When the government put Kyiv’s central Dnipro Hotel on sale in February, esports entrepreneur Alexander Kokhanovskyy knew he wanted to buy it. However, speculation is rife about where Kokhanovskyy got $41 million to buy the hotel. Rumors persist that Russian money could be in the deal, with some naming Alisher Usmanov, a Russian oligarch close to the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin, as a likely investor in Kokhanovskyy’s acquisition. Kokhanovskyy denied that, despite a common business history.
Editor’s Note: This report is part of the Investigative Hub project, within which the Kyiv Post monitors investigative reports in the Ukrainian media and brings them to the English-speaking audience, as well as produces original investigative stories. The project is supported by the National Endowment for Democracy.