Alleged Akhmetov agent ambushes MP Gerus at Ukraine airport

Andriy Gerus, the head of the parliamentary fuel and
energy committee, was ambushed the evening of Nov. 6 at the official delegation
hall of Kyiv Boryspil airport by Oleh Liashko, a former MP widely acknowledged
to be on the payroll of billionaire Rinat Akhmetov. Having a history of
provoking politicians to fighting, Liashko approached Gerus and began berating
him, accusing Gerus of state treason for his legislative efforts to enable the
import of electricity from Russia, which is conducting the war in Donbas
against Ukraine.

After two minutes into the eight-minute confrontation,
Liashko began aggressively poking Gerus in his chest, provoking several shoving
matches. Liashko slammed Gerus several times against a wall, grabbing him by
his shirt and eventually tearing it open before the two separated. Gerus asked
numerous times to have the discussion away from Liashko’s cameraman, who also
got involved in the fight.  The exchange was video recorded by the
accomplice and immediately posted on the Internet.

In comments posted on Facebook, Gerus characterized
the confrontation as an attempt by Akhmetov to manipulate public sentiment
against the new competition on the electricity market. “Truly, Liashko’s
ñomplaints are regarding electric energy imports. Although for three years, he
was fully satisfied with coal imports from Russia based on the Rotterdam Plus
formula, which was accompanied by a growth in rates for Ukrainian consumers.
That’s because his beloved ‘non-monopolist’ earned well on that,” Gerus
wrote on his Facebook page.

Journalist Serhiy Leshchenko pointed out the same
evening on his YouTube vlog that Ukraine has continued to import gasoline and
liquefied natural gas from Russia throughout the war in Donbas. “It’s very
convenient for Akhmetov to say that we won’t allow Russian electricity onto the
market, but for gasoline, LNG and diesel fuel we won’t allow (Ihor) Kolomoisky
to monopolize the market. So of course, we can get that from Russia. It doesn’t
work that way. Either you open the market for all positions, or close it for
all positions,” Leshchenko said.

Alexander Paraschiy: Gerus has
publicly supported the campaign to reduce electricity prices in Ukraine and as
a lawmaker, he is trying to use all means to get such a result. Electricity
prices on Ukraine’s day-ahead and intraday markets were UAH 1,566/MWh in
October, or 6% less than in August and 3% less than the price at which thermal
power plants sold their electricity a year ago. Whether or not Gerus was
directly responsible for such price reductions (as he alleges), this trend does
not look beneficial for Akhmetov’s DTEK Energy (DTEKUA), Ukraine’s
second-biggest power producer and the largest operator of thermal power plants.

Liashko’s performance in the airport seems to be a
part of Akhmetov’s strategy to discredit (through a fight with a fringe politician)
and intimidate Gerus and any other activists and politicians working to reduce
power prices in Ukraine. If so, DTEK sees real threats to its wellbeing from
the activity of Gerus. Whether or not such fears are grounded is likely to be
revealed in the coming months. So far, we remain calm about the financial and
operating performance of DTEK’s electricity assets, including DTEK Energy and
DTEK Renewables (DTEREN).