Media: Putin’s friend buys sparkling wine plant in annexed Crimea
The Russian-controlled administration of the Crimea held a tender for the sale of the spartkling wine plant, Novyi Svit (New World) in Sudak on Wednesday, December 20th. The winner was the Southern Project company, which is a 100% “subsidiary" of the Russia bank which is under sanctions and owned by Yury Kovalchuk (who is considered one of Vladimir Putin’s “purses”), RBC news agency reports.
The company was sold for 1.55 billion rubles (about 26 million dollars).
The Novyi Svit winery was founded in 1878 by Prince Lev Golitsyn. In 1896, sparkling wine from this factory was served during the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II. In 1900, the Novyi Svit winery received a Grand Prix at the World Exhibition in Paris.
After Ukraine gained independence, the plant became a state enterprise, but after the annexation of the Crimea in 2014, control over it was lost. The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food transferred the Novyi Svit trademark to the Kharkiv Champagne and Wine Factory.
On the territory of the Crimean peninsula, there are 64 agricultural state enterprises, of which 33 are subordinated to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food. The Azov Distillery Plant (Azovske, Dzhankoysky District), the Massandra national Agrarian Association (Massandra, Yalta), Magarach (Vilino, Bakhchisaraysky District), and the state enterprise New Champagne and Wines Plant Novyi Svit (Sudak) were nationalized by the Crimean authorities and fell under the European Union sanctions.