The head of Chechnya and the President of Rosneft decided to sue the Financial Times due to an article about their conflict. Main

On April 12, Rosneft President Igor Sechin and the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, unexpectedly issued a joint statement about the recent article by Financial Times. The material of the British newspaper speaks of a conflict between the head of the company and the Chechen leader because of the oil enterprises of the region. This confrontation has been known for a long time; Kadyrov regularly expresses dissatisfaction with how Rosneft refers to the republic he head - nevertheless, in response to the publication of FT, Sichin and Kadyrov synchronously threatened the newspaper with a court and accused her of inciting interethnic growth. Medusa talks about this story.

Ramzan Kadyrov has long been dissatisfied with the attitude of Rosneft to Chechnya. The largest Russian oil company produces all oil in the Chechen Republic, but its volume for Rosneft is insignificant - less than half a percent of all production. For Chechnya, the issue of oil, on the contrary, is key: the leader of the Chechen separatists Johar Dudaev and the first president of the Chechen Republic Akhmat Kadyrov were required to return control over the oil sphere; Ramzan Kadyrov continued this line. The Chechen authorities believe that Rosneft does not pay due attention to the oil objects that belong to it - and achieve their transfer to the republic.

Ramzan Kadyrov has long been criticized by Igor Sechin. In 2013, the head of Chechnya was the first politician who sharply negatively responded about the work of Rosneft under the leadership of Igor Sechin. By that time, Sichin led Rosneft for a little less than a year. Kadyrov argued that Grozneftegaz, uniting oil assets in Chechnya (51% of the shares belongs to Rosneft, the rest to the Chechen government), does not fulfill its obligations to the region and does not pay taxes to the local budget. This is true: the licenses for the deposits belonged to Rosneft itself, and not the subsidiary of Grozneftegaz, and the taxes with oil produced were not paid in Chechnya.

Kadyrov then appealed to Sechin's patriotic feelings and demanded that a new oil refinery in Grozny be built in Grozny. “If Sechin is a devoted patriot, Igor Ivanovich, he must once again listen to the speech of our Supreme Commander -in -Chief, the president of the Russian people and start immediately! Immediately begin the construction of an oil refinery, ” said Kadyrov. Kavpolit called the project for the construction of refinery to the Rosneft purely political - he is not particularly needed in Grozny.

In 2015, Sichin and Kadyrov found a common language. At the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, the President of Rosneft and the head of Chechnya signed an agreement on cooperation, which involves an increase in financial assistance for the construction of infrastructure facilities and more close attention of Rosneft to the region. Kadyrov planned to achieve an obligation to build an oil refinery (Chechnya specializes in oil refining, and not just in extraction) and get assurances that the volume of production in the republic will grow - but this was not mentioned in the agreement.

At the end of the same year, by decision of President Vladimir Putin, the Government of Chechnya from Rosneft transferred the company Chechenneftekhimprom, which controls the two oil refineries. Kadyrov personally asked for the transfer of the enterprise, justifying this by the fact that the company is used inefficiently.

Kadyrov again criticized Rosneft at the end of March 2017. This time, the reason for criticizing the main oil company of Russia was the proposal to sell the control package of Rosneft in Grozneftegaz. Sechin's company wants 12.5 billion rubles for 51% of Grozneftegaz shares - this amount is based on the assessment of PWC auditors. Kadyrov considered this amount overpriced and in an interview with the Moscow-24 television channel said that Rosneft was unfair to Chechnya. “[The head of Rosneft Igor] Sechin came to a business from big politics and could look at the Chechen Republic as a post -war region that only builds his economy,” he said .

In the article by Financial Times, only a couple of paragraphs are devoted to the conflict of Sechin and Kadyrov. The material , which caused joint indignation of Sechin and Kadyrov, was released on April 11; It refers to the political future of Russia and conflicts surrounded by Vladimir Putin - as an example, a dispute was given between Sechin and Kadyrov.

The publication claimed that recently this conflict has become aggravated. Journalists brought the words of an informed source: “[Kadyrov] is a terrible person, but the same Igor Ivanovich [Sechin]. Igor Ivanovich is not the person who will be frightened by the words of Kadyrov. ”

“Another person close to Rosneft said that the conflict was aggravated to such an extent that it was necessary to check the“ Chechen trace ”in the terrorist attack in St. Petersburg last Monday, which died 14 people” ( 15 people were killed as a result of the terrorist attack-“Medusa” ), ”the Financial Times also said, and the name of the source, and the name of the source. Reasoning about the "Chechen trace" is not revealed. According to official figures, the investigation did not consider this version.

Sichin and Kadyrov responded to the article with a joint statement. It states that the article was “replicated by resources” financed by the opposition Mikhail Khodorkovsky (in fact, the materials devoted to it can be found in publications that are in no way connected with the former head of “Yukos”).

“The statements of the“ Chechen trace ”, which someone allegedly tries to bring in the course of investigation of terrorist attacks in St. Petersburg, is at least inciting interethnic growth, that is, a criminally punishable act. The participation of one of the leading world business publications, which is FT, in serving the provocations of criminal elements of the so-called “opposition” trying to project their well-known gang experience on the relationship between the republic and the largest Russian corporation, ”the statement said. It also contains a threat to go to court.

The Financial Times said that they are not going to “retreat from the publication”.

Pavel Borisov