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DOCUMENTS / KOMMERSANT Daily, AUGUST 20, 2004 |
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// Professionals Have Come to the Company's Aid Business and Power It has come to Kommersant's attention that the Moscow NaftaSib Group has joined the ranks of those offering to help Russian authorities with YUKOS. Unlike others who have offered such services, NaftaSib avoids publicity, but is already active in Russian business and has long-time accounts with YUKOS. Moreover, saving other businesses is already characteristic of NaftaSib stockholders. The company is a partner of the Emerkom agency, part of the Russian Ministry of Emergencies. Two independent sources connected with YUKOS and Sibneft in London have confirmed for Kommersant that the new offers to act as intermediaries have been made. They say that, besides a letter written by former YUKOS manager Konstantin Kagalovsky (see Kommersant, July 24 and August 9), NaftaSib president Aleksandr Kulakovsky and vice president Marina Nevskaya also approached the Russian government with an initiative to take part in the restructuring of the YUKOS debt at the end of July. “On the whole, the NaftaSib proposal is similar to what Kagalovsky had suggested earlier,” one source told Kommersant, “The outline is the same: pay the $8-billion debt in exchange for a controlling share. But I don't know the details.” Unlike Kagalovsky's offer, NaftaSib's has not been made public. At Group MENATEP, the main shareholder in YUKOS, they told Kommersant yesterday that they knew nothing about NaftaSib or their offer. “I don't think it's anything serious,” said Mikhail Brudno, holder of about 7% of YUKOS. Kagalovsky also found out the details from the Kommersant correspondent. “We are the only ones who can realistically come up with that much money for a YUKOS buyout,” he said. At NaftaSib, they had no comment available for Kommersant on its interest in YUKOS. Nevskaya related through the security service that she would make a comment, but then refused to give an interview. Kulakovsky and Nevskaya are not particularly well known in Russia, but are more familiar to Americans. In August 1997, NaftaSib paid for the Moscow leg of US House of Representatives leader Tom DeLay's trip to Moscow. Nevskaya accompanied him in Moscow. It was claimed in the American press that she taught at the Military Diplomatic Academy, where personnel for the Main Intelligence Division of the Russian Joint Staff are trained. In January 1998, before a visit by Viktor Chernomyrdin to the United States, the management of NaftaSib held several meetings with lobbyists, including the American Security Council Foundation (ASCF), as “people close to the circle of Viktor Chernomyrdin” (quoted from an AFSC press release). After that visit, part of the “Gore-Chernomyrdin program,” Russian companies began to work much more actively in Iraq. According to its official report for 2003, NaftaSib is controlled by Kulakovsky and entrepreneur Mikhail Khimich. Their business has direct dealings with YUKOS. NaftaSib owns 77% of SIDANKO-Vostok, the biggest trader for the Angar oil refinery, which is part of YUKOS. NaftaSib-Irkutsk and SIDANKO-Vostok are suppliers of petroleum products to Siberia and the Russian Far East. SIDANKO-Vostok also supplies petroleum products to military units in Irkutsk and exports oil through the port of Nakhodka. SIDANKO-Vostok used to manage SIDANKO assets in the Far East, but most of them were divided between YUKOS, Rosneft and the Alliance Group in 1999 and 2000. In addition, NaftaSib is the co-owner of Unicor Bank in Moscow. It operates development projects in Moscow and owns 90% of the Tula Salt Co. In 2001, the Radiotelemir television company, which Khimich was the head of, launched the 7TV channel (formerly Children's Project). That company was sold a year later by NaftaSib. That company's most noteworthy connection is with the Ministry of Emergencies, however. Official statistics identify NaftaSib as 49% owner of the service companies for that ministry that call themselves Emerkom: Emerkom-Spetsmontazh, Emerkom-Kompleks, Emerkom-Demayning and Emerkom-Avia. Emerkom is the subsidiary of the Emergencies Ministry that provides humanitarian aid. It is in practice the Emergencies Ministry trading company, through which the ministry buys supplies for humanitarian aid. Emerkom also trades in oil. Emerkom is one of the 170 Russian companies on the list received by Kommersant from the US Congress of companies having preferential rights to trade with Iraq within the Oil-for-Food program. According to the Washington Post, that company and Zarubezhneft were accused in 2002 of secretly financing ex-president of Iraq Saddam Hussein. Emerkom does not hide its ties with NaftaSib. Emerkom provided a Kommersant correspondent with a list of telephone numbers for NaftaSib representatives. It is hard to say how NaftaSib's offer will affect the course of events for YUKOS. It is possible that it is all just an attempt by SIDANKO-Vostok to replay the five-year-old scenario at the Angar oil refinery and obtain YUKOS assets in the Far East. On the other hand, there are Brudno's words that, “There are a lot of intermediaries around YUKOS right now whose only goal is profit.” YUKOS press secretary Aleksandr Shadrin told Kommersant that the company has no information about negotiations between NaftaSib and the government. Nor does it have information on any other offers. Kommersant will follow the developments in this story. All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 20, 2004  |
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