Ukrainian automaker Bogdan, which is owned by President Petro Poroshenko ally and former business partner Oleh Hladkovsky, bought trolleybus engines from a Russian defense company during the Russian-backed war in Ukraine’s east, Radio Liberty’s Schemes investigative show reported on March 23, citing official documents from the Kyiv city administration.
In 2017, Bogdan got a contract to supply 80 trolley buses worth Hr 500 million ($19 million) to the Kyiv city administration.
The trolleybuses’ equipment is partially produced in Russia and partially in Moldova’s breakaway republic of Transnistria, an unrecognized Russian client state.
The trolleybuses’ DTA-2U1 engines are produced by Russia’s Pskov Experimental Mechanical Plant, or PEMZ.
PEMZ supplies military equipment to numerous Russian defense companies.
Vitaly Starosud, Bogdan’s CEO, told Radio Liberty that it had recently stopped buying Russian engines.
Hladkovsky, a deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, told the investigative program that he was not involved in managing Bogdan, despite owning it.
The National Security and Defense Council is tasked with imposing sanctions on Russian businesses. PEMZ does not fall on Ukraine’s list of sanctioned businesses.
Hladkovsky’s business
In June, Ukrainian journalist Oleksandr Dubinsky published what he said were copies of agreements showing Cypriot firm HUDC Holding Limited, which is linked to Hladkovsky, lending money to its Russian auto-making subsidiary Avto Real between September and December 2014, arguing that Hladkovsky was investing in Russia during its war in Ukraine.
Hladkovsky’s office told the Kyiv Post that he “used to have an indirect connection” to HUDC Holding Limited through a different offshore firm but was not involved in managing it. However, his office declined to comment on the Russian business.
HUDC Holding Limited has also sold four used armored Toyota Land Cruiser V8 cars worth $428,000 to state-owned defense company SpecTechnoEksport. The sale was marred by allegations of intentional overpricing, with the government allegedly overpaying by $56,000.
Hladkovsky also managed to receive several lucrative military contracts for his automaker Bogdan, formerly co-owned by Poroshenko, including the supply of 60 military ambulances worth $2 million, according to the Nashi Groshi state procurement watchdog.
In January the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, opened a case against journalist Dubinsky, accusing him of misinforming citizens about security threats. Hladkovsky had previously asked the SBU to open a case against Dubinsky on high treason charges.
Dubinsky sees it as payback for his investigations into Hladkovsky’s alleged businesses in Russia and his alleged graft schemes, whose existence is denied by Hladkovsky.
Other Poroshenko allies
Other Poroshenko allies are also doing business with Russia.
In February Homeric Holdings Limited, an affiliate of Ukrainian invetsment bank ICU, increased its stake in Russia’s Burger King franchise from 18 percent to 35 percent, buying shares from Russia’s state-owned VTB Bank, the RBC news agency reported. ICU is headed by Makar Paseniuk, who had been previously hired to manage the failed sale of Poroshenko’s Roshen confectionary firm, and who has been known to brief journalists on background on the Presidential Administration’s behalf.
Last month, Ukraine’s Anti-Monopoly Committee allowed ICU to buy the Ukrainian subsidiary of Russian railway freight operator Transgarant.
Poroshenko himself owns the Lipetsk confectionary in Russia, which operated until last year and paid taxes to the Russian budget.
Poroshenko owned the Sevastopol Shipyard in Russian-annexed Crimea until 2015, when it was seized by the occupation authorities.
