Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include new information and a comment from DTEK.
The DTEK Group is a company often spoken of in superlatives. It is the largest energy holding company in Ukraine and it belongs to the country’s richest man, oligarch Rinat Akhmetov. It is also believed to have some of the most significant influence on Ukrainian politics.
Now, an investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) alleges that the company lobbied for its preferred candidate to serve as the country’s acting energy minister. According to a transcript of a taped conversation that NABU made public on Dec. 15, a top manager from DTEK told a foreign interlocutor that he wanted a candidate loyal to the company to be chosen to lead the energy ministry. NABU detectives suggest that candidate was Olga Buslavets, who soon got the job.
NABU did not reveal the name of the top manager. But according to two sources familiar with the investigation, who spoke to the Kyiv Post on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak with the press, he was none other than Maksym Tymchenko, DTEK’s CEO.
The Kyiv Post reached out to DTEK to ask about Tymchenko’s alleged involvement. The company did not respond to that question. However, it called the release of information about the conversation “a politically motivated provocation.”
DTEK denied that the company ever pushed for someone’s appointment to a state post.
“The detectives decided to sensationalize the numerous talks between DTEK’s top managers and representatives of Ukraine’s partner countries, international organizations and investment funds about the situation in the energy sector and ways out of the crisis…” the company said in a message. “Unfortunately, detectives twisted possible value judgments and comments to advance baseless accusations and public pressure on the company.”
The transcript and the revelation of Tymchenko’s alleged participation in the conversation emphasize the influence that DTEK exerts on the Ukrainian government. It’s not exactly a surprising conclusion: NABU currently alleges that DTEK influenced energy prices for consumers to benefit its bottom line.
But seldom have individuals outside the company and the government been able to see it play out so clearly.
Telling transcript
According to the transcript, the manager said that, during its next session, the Ukrainian parliament would consider “a female candidate with whom we have a good relationship” for the energy minister position.
The conversation took place in March or April, according to the NABU. On April 16, the parliament voted to appoint Olga Buslavets as head of the energy ministry.
“If she is voted for and she gets the support, this will make our lives much easier,” the DTEK manager said, according to NABU.
“So, she is my last hope,” he added.
According to NABU, the DTEK manager also said that, if Buslavets failed to receive enough votes from lawmakers, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, who worked for DTEK in 2018-2019, would appoint her as deputy minister.
The company is trying to get people it trusts to lead state bodies that are important for its business, NABU detective Denys Gulmagomedov told the Kyiv Post.
“We have evidence that DTEK always focuses on promoting its own people or (other) loyal people to posts in different state bodies and state-owned enterprises and other collegial bodies to ensure that their interests are supported or to block decisions that may harm (the company),” he said.
Unfair formula
Gulmagomedov is among the detectives leading the investigation into the coal pricing scheme known Rotterdam+, which allegedly benefitted DTEK.
Named after the coal hub in the Netherlands, the Rotterdam+ formula regulating energy pricing made Ukrainian energy consumers pay an extra Hr 39 billion ($1.4 billion) for electricity, according to NABU.
Rotterdam+ set energy prices based on the coal index in European hubs “plus” the cost of the coal’s delivery to Ukraine. In fact, most coal consumed by Ukraine came from mines inside the country. The formula ran from 2016 until July 2019.
NABU detectives say they have gathered enough evidence to prove that DTEK, which controls 70% of the country’s coal energy, created the formula and colluded with the regulator to make it law.
Read more: Why authorities are trying to kill key Rotterdam+ investigation
The detectives believe that, after Buslavets became acting energy minister, she worked in favor of DTEK.
Under her, the ministry ordered a decrease in the nuclear energy output, benefitting the coal power producers, the biggest of which is DTEK.
Before her tenure, the ministry agreed that Rotterdam+ was unreasonable. But once Buslavets was in office, the ministry sent NABU a letter withdrawing its previous support for the bureau’s official position on the formula, Gulmagomedov said.
Buslavets faced criticism in Ukrainian media for her alleged loyalty to DTEK. Journalists also reported that she was on good terms with Shmyhal. Buslavets denied the allegations.
“I have never been associated with DTEK or any other company which is a member of the Ukrainian energy market,” she said in a Facebook post on March 27.
On Nov. 20, the parliament fired Buslavets from her post but immediately appointed her the first deputy energy minister.
Prosecutorial struggle
NABU is currently trying to bring the Rotterdam+ case to court. So far, it has not succeeded.
The prosecutor has refused NABU’s requests, saying that the bureau has not found enough evidence. On Dec. 9, he claimed that “we have no right to go to court with the materials we have” in an address before the Verkhovna Rada.
Gulmagomedov and other NABU detectives revealed the backstory to Buslavets’ appointment in an attempt to win the support of parliament.
On Dec. 15, they spoke before lawmakers and attempted to persuade them that NABU had indeed found enough evidence to bring the case against DTEK to court.
