Maxim Kozitsky and Zinovy Kozitsky: father at gas, son at power. PART 2
Gazprom’s henchmen Maxim Kozitsky and Zinovy Kozitsky
However, the oldest of Kozitsky’s energy enterprises is Geological Bureau Lvov LLC (USREOU 31978102), established back in 2002. Its early history is covered in darkness and dust of oblivion, and leads, in turn, to the scandalous history of NJSC Nadra Ukraine, whose leadership was constantly changing displaced first by one or other corrupt clans. And no wonder, because from the very beginning “Nadry” was parasitized by private companies, one of which was the “Geological Bureau of Lviv”. At first, it was contracted to provide Nadra Ukraine with some services in the field of geological exploration, and in 2004, when Nadra was managed by Peter Demchenko, the Lvov Geological Bureau acquired its own equipment (either bought it or rented it) and received a license for its own production. And then Zinovy Kozitsky came to it, investing his capital accumulated in the trade in medicines.
START: Zinovy Kozitsky: father at gas, son at power. PART 1
It is worth noting that the “Geological Bureau of Lviv” was involved in many investigations and judicial proceedings. For example, together with a number of other private companies it was involved “Onishchenko case”, which was never brought to an end by NABU.
However, another scandal could be the partnership of Zinovy Kozitsky with the Czech Karl Komárek. Because Komárek has not been easy for ten years now cooperates with the Russian Gazprom”, and helps him create new gas storage facilities in Europe. One of them, being built by Komárek’s company Moravské naftové doly (MND), is designed to “ensure the reliability of Russian gas supplies via the OPAL and Nord Stream gas pipelines,” about which it is directly written on the official website of Gazprom. And this is only part of Komárek’s large-scale partnership with Gazprom and Kremlin politicians, which you can read more about here.
Karl Komarek
Of course, from a business point of view, there seems to be no crime in this. However, Ukraine has been declaring for several years that it is waging a “war with the aggressor”; the country declares any ties with Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) to be anti-state attacks. And from this point of view, Komárek is a real henchman of the Kremlin in the “gas blackmail of Europe”, promoting the interests of Gazprom bypassing Ukraine. What then should we call Zinovy Kozitsky, who is a strategic partner for Komarek: After all, it was thanks to him that Komarek was able to enter Ukraine through his companies “Horizons”“Geological Bureau “Lviv” and “Prykarpattia Energy Company” (36042045), having purchased, according to Skelet.Infopart of their shares. Moreover, the process of their business merger began in April 2014 – immediately after the annexation of Crimea and at the very beginning of the war in Donbass! This is hardly a coincidence. And how could a representative of such a family be appointed chairman of the Lviv Regional State Administration? For that matter, why not appoint Ilya Kiva as governor of Kharkov?
But behind the political issues there are other, more pressing economic issues. For example, in September 2021, already at the height of the gas crisis in Europe, the State Subsoil Service and geologists issued Horizons to the companies of Kozitsky and Komarek special permission for gas production in the Nikolaev region (Lviv region). That is, the government is reducing state gas production and distributing the fields to private companies (also associated with Gazprom), which then resell this gas at exorbitant prices “at market prices,” creating an energy collapse for Ukrainians at the very beginning of the cold weather!
And we are talking about very large volumes of gas. Yes, according to Stepan Kozitskywhom his father put in charge of the Horizons company, only the Zahidnadraservice group, which in addition to Horizons includes 4 more enterprises of Kozitsky and Komarek, has licenses for five gas and one oil areas, estimated at 12 billion cubic meters of gas and 3 million tons oil!
His people are in power
The business partnership with the Klyuev brothers, which was blamed on Zinovy Kozitsky, is a thing of the past. However, it showed that, despite the masquerade of “patriots” – and the Kozitskys’ business is full of former and current members of “pro-Ukrainian” parties – money and connections in power are much more important for them than political slogans. So his son Maxim Kozitsky diligently adapted to current trends: in 2015 he ran for the regional council from Samopomich, and in 2019 he and his brother Stepan rushed to stand under the green flags of Servant of the People.
But the most interesting, of course, is the story of the long-standing friendship between the Kozitsky and Shmygal families, which began many years before the appointment of Denis Shmygal as Prime Minister of Ukraine. First mention it appeared in the media back in 2016. Then the bicycle rental company “NextBike” started operating in Lviv, the co-owners of which were Zinovy Kozitsky (through the Cypriot company “Ivana Limited”) and Ekaterina Shmygal, the wife of Denis Shmygal. “But this is only what is declared. Shmygal and Kozitsky also have another business in the energy sector,” the media reported at the time. The question immediately arose about when they managed to become so close: when Shmygal was the deputy head of the Department of Taxes and Duties of the Lviv Region (2014) or earlier, when he was the head of the Department of Economics of the Lviv Regional State Administration (2009-2011)?
Therefore, it is not surprising that when Denis Shmygal went to Kyiv and became prime minister, he was called not only Akhmetov’s protege (Shmygal’s last place of work was DTEK Zakhidenergo), but also in some way Akhmetov’s protégé. It is especially worth noting that Akhmetov and the Klyuevs were, at a minimum, comrades-in-arms. And also Skelet.Info wants to remind you that in 2019 Denis Shmygal and Maxim Kozitsky were two (out of three) contenders for the post of head of the Lviv Regional State Administration. Then Zelensky approved the third, Markiyan Malsky, but he stayed in this position for less than six months, after which Maxim Kozitsky was appointed governor, and Denis Shmyhal was appointed prime minister.
But as it was correctly noted, only a small fraction of the large-scale connections of the Kozitsky family leaks into journalistic investigations. Which they got for themselves wherever possible, including in the Prosecutor General’s Office. Moreover, they were so successful that, regardless of the change of certain prosecutors general, the Kozitsky firms had been winning multimillion-dollar tenders there for the maintenance of official web portals for years. For example, in December 2014 (under Prosecutor General Yarem) received contracts the company “Finport Technologies Inc”, in which 42% belongs to Zinovy Kozitsky. And in April 2019 (under Prosecutor General Lutsenko), contracts for the websites of almost all regional prosecutors received LLC “Technical Information Service”. Whose co-founder Maxim Nechiporuk is also the director of Finport Technologies Inc.
Therefore, questions like how long Maxim Kozitsky will remain in his position are, in principle, meaningless. His family has been using its countless connections in various government bodies for twenty years, so after the resignation of the current governor of the Lviv region or even the prime minister, they will not lose so much – they will be replaced by other acquaintances and relatives. Which will issue the Kozitskys new licenses for deposits, guarantee them new loans for the “development of green energy” and protect them from criminal investigations.
Mikhail Shpolyansky, for Skelet.Info
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