Firtash Dmitry Vasilyevich is considered the most influential oligarch in Ukraine. Chemical king, titanium tycoon, gas baron - as soon as he is not called! The success of his business lies in being in the right place at the right time.
Childhood and youth
The future Ukrainian billionaire was born in a small village in the Ternopil region in 1965. His father worked as a driver for many years, and having gained a lot of experience, he began to share it with the students of the driving school. The mother had two degrees: a veterinarian and an economist, she worked as an accountant at a factory. In 1984, Dmitry graduated from the railway vocational school in Krasny Liman and went to the army on conscription. After the service he worked as a firefighter in Chernivtsi, and in the late 80s he became an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneur
Dmitry Vasilievich has achieved the main successes in his biography over the past decade and a half. And the entrepreneur started his activity, like many others, from trade, first in Chernivtsi, then in Moscow. He traded in sugar, juice, canned food, once exchanged 4 tons of milk powder for Uzbek wool. The first big deal earned a budding businessman $ 250,000. In order to have a theoretical basis for his activities, he received a law degree.
In the early 90s, the businessman invested in the chemical industry. An important acquisition was the assets of the Tajik-Azot plant, the Central Asian leader in the production of mineral fertilizers. A year later, Firtash invested in the Estonian ammonia plant Nitrofert. The proximity of the company to the Baltic Sea opened up a wide opportunity for trade with neighboring countries. At the same time Dmitry Firtash became the largest shareholder of the Western Ukrainian OJSC Rivneazot, Crimean Titan and a number of chemical plants in the Donetsk region.
Gas tycoon
Dmitry Firtash considers the energy business to be the main focus of his career. In 1993, important metropolitan acquaintances allowed him to start barter trade in Ukrainian food products in exchange for Turkmen gas. A few years later, the company "Eural TransGas" was created, which officially entered into exclusive contracts for this purpose. The businessman received licenses to sell natural gas to Hungary and Poland. Together with Gazprom, the Ukrainian will organize the RosUkrEnergo company, which supplied natural gas to Ukraine and the European Union. It existed for 10 years, and during this time the businessman acquired an Austrian company engaged in the construction of gas pipelines. Wanting to conquer the domestic gas market, Firtash privatized the state-owned stake in gas distribution networks.
Successful businessman
For consolidation and competent asset management in various areas, in 2007 the Group DF group of companies was created. The effective work of the organization brings the businessman a consistently high income. It unites the entire production chain from the moment of extraction of raw materials to the production of final products. To date, enterprises in 11 European countries are involved in it, this is over 100 thousand people. The financial condition of Dmitry Firtash is estimated at three billion dollars, he is one of the five richest Ukrainians.
Firtash tried himself in the banking sector, as the main shareholder of Nadra Bank. An important economic investment of the businessman was the launch of the Mezhdurechensk Combine, which made the country one of the leading suppliers of titanium products. Recently Dmitry Vasilievich made investments in the media sphere and acquired several leading television channels in Ukraine.
The Council of Ukrainian Employers has elected Firtash as its chairman. I must say that now this organization is the basis of the state's economy and unites almost 5 million people.
Politics and scandals
Dmitry Firtash is non-partisan. Only once did he run in parliamentary elections and was defeated. But his activities are often attributed to a political connotation. So at the time of the political crisis, he sponsored the Ukrainian opposition and Euromaidan.
In 2014, a businessman was detained at his office in the Austrian capital on FBI charges of bribery in exchange for obtaining a permit for the development of Indian deposits. Then a record high bail was made for his release - 125 million euros. The second arrest took place three years later, but, like the first time, the businessman was released. His extradition was refused. At the same time, 46 properties of the tycoon were closed, he was accused of concealing taxes on millions of Ukrainian hryvnias.
Personal life
Dmitry Vasilievich was married three times. They knew their first wife Lyudmila from school, and soon a child appeared - daughter Ivanna. He created a second family in Maria Kalinovskaya, many consider the marriage to be fictitious, since they were mainly connected by running a joint business for many years. The third wife, Lada Pavlovna, gave him a daughter, Anna, and a son, Dmitry. Like many businessmen's wives, she opened her own charitable foundation.
