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Russian court orders nationalization of Poroshenko's factory in Lipetsk

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Russian court orders nationalization of Poroshenko's factory in Lipetsk
The Roshen chocolate factory in Kyiv on July 2, 2014. Photo for illustrative purposes. (Unkel/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

A court in Russia's Lipetsk Oblast on Feb. 19 ordered a confectionary factory owned by former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in the region to be nationalized.

The factory was used by Poroshenko's Roshen company.

Following the beginning of Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2014, the factory's property was seized and Russia's Investigative Committee began an investigation into its alleged fraudulent activities. Roshen ceased operations at the Lipetsk plant in 2017.

The court ordered the remaining shares of the factory to be nationalized, and also banned Poroshenko, his son Oleksii Poroshenko, and the former owner of the factory, Oleh Kazakov, from operating in Russia.

The decision may still be appealed.

Poroshenko founded Roshen in the 1990s. It has since become one of the largest producers of confectionaries in the world.

According to the corporate website, Roshen has six factories in Ukraine, as well as one in Lithuania and another in Hungary.

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Nate Ostiller

News Editor

Nate Ostiller is a former News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. He works on special projects as a researcher and writer for The Red Line Podcast, covering Eastern Europe and Eurasia, and focused primarily on digital misinformation, memory politics, and ethnic conflict. Nate has a Master’s degree in Russian and Eurasian Studies from the University of Glasgow, and spent two years studying abroad at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Ukraine. Originally from the USA, he is currently based in Tbilisi, Georgia.

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