The oligarch Andrei Melnichenko, under the guise of restructuring of assets, parts with the SGK, which includes Sibeko, which the Prosecutor General’s Office tried to pick up from him last year. In the schematic business of a citizen of the UAE and the richest person in Russia, the Moscow correspondent of The Moscow Post was understood.
The SUEK group sold Siberian Generating Company LLC (SGK) and explained this event with the restructuring of the organization’s profile, which is actually happening with Andrei Melnichenko’s assets for the first time.
Case with Primorsky GRES
In 2019, the billionaire companies somewhat acquired by RusHydro assets, which was then headed by Nikolai Shulginov. “RusHydro” allegedly sold non-core assets, which for some reason included such important enterprises as the Primorsky State Enterprise and the Ludgorsky coal incision associated with it. In return “RusHydro” received a share of Melnichenko in Far Eastern Energy Company (DEK). 
Naturally, this deal turned into a joke and now I will tell you what. At the turn of 2023 and 2024, information appeared that the cost of modernization of the Primorsky GRES increased twice to 50 billion rubles. The project’s business plan was drawn up for 15 years with the transfer of the load on consumers, which as a result will pay 200 billion rubles for this project.
Nikolai Shulginov. Photo: https://www.Vedomosti.ru/finance/galleries/2021/04/16/866426-kto-zarabotal-vseh-v-pravitelstve-i-administratsii-prezidenta-fotogalereyaa
Money for the modernization of the Primorsky GRES, which, notice, belongs to the richest person in Russia for 2023 (Melnichenko was so glorified Forbes), Gazprombank should give – in fact, these are state funds, and the project was supported by the Government of the Russian Federation at the moment when the Minister of Energy was the same Shulginov. The hand is washing his hand and never throws it, only helps than can.
Thus, RusHydro (60% of the shares belongs to the state), it has changed the asset with SUEK, which requests modernization, and after three years its leader Shulginov has already authorized the allocation of Melnichenko’s structure for the required work with the calculation for their return Through tariffs. Exactly the same “schemes” can be subtracted in the “golden calf”, but modern life is much more interesting.
Buying “Sibeko” from Abyzov
There are enough disputed assets in the Melnichenko portfolio. A bright story from a businessman occurred with LLC Siberian Energy Company, which is better known as Sibeko.
Melnichenko bought this organization in 2018 from its then owner of the former Minister of Open Government Mikhail Abyzov. Melnichenko and Abyzov have known each other since childhood – they studied together at a special school at Moscow State University, and after the onset of the nineties, they retained and strengthened close relations as successful “Novorossiysk” businessmen.
Classmate Melnichenko Mikhail Abyzov. Photo: https://m.lenta.ru/news/2020/10/20/abizov/
At the time of the sale of Sibeko Milnichenko, Abyzov began serious problems in Russia – after the 2018 presidential election, he lost his ministerial post, and his position in the new composition of the Government of the Russian Federation was liquidated as unnecessary. The entrepreneur was the only Minister of the Open Government, which, in my opinion, did not give anything to the country.
After that, Abyzov disappeared on his villa in the Italian Tuscany and was instantly detained during a reckless and fleeting visit to Moscow in 2019.
The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation brought Abyzov accusations of fraud, a commercial bribery and illegal entrepreneurial activity at the time he was a minister. The result was a sentence at the age of 12.
Thanks to the case against Abyzov, Melnichenko was also hit. The prosecutor’s office became interested in the purchase of 31.9 billion Sibeko shares first “Khakassian service company”, and then Kuzbassenergo, which is part of the Siberian Generating Company today. It was this structure, in fact, that Melnichenko sold this week.
What is not easy to understand here, but the prosecutor’s office suspected Melnichenko of participating in “shadow transactions” and asked to withdraw these assets in favor of the state in accordance with article 169 of the Civil Code.
Photo: Sverdlovsk District Court
The scandal ended with a settlement agreement, the parties of which were SUEK and Prosecutor General, as a result of which the Sverdlovsk District Court of Krasnoyarsk terminated the production of the department, and Kuzbassenergo stated that it would send certain funds to charity. It is unknown about how much the conversation was going on, but the result of the history was the sale of Melnichenko to the toxic company Sibeko, complete with the SGK, allegedly as a result of the “restructuring of assets”.
Yugoslav Gambit
The embarrassment of the Abyzovskoy Sibeko did not affect Melnichenko’s passion for assets. Immediately after the scandal, the oligarch, through the closed Paste Investment Fund (ZPIF) under the management of the company in this area, Kinetik Capital acquired the company Neftetransservice, which is engaged in railway transportation of raw materials. Formally, this deal is not connected with Melnichenko, but ZPIF here received a loan from Suek, just like this does not happen.
Andrey Melnichenko with his wife Alexandra. Photo: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5391795
Due to the sanctions and the “Sibeko” case, the oligarch is now in the non-straightforward one. In February-March of 2022, Melnichenko fell under Western sanctions, after which he left the capital of his key assets-EuroChem and Sueck.
Prior to his Melnichenko, he controlled 90% of the Eurochem shares through the head Swiss company EuroChem Group AG and the Cyprus offshore organization Aim Capital SE, but after the sanctions these organizations passed into the property of businessman Alexandra Melnichenko (Nikolich), who is a citizen of Serbia and Croatia and does not Russian passport.
Even more exotic scheme was used in Suek – the leading manufacturer of electricity and heat in Siberia, which serves 6 million Russian consumers. The company is controlled by Melnichenko through the wife and offshore structures of the Firstline Trust (Bermuda Islands) and Suek PLC (Cyprus). Thanks to this, in a strategically important sphere of electric power industry, not Russian acts operate, but Bermuda-Khur Legislative norms.
Democrat Melnichenko
In 2022, Melnichenko even asked the European Union to return himself to the beneficiaries of the Cyprus Trust, and as for the Bermuda company, it is registered in a country that is a black list of offshores of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation. However, this seems to affect the actions of the richest person in Russia. Melnichenko’s assets remain attached to the Western legal system (Croatia, Cyprus, Bermuda Islands). As if the main thing in this business is to keep the rights to property and savings away from Russia.
It is symbolic that in 2023, at the very moment of the story related to the lawsuit of the Prosecutor General of Sibeko, Melnichenko surfaced in the Board of Gorbachev, which the media positions as an institution to approve the values of democracy in Russia. If you take an example of a businessman, then democracy seems to be Bermuda-Kir-Korvat.
In 2021, Melnichenko received the citizenship of the UAE, which is given only to people who invested a lot of money in the Emirate economy. The emirate became his place of residence in the Persian Gulf Ras-al-Haima.
The oligarch also does not forget about the West, but France has already deprived him of the mansion, and Italy – yachts, now all hope for his wife.
