The Ministry of Justice reminds that at the end of May, the National Security and Defense Council will publish the first decisions on the recognition of persons as oligarchs. The relevant register will include those who will have the following attributes: the presence of significant assets, monopoly in a particular market of goods, participation in political life and control of the media.
"The criterion in terms of politics is very simple and easy to check. First of all it is if a person holds any political position or has close relatives or business partners in political positions. The next criterion is media ownership. There are thousands of media outlets, especially TV channels, which are obliged to publicly disclose their ownership structure - who are their owners and ultimate beneficiaries. We go to the appropriate website, look at the information on the ownership structure or ask the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting and see who of these potential candidates for oligarchy are officially in the ownership structure of the media," said Minister of Justice Denis Maliuska.
He also added that the ownership structure of any company can be checked through the Single State Register.
"Also it is easy to see declarations of MPs, how much money they have and whether it is within the limits stated in the law on oligarchs. It is also possible to look at the companies they own. You can see a turnover of these companies, their assets - everything is online," underlined Maliuka.
The head of the Ministry of Justice said that any interested person can check who is an oligarch and who is not.
"So far, those who have all the signs of an oligarch, have a little over three months to get rid of at least one of them on their own initiative. After all, the key purpose of the law on oligarchs is not to drive them into restrictions, but to encourage them to voluntarily move away from abusing their status," Malyuska added.
