January 8, 2021

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Tycoons selling property amid foreclosures

Optima Ventures, the U.S. real-estate holding company owned by two Ukrainian tycoons under FBI investigation for money laundering, has filed a motion in a court in the U.S. state of Delaware to sell two more buildings in the city of Cleveland amid foreclosure proceedings. Optima Ventures, once the largest commercial real-estate operator in the Midwestern city, is seeking to sell 55 Public Square, a 22-story skyscraper, as well as its stake in the Westin Cleveland Downtown hotel, according to court documents filed on December 24, 2020.  The holding company, which is controlled by Ukrainian billionaires Ihor Kolomoyskiy and Hennadiy Boholyubov, owes about $50 million on the two properties and has failed to make payments in recent months, according to separate lawsuits filed in Cleveland. The United States has accused Mr. Kolomoyskiy and Mr. Boholyubov of buying U.S. assets, including real estate and metals plants, with hundreds of millions of dollars laundered from their Kyiv-based lender PrivatBank. Mr. Kolomoyskiy, who owns media, energy and metals assets, is one of the most powerful magnates in Ukraine. He and Mr. Boholyubov deny the charges and claim they bought the U.S. assets with money received from the sale of a steel business. Ukraine nationalized PrivatBank in 2016 and pumped $5.5 billion into the lender to stave off its bankruptcy. PrivatBank in May 2019 then filed a civil lawsuit in Delaware against the billionaires to recoup the money it claims they stole. The motion to sell the two Cleveland properties was filed as part of those proceedings. The FBI confirmed on August 4, 2020, that it was investigating the two tycoons for embezzlement and money laundering. That probe is continuing, the FBI told RFE/RL earlier this month. Separately, the Justice Department is seeking the forfeiture of two commercial buildings owned by Optima Ventures in Louisville, Kentucky, and Dallas, Texas. Optima Ventures had owned nine commercial buildings in the United States at its peak, including five in Cleveland, making it temporarily the largest commercial real-estate owner in the city. The holding has sold off several of the buildings in recent years. Upon completion of the two sales, Optima Ventures will own just one building in Cleveland as well as the two buildings currently facing forfeiture. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)

 

Iran allocates $150K for MH17 families

Iran says it has allocated $150,000 for the families of each of the 176 victims of a Ukrainian passenger plane that was downed in Iranian airspace nearly a year ago. The Iranian government said in a statement on December 30 that it had approved the payment of “$150,000 or the equivalent in Euros as soon as possible to the families and survivors of each of the victims” of the crash. Ukraine Inter­national Airlines Flight 752 crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran’s main airport on January 8, killing all on board, including many Canadian citizens and permanent residents. Iran admitted days later that its forces accidentally shot down the Kyiv-bound plane after firing two missiles amid heightened tensions with the United States. Iranian Roads and Urban Development Minister Mohammad Eslami told reporters on December 30 that Iran’s final report on the crash had been sent to countries involved in investigating it – Ukraine, the United States, France, Canada, Sweden, Britain, and Germany. Earlier this month, an independent Canadian report accused Iran of not conducting its investigation properly and said that many questions remain unanswered. “The party responsible for the situation is investigating itself, largely in secret. That does not inspire confidence or trust,” said the report, written by the Canadian government’s special counsel on the tragedy. Iranian officials said the country never sought to hide the details about the air disaster or to violate the rights of the victims’ families. Flight 752 was downed the same night that Iran launched a ballistic-missile attack that targeted U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Tehran’s air defenses were on high alert in case of retaliation. Iran’s missile attack was in response to a U.S. drone strike that killed the powerful commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Major General Qasem Soleimani, in Baghdad five days earlier. (RFE/RL’s Radio Farda, with reporting by Reuters)

 

