Ukraine Moves to Seize Water Firm with Russian Stake

Ukraine is seeking to seize IDS Ukraine, a major bottled-water company part-owned by Russian investors including sanctioned oligarch Mikhail Fridman.

Authorities froze the company’s assets in 2022 because Russian investors hold a 49% stake. The billionaire Patarkatsishvili family, including British theater producer Liana Patarkatsishvili, owns 34%, while the Georgian government is also a minority shareholder.

Ukraine’s Asset Recovery and Management Agency says efforts to install independent management have faced legal and bureaucratic obstacles as well as resistance from shareholders. One selection process was also disrupted by a cyberattack, although the perpetrator is unknown and the Patarkatsishvili family is not suspected of involvement.

The agency has raised concerns about possible money laundering and the extraction of value from the company, but there have been no official findings of criminal activity. The family says it is being unfairly targeted and plans to take the case to international courts if it loses in the Ukrainian courts.

(Guardian, bak)