Saturday 29 June 2013

Ukraine: The gas king turned media mogul | The Economist

"“I CONSIDER  the sale of Forbes Ukraine the end of the project in its current form,” wrote Vladimir Fedorin, the publication’s editor-in-chief on June 22nd. “I am convinced the buyer is pursuing one of three goals (or all three): 1) to shut journalists up before the presidential election; 2) to whitewash his reputation; 3) to use the publication for purposes that have nothing to do with the media business.” When news broke about the sale of the owner of Forbes Ukraine, United Media Holding (UMH), to Sergei Kurchenko, a secretive 27-year old multimillionaire believed to be a straw man, Mr Fedorin did not mince words.

It was Forbes Ukraine that first introduced the previously unknown Mr Kurchenko to the world. In an article titled “The Gas King of All Ukraine”, Forbes.ua exposed how in a few months his company, GazUkraine-2009, had become one of the country's largest petroleum product importers and a liquified petroleum gas major. It also revealed ties to firms involved in gas smuggling and links between Mr Kurchenko and the son of the prosecutor general, Viktor Pshonka. Both have denied the links."

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