The reasons for the unreasonable increase in electricity prices, who manages Energoatom and its fortune

Yulia Tymoshenko, the leader of the “Batkivshchyna” party, opposed the increase in electricity tariffs, saying that they should not be increased, but reduced.  She believes that today’s electricity tariffs are the result of the transformation of the state-owned enterprise “Energoatom” into a joint-stock company, which led to an unreasonable increase in prices in payments from 1.4 UAH/kW to 4.3 UAH/kW, and in the future – possibly even up to 7-8 UAH/kW. Tymoshenko told about this on Youtube channels and your Facebook page.

Yulia Tymoshenko believes that the fair tariff for electricity is 97 kopecks per kilowatt-hour.

The politician justifies his position by the fact that most of the electricity in Ukraine is produced at nuclear power plants, not at thermal ones, which allows to significantly reduce the cost of energy production. Tymoshenko emphasizes that nuclear energy is one of the cheapest, so the increase in tariffs is unfounded, related to corruption and inefficient management in the energy sector.

According to her, nuclear electricity is provided for the household needs of the population, and not electricity from thermal power plants, therefore no one has the right to include funds for their repair in the tariffs. In addition, funding for this is systematically provided by our Western partners or the state budget. The leader of “Batkivshchyna” explained that there is enough equipment to repair the TPP, and it should take no more than two weeks. They are not launched due to the insufficiency of air defense systems. 

Tymoshenko noted that the electricity market, which was introduced in 2019, is extremely corrupt and destroys the fair system created earlier. She believes that the increase in tariffs is used to cover debts in the amount of 50 billion hryvnias accumulated before the electricity market, in particular, before Energoatom.

“In order to bring all years of corruption to light and bring the culprits to justice, it is necessary for the government to change, but this, unfortunately, is impossible until the end of the war. First, it is necessary to win the war, and then establish a fundamental professional order in the country, already without “new faces”.

But there is also good news – all this is possible and must be corrected after the victory, by canceling all these laws and returning all our wealth to the Ukrainian nation. Therefore, let’s keep our spirit high, win the great war, and after that we will finish off the marauders in the rear. Male presidents have accomplished a lot during their time in office. After the war, all this will have to be raked and put in order,” – Yulia Tymoshenko noted.

In addition, in her statement, the former prime minister listed a list of urgent steps to improve the situation of the domestic energy industry, implementing effective, deliberate solutions, and not robbing her own people. Among them are the protection of the energy infrastructure of Ukraine by air defense systems, the return of the old model of the energy market and the cancellation of the corrupt increase in prices for the transportation of electricity, the introduction of a state of emergency in the energy sector of Ukraine and the creation of a single control center for the country’s energy complex during the war, an increase in the volume of imported electricity from the European Union, motivation the private sector to switch to partial or full replacement of grid electricity with its own, limiting the use of electricity by non-critical infrastructure objects, as well as the introduction of “smart” meters, “motivational tariffs” that stimulate electricity savings, and others. According to Tymoshenko, it is no less important to check all finances in the energy system, with 

History of the issue and possible risks

On March 17, 2023, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi signed the Law “On the Peculiarities of Formation of the Joint-Stock Company “NAEK Energoatom”, which defined the procedure for its formation and operation, as well as established the procedure for the formation of the company’s authorized capital, restrictions related to ensuring the preservation of corporate rights of the state, the property of nuclear power plants, nuclear materials and facilities intended for the management of radioactive waste, exclusively by the company, to ensure economic security and protect the interests of the state.

Pursuant to the law, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine at its meeting on December 29, 2023 adopted a decision “On the formation of the joint-stock company “National Atomic Power Generating Company “Energoatom”, according to which 100% of its shares belong to the state. 

It should be noted that the reorganization of a state-owned enterprise into a joint-stock company is often aimed at acquiring state property, as it happened before. After the declaration of independence in 1991, a transition period in building a market economy began in Ukraine. During this process, many cases related to economic crime, raiding, the “shadow” economy, the spread of corruption, and “spontaneous privatization” were known. That is why this period was called “wild capitalism” and the “evil nineties”. 

