State-owned VTB Bank has spent the past seven years moving assets around Europe in the face of sanctions and Brexit. An investigation by The Currency reveals that its commodities business has landed in Ireland – at least on paper.
The hijacking of a Ryanair flight and the detention of a young journalist are in character for Alexander Lukashenko, the populist leader of Belarus who has never forgotten what Boris Yeltsin once told him
The battle involves oligarchs, ex-KGB figures, as well as allegations of threats, blackmail, corruption and secret recordings. And because of an Irish shelf company, the litigation for an ammonia giant has played out in the Four Courts.
Just how did an Irish shell company become mired in a battle involving Russian oligarchs, fraud, alleged collusion and the 460th most traded product in the world.
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