing procedures and regulations on the territory of the Kherson region".

10/ The then head of the VGA, Vladimir Saldo, responded by appointing Kvantum-M's owner, Andrey Krysanov, to be the "single operator" of the "orphaned property". Krysanov was also given control of the Kherson Bread Products Combine.

11/ However, Kvantum-M seems to have been a shell company. It was dissolved on 6 February 2023 after the liberation of Kherson.

As a Ukrainian anti-corruption expert puts it, Krysanov is "the owner of Russian companies that have had no business operations."

12/ "His firms do not show any experience or employees. He looks like a figurehead. His only argument for participation is 'I have a company registered in Moscow'. Of course, this form of property transfer has high corruption risks."

13/ "In essence, the seized property of Ukrainian companies is being stolen through a transfer into temporary administration by a hand-picked company. When this asset has to be returned, only the name and debts are likely to remain from it."

14/ It's possible that Kvantum-M was simply created to loot Ukrainian assets under a guise of bureaucratic legality, with someone else – possibly even officials in the VGA – being the ultimate beneficiary. Tekhnotorg, which was in the liberated territory, was completely stripped.

15/ The company says: "When Kherson was de-occupied, we were able to drive into the compound of the business and saw only ruins. Everything in our branch was looted, destroyed, beaten up. A few cars were left, they had been beaten with axes or sticks."

16/ A similar scheme seems to have been used to loot PJSC Chumak, a manufacturer of tomato paste and canned food. It was transferred to Alexander Krysanov, a business partner (and relative?) of Andrey. He told ASTRA that everything was fine and production had only fallen 15%.

17/ Despite his claims, residents of the nearby town of Kakhovka say that Chumak is not operating and its property has been "plundered". A former worker at the factory says:

18/ "Like me, many of my colleagues were forced to leave the Kherson region. After all, it was both scary and dangerous to stay in a place where Russians were constantly stealing, torturing and killing people."

19/ "I know that highly qualified specialists also left the region, without whom the production facilities of the enterprise cannot work at all now."

20/ Other Russian businesses have also taken over seized Ukrainian firms. All branches of private Ukrainian post and delivery company Nova Poshta in the occupied Kherson region were transferred to the management of the Crimean company Lazurny Coast LLC.

21/ However, Lazurny Coast's head says that her commercial director's plans for the company haven't worked out and she is in the process of liquidating it.

22/ Some new Russian 'owners' have publicly shown off their new properties. The Kherson VGA has transferred the Arabatska Strilka hotel and holiday complex, a popular attraction before the war, to the directorship of Sergei Dobrovolsky, who has given interviews to Russia's media.

23/ As human rights lawyer Olga Timiryova points out, such forced transfers of Ukrainian property likely violates international law. Notably, the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 explicitly prohibits the looting of civilian property during wartime.
ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-i…

24/ Unclaimed property is meant to be moved to the custody of a Custodian of Enemy Property, to be handled until returned to its owners. As Timiryova points out, the new Russian 'owners' are likely to find themselves open to prosecution for looting. /end

Source:
telegra.ph/EHto-nelyudi-v…