“Putin handed over the Ilyich plant in Mariupol to the looting of the “Kadyrov clan” — WSJ October 21, 20:45 Share: Mariupol, May 2022 (Photo: REUTERS/Pavel Klimov/File Photo) The Kremlin regime handed over the Ilyich metallurgical plant in the destroyed and occupied Ukrainian Mariupol to plunder his puppet in Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov and his entourage. The Wall Street Journal writes about it on Monday, October 21. As the WSJ writes, Russian dictator Putin “rewarded”, — write on: ua.news
Mariupol, May 2022 (Photo: REUTERS/Pavel Klimov/File Photo)
The Kremlin regime gave the Ilyich metallurgical plant in the destroyed and occupied Ukrainian Mariupol to its puppet in Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, and his entourage. The Wall Street Journal writes about it on Monday, October 21.
According to the WSJ, Russian dictator Putin “rewarded Kadyrov for his loyalty” with protection and state bounties, and now allowed him and his “clan” to profit from the looting of occupied Mariupol.
Citing current and former managers of the plant, as well as documents, the newspaper reports that Kadyrov and his henchmen export and sell off modern metallurgical equipment, send scrap metal to sanctioned Russian automakers, and also supply industrial gases for the Kremlin’s space program.
The Ilyich Mariupol plant mostly withstood the bombing, the article says. Kadyrov sent his trusted henchman, official Vakhit Geremeyev, who was his police chief before that, and in 2015 was under investigation in the case of the murder of Russian oppositionist Boris Nemtsov, to seize the plant.
According to the Russian occupiers, they bombed the factory Azovstal cannot be restored and will be turned into an industrial zone. At the same time, Kadyrov and Geremeev have big plans for the Ilyich plant. At the entrance to the factory, a portrait of Kadyrov and his fighters was hung, and trucks with rolled metal bound for Russia often leave the gate.
Shortly after the occupation of Mariupol, the newly formed company LLC MMK named after Ilyich began exporting steel from the defunct plant. The company was registered in August 2022 by two men, one of them being Geremeev’s 25-year-old son, Valid. His partner turned out to be the Russian businessman Yuriy Murai, who was transporting goods to the occupied Crimea for the Ministry of Defense of the aggressor.
In March, the occupiers said that over the past six months, they had removed 130,000 tons of iron processing by-products worth $16 million from the plant. The legal owner of the plant, Metinvest, said that the Russians also dismantled a production line worth $220 million, which was installed before the full-scale war, and sent it to the Russian Federation.
Geremeev claimed that the plant’s workshops can currently process only scrap metal and by-products of production, but he allegedly wants to restore the work of steel plants by 2026.
The mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko, told reporters that the plant’s products are processed for the production of trucks, cars or for use in construction in Russia.
Last year, another associate of Kadyrov, Alash Dadashov, who manages the Moscow branch of the Chechen martial arts club controlled by Kadyrov, became a co-owner of the plant. Dadashov is also involved in the sale of industrial gases from Mariupol, and among his clients is the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
“The corporate takeover of Illich’s plant by the same clan that seized it militarily is reminiscent of Wagner’s long-standing practice in Africa, where the PMC supplied mercenaries in exchange for control of valuable natural resources,” the WSJ writes.