nuclear warheads, or just one really, really big one.51 It is
the most destructive missile in Russia’s arsenal and one
that Yuzmash already has orders to maintain for Russia’s
military modernization program, so it’s not one that Putin
would like to be seen in the control of other countries,
particularly those that are western friendly, or among the
faction of the billionaires who may decide to raise the costs
of components at a later date. But giving up Yuzhmash and
building a new facility inside Russia wouldn’t
b e
economical either.
According to a Federation of
American Scientists report on the Satan
missile, “Manufacturing of SS-18s in Russia
would be expensive, and could require 5 to
7 years of design work to begin at least
tests at a cost of 8-10 billion rubles.”52
Because of the strategic value of such a
SS-18
missile production site it is easy to see
why Russia would be interested in
controlling the place it is located, but
Yuzhmash probably won’t be handed
over so easily, unless Putin
believes the
benefits
o
f
Satan
materials for energy production are at the heart of
Kolomoisky’s Ukranaft operation, a company that is listed
as a major client of the Russian company
Stroygazmontazh, otherwise known as the SGM Group.
SGM specializes in the construction of industrial facilities,
trunk pipelines, gas and oil processing plants, and
development of gas and oil fields. Stroygazmontazh and
Ukranaft’s operations include pipelines, energy production
facilities, and processing plants in Crimea and along the
Ukraine-Russia border where the Dnieper-Donets Basin
lies.55 According to the USGS, the basin contains 1.6
billion barrels of oil and 59 trillion cubic feet of gas within a
total single petroleum system.56 And of course Kolomoisky
isn’t the only one interested in profiting from the raw
materials within his region and along
the Dnieper-Donets basin.
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Donetsk,
on
the
southern tip
of the DnieperDonets and just
east
of
Dnipropetrovsk,
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by
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and
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at
$13.2
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He
started
out
Ukrainian natural gas debt. So
selling
coal
to
steel
mills,
factories,
and
power
plants
with
there is still optimism that Putin will
business partner Akhat Bragin, a man who was accused of
stop short of a full scale invasion
of Ukraine, but he does seem to
b e being a crime boss before being killed in a 1995 explosion
58 After Bragin’s
eyeing the country with much
m o r e at his Donetsk soccer club’s stadium.
vigor than some of the other
“ f r o z e n ” death Akhmetov took over ownership of the team, some of
b o r d e r c o n fl i c t s h e o r h i s
p r e d e c e s s o r s whose members have refused to return to Donetsk since
initiated within eastern Europe. It’s still anybody’s guess as the fighting broke out in the area. Besides playing his
to how far the “pro-Russian separatists” will go or how Donetsk soccer team against their Russian rivals,
many of them already have local financial backing. After all, Akhmetov’s other dealings with Russia include the 2010
Ukraine is not just a weapons making state, it is also a System Capital Management (SCM) purchase of Russia’s
natural gas corridor between eastern and western Europe Ukrainian unit of the Renaissance Credit Group based in
and it is a country full of nuclear related facilities and Donetsk.59 At the time the unit had 31 bank branches and
experts in the field.
was Ukraine’s “104th biggest bank by assets.” Akhmetov’s
Also in Kolomoisky’s Dnipropetrovsk Region is the SCM was most likely also conducting high-dollar business
state owned Eastern Mining and Processing Complex, “the transactions with various Russian enterprises from 2004 to
only enterprise in Ukraine engaged in the mining of 2009, a time when Ukrainian outward foreign direct
uranium ore and the production of a uranium oxide investment (OFDI) in Russia increased from $94.6 million to
concentrate.”53 It is the largest such complex in Europe, $165.5 million.60 The only other country to have higher
with it’s headquarters located in Zhovty Vody, Ukrainian OFDI for that same time period was Cyprus, the
Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.54 Mining and the supply of raw country where Akhmetov’s SCM Holdings Limited is locat[27]