Sweet revenge to Ukraine

The Russian security forces again came with searches for the Lipetsk confectionery factory "Roshen" by the Ukrainian president

On Wednesday, employees of Russian law enforcement agencies blocked the entrance to the territory of the Roshen confectionery factory, owned by Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko, in Lipetsk. "Law enforcement officers in masks do not produce workers from the territory of the factory, it is impossible to go to the factory," the Lipetsk publication Gorod48.ru said. According to the press , the security officers and the leadership team locked the enterprise in the assembly hall of the enterprise. The essence of the claims presented to the enterprise is still incomprehensible. TASS sources said that the appearance of riot police and searches at the factory are associated with the "dispute of economic entities."

These are not the first searches at the Lipetsk factory of Petro Poroshenko. In March last year, security forces also blocked her work as part of a criminal criminal violation. Experts believe that new searches at the confectionery factory are another round of pressure of the Russian authorities to the President of Ukraine.

According to Igor Lugovoy , who observed the events of the journalist of the Lipetsk publication Gorod48.ru, employees of the Moscow units of OMON, FSB and UEBIPK of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia participated in the search at the enterprise:

People from the evening shift were not released home, they were gathered in the assembly hall

- The capture of this factory happened today at 8 in the morning. People from the evening shift were not released home, they were gathered in the assembly hall and there, the entire factory leadership. And those who came to the factory in the morning, at work, were simply not allowed into the enterprise. What is happening there is unknown. We managed to talk only with the head of the legal department of the Roshen factories Elena Armyarova. She was released, she drove out of her car in her car, and I asked her what was happening. She said that it was not clear, some paper was handed over to the chief accountant of the enterprise, what is written there is unknown. And she was only offered: either you stay with everyone here, or you can be free. And we can say that the woman chose freedom. We managed to get through to the deputy director of this factory Konstantin Vakhonin, and he said very briefly that the Investigative Committee of Moscow was working and nothing was presented to him personally. Employees of the FSB in the Lipetsk region left the gates of this factory, journalists know some by person, and the order is provided by the Lipetsk riot police.

Deputy General Director of the Factory Konstantin Vakhonin , to whom Radio Liberty phoned during searches, refused to comment on the situation by redrawing all issues to law enforcement agencies:

We're all right, thanks for calling

- Everything will be fine with us, you don’t worry about us, people have their own work, they will do it, and today we will start. Everything is in order with us, thanks for calling. All.

The head of the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Lipetsk region, Natalya Maslakova, confirmed to Interfax that Moscow security officials are working at the Roshen factory, but she did not explain the essence of the matter.

The press secretary of the confectionery concern Inna Petrenko, in an interview with RS, called the actions of power structures at enterprises in Lipetsk "unlawful and unacceptable", since representatives of Russian power structures "invaded the territory of the corporation in Lipetsk, the village of Sentsovo and the village of Kosyrevka without preliminary notifications". The Roshen website says that if a tax audit is underway in the factory within the framework of the previously put forward claim, then its conduct is in the same way unacceptable and unlawful.

Searches at the Lipetsk factory were already held in March last year. Then investigative actions were carried out as part of a criminal criminal violation. The Russian Corporation "United Confectioners" was charged with "Roshen" a lawsuit about the illegal use of the brand "Swallow". The work of the factory was interrupted for a while, but in October resumed.

However, already in November, the Lipetsk branch, due to the reduction in demand for products, began mass dismissal of employees. More than 400 people were left without work. The day before, it became known that the ninth arbitration court of appeal resigned the decision to refuse "Roshen" in the lawsuit against "united confectioners" on the protection of business reputation.

The corporation, considered one of the world's largest manufacturers of confectionery, was founded by Petro Poroshenko. The President of Ukraine is also the main shareholder of the company. The corporation includes factories in Ukraine, Lithuania, Hungary and Russia. Poroshenko announced his intention to sell his business after taking office of the President of Ukraine, but so far did not .

Ukrainian politician, chairman of the Odessa Regional Council , Alexei Goncharenko, believes that new searches at the factory of Petro Poroshenko are another round of pressure of the Russian authorities to the president of Ukraine:

-I think Poroshenko is well aware of the possibility of such problems, and I do not think that this is some kind of disaster for him. At the same time, for any normal business investor, this is another signal that is a bad thing in Russia, and there is a political expediency, not the law. Therefore, anything can be. They can be accused of industrial espionage - that they stole the recipe for the Squirrel of 1948 or something else. This is all unpredictable, it is just a political story.

"Independent newspaper" reports that the Communist Party faction is preparing a bill on the nationalization of the Lipetsk factory "Roshen". “Given the intense situation with Ukraine, we do not exclude that this money can be used to support the formations of Bandera, that is, to undermine the security of our country. It is necessary to deprive them of such an opportunity,” said the head of the legal service of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Vadim Soloviev. Political scientist Stanislav Belkovsky believes that Petro Poroshenko has already come to terms with the fact that he would lose the Russian part of his business:

- I think that the Russian property of Petro Poroshenko is perceived by Vladimir Putin as one of the levers of pressure on the position of Ukraine. And depending on how, from the point of view of the Kremlin, Poroshenko will behave, good or bad, whether he will be contractual, whether he will agree to provide Crimea, or not to agree with the United States on the supply of lethal weapons, depending on this, the Kremlin will formulate its position on its Russian assets. This is situationally. But it seems to me that Petro Poroshenko had dreamed of becoming the president of Ukraine all his life, and in this sense, although he is a greedy person, like all the capitalists, property for him is secondary, and he seems to have come to terms with the fact that he could lose her. For he has already achieved the main life goal.

In March, Petro Poroshenko himself said in an interview with the Ukrainian television channel "1+1" that "to sell the Roshen Corporation does not give Russian power." “All my actions convincingly prove that it is impossible to put pressure on me in any direction, including in matters of property. Therefore, today the Russian authorities impede this sale,” the Ukrainian president explained, adding that he has neither time nor the right to intervene in the process of selling his business.

Despite the pressure of the Russian authorities, the fines and losses incurred by the Roshen factory in Lipetsk, its sweet products do not disappear from the shelves of stores in Russian cities and is still in demand among consumers.