To Vima reveals close ties of Russian oligarch Lebedev with government

By Haris Karanikas

Companies owned by Russian oligarch Leonid Lebedev - who is on the Forbes list of billionaires and owns energy colossus Sintez - which have been granted permits to do business in the natural gas sector in Greece reportedly have received from offshore companies loans that have been written off, have created structures without transparency, have used straw men, and have enjoyed close ties with the SYRIZA-Independent Greeks coalition government.

Lebedev's first attempt to do business in Greece came in 2013 when Russian companies sought to acquire DEPA (Public Gas Corporation of Greece)-DESFA (Hellenic Gas Transmission System Operator SA) without results at the time.

There was a renewed interest in 2015 when the SYRIZA-Independent Greeks coalition came to power when then energy minister Panagiotis Lafazanis was said to be negotiating with Russia a five billion US dollars down payment on the Turkish Stream gas pipeline, offering as collateral the completion of the project in order to secure liquidity in the event of a prospective Grexit.

At that time there was being developed a network of companies in Greece, Cyprus, and Luxembourg and an offshore company based primarily in the British Virgin Islands.

The companies were said to be linked with the interests of the Russian oligarch although that was not reflected with transparency in the list of shareholders.

How the expansion of the network began in Greece

In Greece, the companies of this labyrinthine network "expanded" in two phases.

The first, named Windows International Hellas SA, was established in Greece as a subsidiary of the Luxembourg company Windows International SA in November, 2015.

Members of the law...