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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Blogger Denys Kazansky urged the Ukrainian authorities to pay attention to the share of Russian businessmen in the Kyivstar group and the risks associated with access to Ukrainians’ data. He believes the state should develop a legal mechanism to remove Russian influence from the strategic operator.
Kazansky wrote this in his post.
According to him, Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman, who the EU recently lifted sanctions against, remains a co-owner of the Kyivstar group. Kazansky cited data from Censor.NET, which indicate that Fridman together with Russians Petr Aven and German Kosogov retain about 43,4% of the economic influence in Kyivstar Group.
The blogger emphasized that, in his view, the problem is not only an ethical one. Kyivstar is expanding its presence in Ukraine and controls, among others, Uklon, Helsi and Tabletki.ua.
“And that is information about movements, addresses, visits to doctors, needs for medicines. Access to all of this data can become a weapon for the enemy; it opens up possibilities for the Russian security services to locate servicemembers, persecute their families, carry out surveillance and blackmail — which is why this is a national security issue,” Kazansky said.
He also noted that Ukraine cannot influence the EU’s decisions on sanctions, but can independently resolve issues regarding Russian owners within the country.
“The state must respond to risks in advance and not wait until data are stolen; some legal mechanism for removing Russian influence on a strategic operator must be developed,” the blogger stressed.
The author of the piece also urged Ukraine to adhere to its own sanctions regime regarding Russian businessmen and assets connected to Letter One, ABH and VEON.
The article asserts that the issue of assets belonging to Russian oligarchs remains the subject of debate in Ukraine and abroad. The author also links this to the need to find additional resources for the Ukrainian budget and to support the country’s defense capability.
Separately, the author mentions Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven, German Khan and German Kosogov and calls for lawful confiscation mechanisms to be applied to assets associated with them.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Російський олігарх Фрідман і далі утримує контроль над понад 40% впливу в Kyivstar і сервісі Helsi". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Rozsliduvach.
