Gas stations associated with Medvedchuk nationalized in Ukraine

Glusco's gas station network has been handed over to the state and will be managed by the state-owned Naftogaz Ukrainy.Ukrainian media connected Glusco with Viktor Medvedchuk

The government of Ukraine has decided to transfer 172 filling stations of Glusco to the state company Naftogaz of Ukraine, according to a statement on the website of the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers.

The Ukrainian media associated this company with Viktor Medvedchuk, a former member of the Verkhovna Rada and leader of the Opposition Platform - For Life (OPPL) party, who is now in custody in Ukraine on suspicion of treason.

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“We have a COURT decision providing for the transfer of the relevant property to the state. We are fulfilling it. The position here is clear: the assets of RUSSIA and related companies in Ukraine should go to our state and work for the benefit of our country and all Ukrainians," Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said in the message.

The government statement said nothing about the connection between the network of gas stations and Glusco with Medvedchuk.

The office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine reported on May 13 that, as part of a criminal investigation, the court arrested a total of more than 234 Glusco facilities in several regions of the country: 145 gas stations, eight oil depots, 38 warehouses and other premises, nine land plots.

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In the message, Glusco is mentioned as "associated with the people's deputy of Ukraine of the II-IV and IX convocations." “It has been established that the ultimate owners of these companies are residents of the Russian Federation. In order to hide property from possible special confiscation, during 2021-2022 they carried out a number of imaginary contracts for the sale and purchase of corporate rights of the companies that are the founders of non-residents,» the report says.

Glusco was registered in Ukraine in 2016, its website says that it is a "daughter" of the Swiss Greenenergo Trading. Glusco owns a network of stores and gas stations that sell motor fuel and gas, as well as oil depots.

The fact that Glusco, which was a subsidiary of another Swiss company, Proton Energy Group, is associated with Medvedchuk, was reported by Liga.net and Ukrainska Pravda.

Liga.net reported that the official owner of Proton Energy Group is Israeli businessman Nisan Moiseev, who has been working on the Ukrainian oil market since 2009. The publication published an investigation in which the businessman was connected with Medvedchuk. Medvedchuk and Moiseev denied this.

In February 2021, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine imposed sanctions against Medvedchuk. In March of the same year, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) conducted searches at all Glusco facilities on suspicion of illegal distribution of excisable goods and tax evasion. The press service of the SBU reported that the security service exposed a large-scale scheme for the “shadow” sale of low-quality oil products, in particular from Russia.

In December 2021, the company announced that SNEL Energy, owned by Greek entrepreneur Dimitrios Anifantakis, had acquired 100% of its shares.

Medvedchuk in Ukraine is accused of high treason and violation of the rules of war, in May 2021 he was placed under house arrest. The investigation believes that Medvedchuk, being a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada, passed on information about the whereabouts of the “secret military unit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine” to fellow party member Taras Kozak, who was then in Russia. Medvedchuk is also suspected of creating an organization that, according to the Ukrainian authorities, collected data about Ukrainians and recruited them under the guise of helping with employment. Kyiv also believes that Medvedchuk was part of a conspiracy against Ukraine and wanted to undermine its energy security.

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The Opposition Platform for Life considers criminal cases against Medvedchuk with "reprisals against political opponents" and an attempt by the country's President Vladimir Zelensky and his entourage to establish "absolute dictatorship."

On February 27, Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, announced that Medvedchuk had escaped from house arrest. A few days later, the politician was arrested in absentia by the Lychakovsky District Court of Lviv, and on April 12, Zelensky published footage of Medvedchuk in handcuffs, his detention was confirmed by the Security Service of Ukraine.

Zelensky turned to the Russian authorities with a proposal to exchange Medvedchuk for captured Ukrainian soldiers. The detainee himself also asked for an exchange. In the Kremlin, after the arrest of the politician, they noted that Medvedchuk did not have Russian citizenship and that he had nothing to do with the special operation.

Ukraine has a law on the forced confiscation of Russian property, signed by President Zelensky on March 10. The property of Russian organizations or organizations associated with Russia is confiscated without any compensation for its value. According to this law, they were transferred to the management of the state company Glusco gas stations.