At that time, Ukraine witnessed a number of scandalous situations related to the illegal seizure of property of state-owned enterprises, which were reorganized into joint-stock companies in order to attract investments. At the same time, the rhetoric of the interested parties was as follows: “in order for the enterprise to work and stand on its feet, financial infusions are needed.” And it really made sense, because funding was needed. But often, the hidden purpose behind the creation of joint-stock companies was the theft of state property, real estate, and land. Clever dealers implemented it with the help of various manipulations with shares, used gaps and weak points in the legislation, and bribed officials. 

In this way, famous Ukrainian oligarchs took possession of state property worth billions of dollars. The state has been trying to regain control over its enterprises for a long time, an example of which is the courts with Kolomoiskyi, which spread their influence in the oil sector. In addition, the conflict surrounding Ukrtelecom, the beneficiary of which is called Rinat Akhmetova, is widely known. The State Property Fund of Ukraine repeatedly tried to return this enterprise to the state, but everything started classically – joint-stock companies were created, slogans were sounded about economic freedom, investments: “If the enterprise had a real owner, things would go well, because he would be interested in its efficiency.”

Even when the enterprise remains 100% state-owned, its reorganization into a joint-stock company opens the way for many schemes of expropriation of state property, setting inflated prices for the population and corruption.

Who is currently the head of “Energoatom” and what is known about him

Petro Kotin is the president of Energoatom. It is known from open information sources that he was born in 1961 in Russia, in the city of Volodymyr. In 1985, he graduated from the Moscow Institute of Engineering and Physics with a degree in “Nuclear Power Plants and Installations”, he received other education in Ukraine. 

Kotin held various positions in the energy and atomic sphere, managed the technical commission at the tender committee of the Energoatom company, became the acting president of NAEK Energoatom in 2020, and officially headed the state enterprise in May 2022.

According to the mass media, Petro Kotin is connected with the Martynenko-Nedashkovsky group, which previously had complete control over the country’s entire nuclear power industry. In August 2020, deputy of the Zaporizhia Regional Council, Yaroslav Hryshyn, announced systemic corruption at the nuclear power plant. According to him, Kotin became one of the organizers of embezzlement of budget funds at the ZNPP. 

In addition, in 2020 the mass media wrote that Petro Kotin’s son Ilya held a managerial position in the company “Inkla-Kyiv”, misappropriating budget funds. His company is engaged in the supply of equipment and for ten years won the tenders held by “Energoatom” under the leadership of Kotin – senior. In 2016 alone, “Inkla-Kyiv” received three hundred million hryvnias from the state-owned enterprise.

In order to protect data and counter cyberattacks from the Russian Federation, access to electronic declarations is temporarily closed in 2022. However, even before the war, Kotin’s declaration became the object of journalistic investigations. So, in 2020, journalists noticed that he removed his first wife and eldest son from the declaration. They included a plot of land (4.5 thousand square meters) and an unfinished residential building (250 square meters) in the village of Petropavlivske in the Kyiv region, an apartment (151.4 square meters) in Kyiv, as well as two cars: a Land Rover 2012 Discovery 4 and 2007 Volvo S40.

In the new declaration of Kotin there was nothing except the one and a half million hryvnias earned in Energoatom and 150 thousand pensions, and it was also indicated that the second wife owned an apartment in Kyiv with an area of ​​156.3 square meters

In December 2023, Schemy discovered that the 70-year-old mother-in-law of Petro Kotin purchased real estate and land near Kyiv during the full-scale war. Officially having no income of her own, she became the owner of a two-story house with an area of ​​almost 300 square meters and the land below it with access to the lake. The house and the land under it cost the pensioners a total of almost 7 million hryvnias, of which 6.5 million were for the house and 350 thousand for the land. “Schem” journalists discovered that Petro Kotin himself now lives in this building. In a comment to the publication, he stated that his mother-in-law collected the necessary funds for the purchase of the property from various sources, namely, her own savings, deposited cash from relatives and a loan from the future sale of the property that is currently under occupation. 

In addition, Kotina’s mother-in-law owns three plots of land with a total area of ​​30 acres in another elite village in the Kyiv region, they are surrounded by a fence and have access to the water.