The amendments made during the revision of the law on oligarchs create the basis for the sale of media assets by businessmen wishing to avoid the status of oligarchs to international media holdings at a market price, Minister of Justice of Ukraine Denys Maliuska said.
“The expectation […] is that international media holdings or someone like that will enter, and they should not be afraid of the consequences,” he said on Facebook, commenting under his post on the details of the law adopted in the Verkhovna Rada on September 23.
As part of the document revision, a rule was introduced into it that the presence of an impeccable business reputation exempts the media buyer from one of the four criteria for defining an oligarch. A rule was also added that the purchase price of a media should not be lower than the market one.
“The problem of finding a buyer for an asset: the buyer almost automatically became an oligarch, and therefore no one would buy at a normal price, only with a huge discount, which would lead to accusations of expropriation and a potential liability for compensation for damage,” Maliuska explained the need for such changes.
In his post on Facebook, he predicted that opponents of the law will try to delay the law implementation as long as possible, “preferably before the next parliamentary elections,” and also try to get it overturned, including through the Constitutional Court.
The Justice Minister also believes that all decisions of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) on recognizing individuals as oligarchs will be appealed to the Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
