Finnish journalist Outi Salovaar investigated how a businessman from his inner circle, Vladimir Putin, conquered Finland. This path began back in 1991, when Timchenko joined the board of the brokerage company Urals Finland. Another member of the board was Andrei Pannikov, who was expelled from Sweden in 1988 on suspicion of espionage. The Russian parent company Urals bought oil from an export Russian state company, delivered it to Finland and sold oil to Urals Finland, which resold oil in Finland at a price several times higher than the Russian state structure. Urals Finland imported ten million tons of oil per year to Finland, which corresponded to almost all of Finland's annual consumption. In 1991, Timchenko, together with his wife Elena, moved to Finland and started working for Urals Finland. As a home, Karelia Trade bought a castle-like mansion on Kulosaari in Helsinki. Timchenko was involved with a temporary border crossing that mysteriously became the only private border crossing in Finnish history and operated from 1993 to 2007. Timchenko obtained Finnish citizenship in 1998 and became a co-owner of the Southeast Trading (SET) conglomerate. In the 2010s, SET's net sales increased to 260 million euros. SET has also developed environmental protection technology. Vladimir Putin, who appeared to have stepped down as prime minister in 2010, announced in Lappeenranta that Russia would buy a new oil spill response vessel from SET ...
Rucriminal.info publishes the most interesting excerpts from the investigation of Outi Salovaar.
“IN JANUARY 2020, Russia has a new prime minister. Mikhail Mishustin, who worked as the director of the Russian tax service, was unknown even to experts in Finland.
However, one Finn declared himself familiar with Mishustin: businessman Kai Paananen told Ilta-Sanomat that he had met Mishustin many times at hockey events, for example, at gala events in the KHL.
In 2010, Paananen filmed with then Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Lappeenranta in connection with the official meeting between Putin and Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen ...
KAI PAANANEN constantly names his famous Russian acquaintances: billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, former head of foreign intelligence Mikhail Fradkov, politician-cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova ...
But Paananen, especially a good friend and close business partner, with billionaire Gennady Timchenko ...
In 1978, Karelia Trade was founded in Lappeenranta under the leadership of Kai Paananen's father, Yrjö Paananen, to facilitate "border trade between Finland and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, acting as importer and exporter's representative."
The company exported machinery and equipment to the east, built swimming pools and apartments for oil companies, owned manufacturing facilities and delivered timber to Finland….
In October 1990, the brokerage company Urals Finland was entered in the Finnish Trade Register. Its board includes Evgeny Malov and Valery Golovushkin. In 1991 Andrey Katkov, Dmitry Tarasov, Andrey Pannikov and Gennady Timchenko joined the board.
Then they were unknown to anyone, although Pannikov, supported by Kann, was deported from Sweden in 1988 as a spy. Timchenko also had a past in the KGB, but he himself denies this.
Kai Paananen met Timchenko in 1987, when Karelia Trade built the new Kinex headquarters.
“At that time he was just a Soviet citizen, and I became rich thanks to my previous acquisitions,” says Paananen.
The STRANGE joint venture model allowed the Urals management to suddenly get rich: the Russian parent company Urals bought oil from an export Russian state company, delivered it to Finland and sold oil to Urals Finland, which resold oil in Finland at a price several times higher than the Russian state structure.
…. Urals Finland imported ten million tons of oil per year to Finland, which corresponded to almost all of Finland's annual consumption. ...
In 1991, Timchenko, together with his wife Elena, moved to Finland and started working for Urals Finland. As a home, Karelia Trade bought a castle-like mansion on Kulosaari in Helsinki for 5 million Finnish marks.
In 1994, Urals Finland changed its name to International Petroleum Product (IPP).
In July 1993, a temporary border crossing point was opened in Uukuniemi, which mysteriously became the only private border crossing point in Finnish history.
In May of the same year, Uukuniemen Raja Oy was registered in Lappeenranta, first headed by Yrjö Paananen and then by Kai Paananen.
The company financed border crossing points and used the proceeds to maintain buildings and roads at the crossing point borders. This checkpoint was used by Karelia Trade and other companies that wanted to shorten the route of importing Russian timber and other goods….
The private crossing was allowed to operate without interference until 2007 when it was closed.
In 1995 Paananet founded the Southeast Trading (SET) conglomerate, which was originally owned by Paananen's mother. When the company began trading in petroleum products in 1998, most of the company was bought by Timchenko, who received Finnish citizenship.
SET also partnered with Uukuniemi Raja.
... Back in the 1990s, several tax havens companies participated in the Karelia Trade business. For example, through Moranmuir, registered in Gibraltar, the company paid significant commissions to Russia.
Matti Harkko, deputy judge from Lappeenranta, was in charge of Moranmuir by proxy. According to Harko, Moranmuir belonged to Kai Paananen.
“I don't remember who owned the company,” says Paananen.
He claims he knows nothing about the owners of the other safe haven companies, but justifies their use by the difficulties of Russian banking.
IMMEDIATELY before the bankruptcy, Karelia Trade sold its property to Timchenko. He spent 4.5 million Finnish marks on the Kulosaari house and 2.2 million on a summer house in Saimaa, which is called the Karelia Trade center for education and recreation.
Back in 1994, the Swiss company Cervin Treuhand planned to buy the Kulosaari house from Karelia Trade, but the deal did not materialize. In turn, Karelia Trade handed over to Cervin Treuhand the machinery of its Russian plywood factory in Lahdenpohja, worth about 4 million Finnish marks.
Cervin Treuhand could have belonged to Timchenko, as the company paid compensation to Karelia Trade for renovating a house and furniture in Kulosaari.
When Timchenko moved to Switzerland in 2000, ownership of the Saimaa was transferred first to IPP and then to SET. Kulosaari's house was sold to an outsider.
Timchenko's companies Merropoint and Porremoint remained in the office of the law firm Matti Harkko at Valtakatu in Lappeenranta.
Merropoint bought an aircraft for Gennady Timchenko's Airfix Aviation.
In the 2010s, SET's net sales increased to 260 million euros.
SET has also developed environmental protection technology. Putin, who seemingly stepped down as prime minister in 2010, announced in Lappeenranta that Russia would buy a new oil spill response vessel from SET ...
Timchenko, Arkady Rotenberg and Finnish citizen Boris Rotenberg bought the Jokerit hockey team in 2013. After the deal, Jokerit entered the 2008 KHL League.
The following year, Timchenko and Rotenberg were added to the US and EU sanctions list. They relinquished ownership of Jokerit, and in 2014 Timchenko announced that she had sold her Cypriot parent company IPP, to no one was told.
The only person in charge of IPP Finland is Heimo Hakamo, according to whom the company will continue to fall apart.
In the fall of 2015, MTV revealed how Paananen, in consultation with Hakamo, was trying to help Timchenko and save Airfix Aviation from US sanctions. Airfix was transferred to SET in 2014, shortly before Timchenko was put on the sanctions list.
This arrangement also did not prevent Airfix from being sanctioned in July 2015, while Paananen himself was the only indigenous Finn to be sanctioned. The reason is Timchenko's financial assistance.
"My only crime is that I know the Russians," said an indignant Paananen. "
Tomasz Wisniewski
To be continued
