During the advance on Mariupol in 2022, Russian troops disabled one of the city's two giant metallurgical plants — «Azovstal». The second metallurgical plant named after Ilyich mostly withstood the bombings, but may not survive the occupation, as it was handed over for plundering to Ramzan Kadyrov, claims The Wall Street Journal. His associates are dismantling and selling modern metallurgical equipment, sending scrap metal to Russia for use by its sanctioned automakers, and selling industrial gases for Moscow's space program.
Now, at the entrance to the enterprise, there is a portrait of Kadyrov, and immediately after Mariupol came under Russian control, the company LLC «Ilyich MMK», created in August 2022, began transporting steel from the non-operational plant. One of the two owners of the company is listed as Valid Vakhitovich Geremeev — the 25-year-old son of the Deputy Minister of Construction and Housing and Communal Services of Chechnya.
In March, Russian authorities stated that over the past six months, 130,000 tons of iron by-products worth 16 million dollars were shipped from the plant. The former owner of the Ilyich plant, the company «Metinvest», stated that a production line worth 220 million dollars, installed before the war, was also dismantled at the plant and sent to Russia.
The corporate takeover of the Ilyich plant by the same clan that seized it militarily reflects the long-standing practice of «Wagner» in Africa, where it supplied mercenaries in exchange for control over valuable natural resources, writes WSJ.
Former mayor of Mariupol Vadim Boychenko reported that products from the Ilyich plant are used in Russia for car production and the construction industry. Last year, another associate of Kadyrov, Alash Dadashov, became a co-owner of the plant. He is engaged in selling industrial gases from Mariupol, with «Roscosmos» listed among his clients.
Before the war, the taxes paid by «Ilyich» and «Azovstal» provided more than a third of Mariupol's annual budget. Now «Azovstal» is completely destroyed, and the Ilyich plant has been handed over for plundering to the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov.
Photo: Reuters