A factory linked to Russian oligarchs is paid 1.25 million from European funds

The Riga Electrical Engineering Plant (RER), which is backed by Russian oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin, has received 1.25 million euros from European funds. The last payment was made in March this year, and it will no longer be possible to recover these payments, reports “de facto”.

In addition, the company is also applying for funding from the Recovery Fund project, which was involved half a year after the start of the war, when the ties of its owners with the Kremlin had already been publicly discussed, reports the LTV program “de facto”.

Andrey Bokarev and Iskander Makhmudov, closely linked to the Kremlin, are the most frequently mentioned Russian oligarchs behind RER. However, their other Russian business partners – Dmitrijs Komissarovs and Kirils Lipa – are also at the end of the chain of companies.

The latter, as the general director of Transmashholding, reported to Vladimir Putin at the same table last August about how the business was doing, noting, among other things, that there were no losses in the “new situation” in general.

For example, he told Putin how he still cooperates with a Hungarian company in the supply of train cars to Egypt. “We were forced to leave the capital of the Hungarian company, but all the financial and technological connection – all of that has been preserved,” Lipa said during the meeting.

Meanwhile, their business in Latvia, in the person of RER, receives European money to increase the energy efficiency of the factory and improve the production of electrical equipment for trains. The Central Finance and Contracts Agency (CFLA), which oversees European fund projects, says that the final payment was made for one project in January, and for the other in March.

It was known that the factory implements fund projects in general, and we also talked about it in the LTV program “de facto” last year. However, at that time they were not yet completed and another round of European sanctions was taking place. Its outcome could affect the payment of money, if the actual owners of the factory, of which Bokarev and Mahmudov are already under the sanctions of several countries, would also be included in the sanctions of the European Union. But it didn’t happen.

RER also participates in a study co-financed by the Recovery Fund – also European money. In it, RER claims 156 and a half thousand euros. Also, unlike previous projects that began before the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, this one began half a year after.

In Latvian registers, none of the representatives of Russia can really be seen as the true beneficiaries, because they must be shown from the 25% ownership limit, which has not been reached individually. And even though Bokarevs and Makhmudov are under US sanctions, the influence of which in the financial sector extends beyond the borders of the US, and Latvia publishes companies related to US sanctions, they are not on this list either.

On the other hand, the Minister of Economy admits that nothing can be changed from what happened. Viktors Valainis (ZZS) said: “We can evaluate how we reached these decisions, but at the moment the legal expectation is that he must be brought to the end. But looking ahead, of course, we have to evaluate.”

Prime Minister Evika Siliņa (JV), commenting on this situation, stated that the economic ties with Russia are severable and she expects that the possible shortcomings of the existing regulation and sanctions policy are evaluated by the responsible institutions and, if necessary, there will be proposals.