Dear friends,
Today I want to share with you the contents of three emails which I got over the past couple of days. My correspondent does not insist that this is a true story, only that it is potentially explosive and very interesting. I would add that considering Sweden's amazingly anti-Russian stance, that could be one possible explanation for it.
I pass you the info "as is" with tons of caveats around it. As we say in Russian: "I am selling it to you at the same price I bought it". Those of you in the media might want to follow up on this story.
Kind regards,
The Saker
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The Swedish paper Expressen has uncovered a mysterious Ukrainian gas deal. Unknown owners in taxhavens control a Swedish company that has made a secret deal with Ukraine. The deal, signed on 25 February 2011, will be secret until 2036. The company gets control of 110 wells in 26 gas fields in Ukraine. That means it controls about half the gas in the country, the paper says. The unknown owners use front men in Sweden and Norway. The owners may live in any country, including Ukraine.
I hope people in Ukraine will investigate this matter and start making a lot of noise.
In Russian or Ukrainian:
http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/--3/
In Swedish. I can't translate it. Use Google Translate or perhaps Yandex.
http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/expressen-avslojar/svenska-bolaget-har-ukrainas-gastillgangar/
Important documents:
http://extra.expressen.se/ukrainadokument.pdf
A conservative paper, svd.se, says Expressens information is not entirely correct. The company does not control that much gas, it says. A company spokesman is quoted. We will see. There is still the matter of the secret deal and the secret owners. The articles are still up on Expressen 20 minutes before midnight in Sweden, long after the Svd article was published. Tomorrow I may have more.
Expressen and Svd [Svenska Dagbladet] are two of the four biggest papers in the country. They have a reputation to defend. Svd does not mention the secret owners. Expressen very seldom translates articles into foreign languages, so the reporters must believe in what they write. Now I know a Ukrainian, not Russian, translation was made.
Expressens articles affected the stock market big time. Trading in the
company was stopped:
http://www.svd.se/naringsliv/branscher/energi-och-ravaror/misen-rusade-pa-borsen-efter-felaktiga-uppgifter_3689158.svd
Expressen has not backtracked yet. Now the paper says Dmytro Firtasj and
Semjon Mogilevitj are secret owners of the company. There is also a video on the page and it starts automatically, unfortunately. Somebody speaks Ukrainian or Russian in the end:
http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/expressen-avslojar/ryska-maffian-bakom-det-svenska-gaskopet/
In Ukrainian:
http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/expressen-avslojar/--/
More information:
http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/oljebolaget-misen-handelsstoppades/
http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/forre-finansiaren-om-misen-inte-forvanad/
A pressrelease from the company is expected soon.
The information, if true, is sensational. Secret owners and secret deals. However, I wonder how information like this comes to the surface. Is one oligarch fighting another? Is this about the US going after Firtasj?