Ukraine’s National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) has added Viciunai Group, a leading European seafood producer known to consumers for its top product, Vici branded crab sticks, to the list of international sponsors of war, the agency’s press service reported on Telegram.
“After the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, representatives of the Viciunai Group promised that the company would leave the Russian market. Vici does not stop its facilities in Russia, is looking for new employees and pays significant taxes to the aggressor’s budget. This was the basis for adding Viciunai Group to the list of international sponsors of the war,” the statement said.
The NAPC noted that in March 2022, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the head of the Lithuanian group, Sharunas Matijosatis, said that the company would leave the Russian market within three to four months. However, it does not stop working in Russia and remains one of the most favorite brands of Russian consumers.
“Viciunai is conducting its business in Russia as usual without any layoffs, successfully defending its Russian trademark in court, and continues to recruit staff for its subsidiaries, supporting the labor market in Russia,” the agency explained.
As an example of inconsistency in the company’s statements and actions, the NACP cited the activities of the production complex Viciunai-Rus LLC (Kaliningrad region), which is the largest enterprise of the Viciunai Group, employing 1500 people. In 2022, its net profit increased by 156% to $20 million.
In addition, Viciunai’s subsidiary BaltCo LLC, being the company’s official representative in Russia, provides services for the transportation of fish cooking, fish processing, surimi and seafood products. Its net profit for 2022 was $2.5 million.
“So far, well-known brands such as Vici continue to be on the Russian market. Despite all the aggressor’s war crimes, the world is getting the wrong signal that Russia remains part of international economic processes. And Russians see that the democratic world has not turned its back on them, and they are doing everything right. Many companies have already made the right choice in favor of the values of democracy and integrity by leaving the Russian market. However, Viciunai Group was not one of them and failed to go beyond its empty promises,” said NAPC Chairman Oleksandr Novikov.
Viciunai Group is a global food manufacturer and supplier. It is the largest surimi processor in the world and one of the most economically powerful seafood producers in Europe. The group is headquartered in Lithuania and has plants in Lithuania, Spain, Estonia and Russia.
Ukraine’s National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) has added Belgian independent gas system operator Fluxys to its list of international sponsors of war.
According to the NACP press service, the decision was made based on the company’s failure to comply with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and its continued promotion of the export of climate-damaging Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG), which provides financial resources for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Despite the ongoing full-scale Russian invasion, the Belgian independent gas infrastructure operator Fluxys continues to provide Yamal LNG, a subsidiary of Novatek, with LNG storage and transshipment services at its terminal in Zeebrugge. These services allow for the export of additional Russian revenues for Novatek and tax revenues for the Kremlin regime, which is committing countless war crimes in Ukraine. Thanks to the facts provided by Ukrainian and Belgian civil society organizations, we have found sufficient grounds to add Fluxys to the list of international sponsors of the war,” said Agiya Zagrebelska, Head of the Department for Minimizing Corruption Risks in the NACP’s Sanctions Policy.
The Belgian operator Fluxys provides liquefied natural gas storage and transshipment facilities to Yamal LNG, a joint venture majority owned by the Russian gas company Novatek, which is directly involved in financing military aggression and war crimes in Ukraine. A detailed analysis conducted by the International Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) in 2022 showed that Fluxys and its shareholders profited by facilitating the export of Russian LNG to the markets of Asia, South America and the Middle East, especially in the winter months of 2021/2022, which exacerbated the European energy crisis and increased profits for Novatek.
“The reputational risks associated with being listed as a sponsor of war and potentially having its credit rating downgraded are not unique to Fluxys. By continuing its involvement in Russian LNG transactions, Fluxys may face the risk of being subject to secondary sanctions from the United States, especially since Novatek is reportedly directly contributing to Russia’s war of aggression, as investigations suggest that the company’s security guards were used to form special military units that took part in the fighting in Ukraine,” said Svitlana Romanko, founder and director of Razom We Stand.
In response to the unprovoked and illegal aggressive war of aggression, many companies ceased all business interaction with Russian partners after February 24, 2022, but Fluxys continued to cooperate with Yaman LNG and Novatek throughout 2022 and into 2023. Experts estimate that Russia expects to receive up to €800 million in tax revenues from exports, which is possible due to the transshipment of LNG in Zeebrugge in 2023. Only 7% of this gas goes to EU markets. Fluxys receives 50 million euros a year for this service under a long-term contract signed in 2015, a year after Russia annexed Crimea and started the war in Donbas.
