The state of Hesse is appealing to the federal government to stop the sale of Frankfurt-Hahn Airport to a Russian oligarch. “We ask the federal government, which is responsible for examining the process in accordance with the Foreign Trade and Payments Act, to explore all its options for preventing this sale,” said a spokesman for the Ministry of Finance in Wiesbaden.
Hessen sees the business “extremely critically”. The Hessian Minister of Finance, Michael Boddenberg (CDU), wrote to both the Head of the Chancellery, Wolfgang Schmidt (SPD), and the responsible Federal Minister of Economics, Robert Habeck (Greens).
His ministry is now examining whether Frankfurt-Hahn Airport can be sold to a Russian investor. “We’re screening it right now,” Habeck said during a visit to Washington. This is always done when there is concern that critical infrastructure could potentially be affected. Then there is an investment review, “also in this case,” as the minister said. At the same time, Habeck pointed out that the test would take “a few weeks”. There is still no trend as to how the decision will be made. The purchase cannot take effect until the investment review has been completed.
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millions Viktor Charitonin is said to have bid for the airport
According to the Foreign Trade and Payments Act and the corresponding ordinance, the Federal Ministry of Economics can prohibit the sale of a company if the buyer does not come from the European Union and if “as a result of the acquisition, the public order and security of the Federal Republic of Germany or another member state of the European Union (…) is likely to be affected is affected”.
How sensitive the topic is was shown by the fact that on Monday a spokesman for the ministry neither wanted to confirm nor deny that a test procedure was running at all. In addition, he could not say whether the federal government counts Hahn Airport as a critical infrastructure.
Russian investor not on the sanctions list
The Russian oligarch Viktor Charitonin, who also owns a majority of the Nürburgring, wants to buy the airport, whose operating company had to file for bankruptcy in 2021. According to media reports, its operator, NR Holding, submitted a better offer at 20 million euros than the Richter Group, which also wants to buy the airport. Both interested parties have already signed a purchase agreement, as reported by the German Pressr Agency.
Charitonin founded the Russian pharmaceutical company Pharmstandard together with the oligarch Roman Abramovich. His fortune is estimated at $6.2 billion, according to Forbes magazine. Charitonin’s pharmaceutical group was involved in the production of the Russian corona vaccine Sputnik V.
While his longtime business partner Abramovich was sanctioned after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kharitonin’s name is not on either the European or US sanctions lists. He can therefore continue to do business within the EU. However, his name appears on the US Treasury Department’s 2018 so-called “Putin List”, which includes a total of 96 oligarchs alongside high-ranking Russian officials. However, this list should only serve to prepare for possible sanctions.
Frankfurt-Hahn Airport is located in Rhineland-Palatinate. The country had sold its 82.5 percent stake in 2017 to a subsidiary of the Chinese HNA Group. Even then, the airport went to a buyer from a non-EU country – here, too, the Federal Ministry of Economics could have intervened. During the Cold War, the airport was operated by the US Air Force. It is still used by the American military to this day.
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Source: Tagesspiegel
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