Foundation: Ukrainian prisoner freed in Libya

A Moscow-based foundation with links to the Vagner Group, a Russian military contractor force, says three Russians and one Ukrainian national have been freed from captivity in Libya. Aleksandr Malkevich, head of the Foundation for the Protection of Traditional Values, said on Telegram on January 2 that the four individuals had been “kidnapped” several weeks ago, but did not say why they were in Libya or who had allegedly detained them. The foundation says it is a “a non-profit organization whose activities are aimed at protecting the national interests of the Russian Federation.” Moscow has been accused of supporting mercenaries fighting against the UN-backed Govern­ment of National Accord (GNA) in the Libyan capital, Tripoli. The GNA is vying for power against strongman Khalifa Haftar, who is supported by the United Arab Emirates, Russia, and Egypt. The Vagner Group is believed to be headed by Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin. In October, the European Union and Britain hit Mr. Prigozhin with an asset freeze and travel ban over Russia’s role in Libya’s civil war. Mr. Prigozhin “is engaged in and providing support” for the Vagner Group, threatening Libya’s “peace, stability, and security,” according to the bloc. In December, the Foundation for the Protection of Traditional Values said two of its employees were released in Libya where they had been held since May 2019. Mr. Malkevich said on December 10 that Russian citizens Maksim Shugalei and Samer Khasan Ali Sueifan had been released and would return to Moscow. Libyan authorities said Mr. Shugalei, who is also a lawmaker in Russia’s northern Komi Republic, and his interpreter Mr. Sueifan, were arrested on suspicion of trying to influence elections in Libya, which Russian officials have denied. Mr. Shugalei and the foundation are widely known to have links to the Internet Research Agency, a St. Petersburg-based organization known as the Russian “troll farm.” (RFE/RL’s Russian Service, based on reporting by AFP and Interfax)

 

Crimea, Ukraine suffering from water shortages

Because of Moscow’s complaints against Kyiv, the entire world knows that Russian-occupied Crimea is suffering from a serious water crisis (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2020/12/putin-says-fresh-water-supplies-under.html), but few are aware that the rest of Ukraine is suffering from the same problem. Recognizing that reality is critical not only because of the problems declines in water supplies present to Ukraine now and in the future but also because these shortages both limit what Kyiv in principle might be able to agree on to help Crimea and what new problems Moscow would create if it launched a new military campaign to get water from Ukraine. Vera Balabukh, a climatologist at the Ukrainian Hydro-Meteorological Institute, says that the situation with regard to the availability of water in general and potable water in particular is becoming critical in many parts of Ukraine but especially in the east as a result of human actions (apostrophe.ua/article/society/2020-12-25/v-ukraine -ischezaet-pitevaya-voda-pod-ugrozoy-mnogo-oblastey—klimatolog-vera-balabuh/37016). The climate is always changing, she notes, but now, as a result of human action, “we see happening in the course of a single generation that which earlier took place over the course of 500 years.” Our winters are shortening, our falls lengthening, and our climate shifting in the direction of the Mediterranean pattern. Until very recently, Ms. Balabukh says, experts in Ukraine talked about climate change only as something that would affect the situation in the far distant future. But now, she continues, they understand that this is “a very serious problem” here and now. In some places already, there isn’t enough potable water or even water for agriculture and industry. “In general,” she continued, “Ukraine is not very well supplied with potable water.” (Paul Goble of Window on Eurasia)

 