Novatek, owned by Russian oligarchs Leonid Mikhelson and Gennady Timchenko, is the main supplier of Russian liquefied natural gas to international markets. Mikhelson and Timchenko are members of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle and, with the help of his regime, have seized stakes in Russian oil and gas projects from international companies. “Novatek is the largest private natural gas producer in Russia. In July 2014, Novatek was added to the sanctions lists of the United States and Canada. In 2016, the US imposed sanctions on several Novatek subsidiaries. On November 2, 2023, the United States imposed sanctions against the Artsyl LNG 2 project, which was intended to double Novatek’s export capacity.
In October, Razom We Stand, on behalf of 23 Ukrainian NGOs, sent an open letter to the Belgian federal government calling on it to take the initiative to impose a complete ban on the transshipment of Russian LNG in all EU harbors, including the Fluxy-operated LNG terminal in Zeebrugge. The Netherlands and the United Kingdom have already introduced such bans.
The main shareholders of Fluxys are Belgian municipalities (77.41%) and the Belgian federal government (3.44%). Both parties have pledged to keep the global temperature rise below 1.5℃ by supporting the Covenant of Mayors and the Paris Agreement, respectively. They also claim to highly respect international humanitarian law, which prohibits intentional attacks on civilians or critical civilian infrastructure. These commitments contradict the actual continuation of cooperation with the Russian company Novotec.
The National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) has added two tobacco market leaders Philip Morris International and Japan Tobacco International to the list of international sponsors of war because of their continued operations in Russia, the agency said.
“The NACP has added two tobacco market leaders Philip Morris International and Japan Tobacco International to the list of international sponsors of war,” the NACP said in a statement on its Telegram channel on Thursday.
According to the financial statements of Philip Morris’ Russian subsidiary, the company’s revenue in the first year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine increased by 8% to RUB 140.3 billion, and net profit – to RUB 48.2 billion, which is 45% more than in 2021. “Having confidence in Russia’s economic potential, the company is implementing a large-scale long-term investment program,” the statement said.
“Japan Tobacco International (JTI) is the undisputed leader of the tobacco market in Russia (market share – 34.9%). The company itself has openly stated that the Russian market generated about USD 2 billion. USD in 2022 for the JT Group, or approximately 11% of its consolidated revenue for 2022,” the NACP cites data on the second company’s activities in Russia.
“JTI is the largest investor and leading taxpayer in the Russian tobacco industry. Over the past 20 years, JTI’s investments in the Russian economy have exceeded $4.6 billion. In 2020, the company’s tax payments accounted for 1.4% of the federal budget’s revenue,” the NACP said in a statement.
The NAPC emphasizes that despite the fact that “representatives of both companies have announced their plans to close their business in Russia, stop new investments and marketing activities in Russia, they still continue to manufacture and distribute products in Russia.”
The National Anti-Corruption Agency (NACC) has renewed the status of five Greek carrier companies in the list of “International Sponsors of War” on the basis of the companies’ failure to fulfill the conditions agreed during negotiations on their removal from the list, the press service of the NACC reported.
We are talking about five Greek companies, Dynacom Tankers Management (DTM); Delta Tankers LTD; Thenamaris Ships Management Inc.; Minerva Marine; TMC Tankers LTD, which have not publicly condemned Russian aggression.
“Recently, the Ukrainian and Greek sides started negotiations where they offered the companies to fulfill the following conditions: to stop the practices of switching off transponders, overloading from board to board, to publicly condemn Russian aggression. The issue of switching off transponders and transshipment from board to board was addressed in the 11th EU sanctions package. However, these five Greek carrier companies did not fulfill the requirement to publicly condemn Russian aggression within the specified timeframe. Therefore, the NAACP has renewed their status on the list of “International sponsors of war”, – reported the press service of the NAACP.
Five Greek companies were included in the list of “sponsors of war” in the summer of 2022. Based on the data of the application for monitoring of naval traffic Marine Traffic detectives calculated that Greek shipowners took out of rf one third of the volume of oil that was sent for export last spring – 19 million tons for $ 16 billion.
According to NAPC, of this volume in March-May 2022, 31 tankers of 3.4 million tons were transported by TMS Tankers Ltd, 28 tankers (2.68 million tons) by Minerva Maritime (Minerva Marine Inc.), 22 tankers (1.43 million tons) by Thenamaris Ships Management Inc, 11 tankers (1.3 million tons) by Delta Tankers Ltd, 12 tankers (1.04 million tons) by Dynacom Tankers Management Ltd.
The NAPC recalled that the list of “International Sponsors of War” on the portal “War and Sanctions” is a powerful reputational tool to achieve integrity in the supply chain in the international dimension, the exit of international business from the Russian Federation and, accordingly, to reduce the financial and technological ability of the terrorist country to kill Ukrainians. One of the platform’s “leverage” is cooperation with the World-Check database, which is used by banks and insurance companies to assess risks.
