Refusal of gas

Oleg Deripaska’s lawyers are going to establish a prize fund of 600 thousand dollars for the media that will find out the reasons why the United States imposed sanctions against the businessman. He admitted that he would reduce his share in the group of the gas output from under the restrictions.

As TASS reports on April 16, answering the question of the journalist of the Reuters agency, whether he is ready to reduce his share in the GAZ Group, the largest asset of the Russian Machine machine -building holding, Deripaska replied: “Yes, as was done with En+”. The entrepreneur said that difficult times have come for the Gorky Automobile Plant, and if the sanctions of the West are not lifted, the company will not survive.

Recall, on April 6, 2018, the US Treasury imposed sanctions against 26 people, among whom was Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska. The restrictions were also affected by 15 legal entities, including the “basic element”, GAZ group, as well as EN+ and UC Rusal. The United States excluded En+, Rusal and Eurosibenergo from the sanctions list only after the businessman Oleg Deripaska reduced his share in these companies to 45%. At the same time, restrictions on the Russian himself were in force. In early April, two minor children Oleg Deripaska received 1.64% in the company as a result of a divorce of a businessman with his wife.

Rusal. Bratsk Aluminum Plant / UC Rusal Photo Gallery / Wikimedia Commons

In early spring, the US Treasury Ministry extended the deadline for completing transactions with the Russian Group Holding by July 6, 2019. The same period is valid to get rid of investors from the shares of the company.

In March, Deripaska filed a lawsuit against the Federal Ministry of Finance in the United States, which claims that the US personal sanctions introduced against him were unfair and illegal, and he himself became the “last victim” of the internal political struggle in the United States. The lawsuit also said that due to sanctions, Oleg Deripaska lost $ 7.5 billion.

According to Deripaska, now many suppliers and banks have ceased to work with gas, who are afraid to suffer from the introduction of the so -called secondary sanctions (for violation of the sanctions regime). As an example, he cited the German group Daimler, which ceased cooperation with the Russian company.

Presentation of Gazelle cars Next / AGN "Moscow" / Photo: Vedyashkin Sergey

In early March, it became known that the Volkswagen group suspended negotiations on the purchase of a share in the GAZ group due to sanctions. The General Director of Volkswagen Group Rus Marcus Ozhegovich said that the group is ready to return to the issue after the gas is expelled from the sanctioned SDN list. The Auto Concert developed the exiting plan from the sanctions back in 2018, but did not disclose it. In the fall of 2018, the group restructuring options were discussed at the meeting of the curator of the Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak with the US Ambassador to Russia John Huntsman. According to the Russian official, the government considered various options for the withdrawal of the group from sanctions. “And with the participation of the state, and with the participation of other potential buyers,” he said. One of them is the sale of the share to the Volkswagen group.

In addition, it became known today that Russian billionaires Oleg Deripaska will create a fund of $ 600,000 this week for payments to journalists who will investigate the reasons for the businessman’s sanctions. This was written by the newspaper Financial Times with reference to sources who know about the project. The publication does not give details. And Deripaska, with whom FT discussed his lawsuit against the American authorities, did not mention the project.