Businessman close to Kadyrov may seize metal plant in Mariupol

Those close to Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader, who have fought in Ukraine, began to receive assets in captured Ukrainian cities: businessman Valid Korchagin, related to the family of Kadyrov's associate, became a co-owner of the Illich Iron & Steel Works company in Mariupol. It will probably carry out the reconstruction of the Illich Metallurgical Plant in occupied Mariupol, which was damaged during the hostilities.

Source: Investigation of ВВС Russia

Quote: "At the end of January, the Chechen businessman Valid Korchagin became a co-owner of the company Illich Iron & Steel Works, registered in the self-proclaimed "DPR". The company might start restoring the metallurgical plant in Mariupol.

Korchagin is related to the family of Senator Suleiman Geremeyev, an associate of Kadyrov. During the war, the young Chechen businessman also received shares in the Russian chain of construction hypermarkets OBI and coffee shops of the American chain Starbucks, which had left Russia," the article states.

The Illich Metallurgical Plant is one of the largest enterprises in Ukraine, which belongs to the Metinvest company of Ukrainian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov.

35,000 people worked at the holding's enterprises in Mariupol.

The steel plant was partially destroyed during the fights in Mariupol, which began in the first days of the war; however, it was less damaged than the Azovstal steel plant, the investigation states.

Turned into ruins, the city was controlled by the military from Chechnya, in particular those close to Ramzan Kadyrov. Among them was Ruslan Geremeyev, a relative of Suleiman Geremeyev. His name previously appeared in the case of the murder of Russian oppositionist Boris Nemtsov, the BBC emphasises.

At the same time, the occupying authorities of the self-proclaimed "DPR" intended to start rebuilding the Mariupol Metallurgical Plant last year.

"And the Russian Ministry of Construction even managed to estimate that the restoration of the Azovstal steel plant and the steel mill will create more than 9,000 jobs.

However, so far, it has been only possible to create a company with the same name as that of the metallurgical plant. Illich Iron & Steel Works was registered by the Donetsk "Ministry of Income and Charges" last August. It appeared in the city of Makiiivka, which has been under the control of the so-called "DPR" occupation authorities since 2014, the investigation says.

The company called Illich Iron & Steel Works, co-owned by 25-year-old Korchagin, was registered by the so-called"DPR" in August 2022.

The main type of activity of the company with a charter capital of RUR10,000,000 million  involved the production of cast iron, steel, and ferroalloys.

At the same time, it has not yet been officially announced that "DPR" transferred the Mariupol plant to this company, but it is known that the plant is guarded by gunmen led by one of the members of the Geremeev family.

As the journalists found out, Korchagin probably used to have the surname Geremeev and may be the son of official Vakhit Geremeyev, who is called the brother of Suleiman Geremeev, a member of Russia's Federation Council. 

At the same time, Transparency employee Ilya Shumanov believes that the Geremeev family received access to the Mariupol metallurgical plant as a "reward" for fighting in Ukraine.

"During the war, the mysterious Korchagin received not only a Donetsk-based company, but also a part of a large foreign business. At the end of October, he received a share in the Arena company, which was transferred to the coffee shops of the American Starbucks, which left Russia shortly after the start of the war.

In this coffee business, Korchagin became a partner of Ramzan Kadyrov's old friend Timur Yunusov (aka Timati) and restaurateur Anton Pinsky;now they own equal shares of the Arena company. The owner also became the president of the Sindika company, which is related to Arsen Kanokov, the senator and ex-president of Kabardino-Balkaria. Last year, Pinsky, Timati and Sindika bought the business from the American Starbucks after it had left the Russian market, naming the new coffee shops Stars Coffee. The details of the Arena company are specified on their website, the article says.

Apart from that, Korchagin became a co-owner of the OBI construction hypermarket chain at the end of 2022; the network is one of the largest in Russia. 

The Russian group, consisting of six legal entities, belonged to a German company until April. OBI worked in the country for two decades, but last year, the stores were sold "for nothing"; the Germans decided to get rid of the Russian business shortly after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The company changed hands through unknown intermediaries who have no serious assets.

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