Chief of the Ukrainian Presidential Administration Boris Lozhkin openly supports the Russian tobacco company Megapolis, which monopolized 90 percent of tobacco product sales in Ukraine under former President Viktor Yanukovych, according to the famous American tabloid Examiner.
Megapolis under Yanukovych managed to monopolize cigarette sales on the Ukrainian market. The company signed long-term contracts buying almost all products produced in Ukraine by the so-called “Big Four” – British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco, Inc., Imperial Tobacco Group and Philip Morris. Then Megapolis sells them to large and small retailers, taking a large part of the profit.
The Ukrainian distributor Megapolis is a daughter company of the Russian distributor Megapolis, which controls 70 percent of the Russian tobacco market. According to Russian Forbes, the principal co-owners of the group are Igor Kesaev and Sergei Katsiev.
In 2013 they sold a 40 percent share to the transnational cigarette companies Japan Tobacco, Inc. and Philip Morris International for 1.5 USD billion. According to Forbes, a portion of the receipts from the deal were invested in weapons production companies.
In particular, Forbes calls them the “principle owners” of the Degtyarev factory, which produces Kalashnikov assault rifles (AK-47 through AK-103).
The interests of Megapolis in Ukraine’s political world are represented by Ukrainian businessman Boris Kaufman, who has on numerous occasions been linked to the Ukraine’s Presidential Administration chief Boris Lozhkin.
“Journalists of Ukraine-based Radio Svoboda made a special coverage of Kaufman who visited the Presidential Administration at nights”, noted the conservative political expert Ken Kaplan in his blog.
Ukrainian media on several occasions earlier reported on ties between Megapolis and Yanukovych family members.
It is worth noting that the Austrian bank account of Boris Lozhkin was frozen last month. Some USD 130 million had been deposited in the account from fugitive Ukrainian oligarch Serhiy Kurchenko. Austrian authorities are investigating the case on suspicion of money laundering.
“Many people in Ukraine connect the fact that even after the victory of the democratic revolution in Ukraine two years ago there continues to exist a monopoly created by Russian traders of weapons with the Ukrainian partner Megapolis represented by businessman Boris Kaufman.
It was Kaufman who managed under the previous administration to arrange protection from the family of ousted Yanukovych and with Lozhkin when he became the head of the new Presidential Administration.
“I hope that the monopoly position of the Russian company on the Ukrainian market of tobacco distribution will serve as the basis for a serious investigation by the Ukrainian Antimonopoly Committee, and that top Ukrainian bureaucrats supporting the scheme will be punished”, added the expert.