Serbian president opens section of Russia-led pipeline

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has presided over the ceremonial opening of the Serbian section of the Russia-led Balkan Stream natural-gas pipeline. In a televised event from the settlement of Gospodjinci near Novy Sad on January 1, Mr. Vucic proclaimed the 403-kilometer pipeline segment open. The ceremony had been postponed from December 30 without any explanation. “A big day for Serbia!” Mr. Vucic posted on Instagram. During the event, he praised the project as “key for Serbia’s future development.” Russian Ambassador to Serbia Aleksandr Botsan-Kharchenko, Srbijagas Director-General Dusan Bajatovic, and representatives of Russian gas and construction firms attended the event. Mr. Botsan-Kharchenko said the pipeline will “provide energy security also for the wider region, Central Europe.” The pipeline segment is part of the larger TurkStream pipeline, which supplies Russian natural gas to Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Hungary. Speaking to journalists on December 25, Mr. Vucic said the government plans to extend the pipeline within Serbia to supply gas to the cities of Vranje and Valjevo. “We will lay gas lines to bring new factories and investors there and to supply gas to the population,” he said. Like the Nord Stream pipeline project across the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, TurkStream is intended to divert Russian gas supplies from transiting through Ukraine. In July 2020, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described both projects as “Kremlin tools” to expand European dependence on Russian energy supplies and to undermine Ukraine. In 2019, the United States imposed sanctions against companies involved in both projects. The administration of President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized Germany and other European nations for their reliance on Russian energy supplies. Although it aspires to European Union membership, Serbia is a traditional ally of Russia and has long been dependent on Russian natural gas. (RFE/RL’s Serbian Service, based on reporting by TASS and AP)

 

Meeting of Lublin Triangle to take place in 2021

A meeting of the heads of the foreign affairs ministries of the Lublin Triangle (Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine) will be held in Kyiv in early 2021, Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba said. “Although the ministers did not meet, and there were no bright media reasons to cover the Lublin Triangle, I assure you that the coordinators whom we have appointed worked out during this time the agenda and strategy of the Lublin Triangle, carried out this planned work and from the beginning of the year we will return to creating for you, journalists, a beautiful media channel on the Lublin Triangle. … This will be a meeting of ministers in Kyiv. We agreed on it this fall,” Mr. Kuleba said in an interview with TSN, published on December 30, 2020. The foreign affairs minister pointed out that the ministers would already come up with a list of key areas in which the countries of the Lublin Triangle will agree to interact and implement joint projects. Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine established the Lublin Triangle format in July 2020. (Interfax Ukraine)

 

Orban’s visit to Ukraine remains on agenda

The visit of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to Kyiv and his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy remains on the agenda, Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba said. “This visit has not been removed from the agenda. Moreover, I assure you that the president of Ukraine is ready to hold such a meeting. But it must be meaningful and reset relations. And the task of the diplomats is now to come to this moment. We are open for this meeting. I will say more, we want them to meet, we want to eliminate all misunderstandings with Hungary,” Mr. Kuleba said in an interview with TSN, published on December 30, 2020. According to him, in order to reboot, it is necessary to clearly state that from now on the rules of the game are like this, and both sides agree to these rules. “Mutual respect is based on these rules. I’ll tell you, probably exclusive, I haven’t told anyone about this yet. We received a signal from Hungary that after a significant sharp decline in relations over the past month, they are ready to resume a constructive dialogue. And we will respond positively to this signal. Therefore, with the beginning of a new year, Hungary will be in focus, and we will try to get out of the negativity in which we found ourselves,” Mr. Kuleba said. (Interfax Ukraine)

 

Language status cancellation a violation of human rights

Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language Taras Kremin said that the cancellation of the state Ukrainian language status in the occupied territories is a violation of human rights. “The language legislation was canceled in the occupied territories of Ukraine, which deprived the Ukrainian language of the status of state language. This is not only a primitive imitation of the procedures of the so-called legislative activity of the occupation regime. This is a violation of human rights, of which the PACE deputies, the OSCE High Commissioner have been notified,” he said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine. The ombudsman expressed hope that the information that his secretariat collects together with the Verkhovna Rada Human Rights Commissioner Liudmyla Denisova will become the subject of his annual report in 2021, and will be replicated around the world. “Crimea and Donbas are Ukraine, and the people who live there are Ukrainians. They cannot be separated, including in the language issue,” Mr. Kremin said, answering the question of what the language policy should be in the territories of Donbas and Crimea after de-occupation. When asked whether it would be necessary to adopt certain transitional provisions of the law on the language after the de-occupation of the territories, Mr. Kremin said that this issue is up to the Verkhovna Rada. (Interfax Ukraine)

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