The Russian investor and pharmaceutical billionaire Viktor Charitonin wants to buy the insolvent Frankfurt-Hahn Airport.
German politics opposes this.
Frankfurt am Main – The Russian billionaire Viktor Charitonin wants to buy the insolvent Frankfurt-Hahn Airport.
In 2014, about six months after Russia annexed Crimea, he took over two-thirds of the Nürburgring in Rhineland-Palatinate.
Now, after the famous racetrack, the insolvent airport near Frankfurt am Main is to follow.
Purchase price: 20 million euros.
The purchase seems possible as the 50-year-old Russian is not on any list of sanctions against Russian businessmen imposed after the start of the Ukraine war.
The United States, on the other hand, has him on the so-called "Putin List," a listing that includes Russian government officials and oligarchs.
Charitonin's fortune was estimated by
Forbes magazine
to be around $1.4 billion.
This ranked him 66th on the list of the richest Russians.
He is said to have earned a large part of his money through a pharmaceutical company he founded in 2003.
His business partner: Ex-Chelsea London owner Roman Abramowitsch, reports
t-online.de
.
Your company "Pharmstandard" probably also produced the Russian Covid vaccine Sputnik V. Its co-founder Abramovich is on the EU sanctions list.
Why is Russian billionaire Charitonin interested in the airport?
According to tagesschau.de
, Charitonin has
a passion for vintage cars and hates the public.
Frankfurt-Hahn Airport is close to its Nürburgring racetrack and can be quickly reached by helicopter without attracting much attention.
Night flights are also permitted at Hahn Airport.
Due to its favorable location, Frankfurt-Hahn was a military airport with the appropriate facilities until the 1990s.
This also includes an all-weather landing system and a runway almost four kilometers long.
This would also allow Russian Antonov An-224 transport aircraft for goods or armed forces to land, reports
tagesschau.de
.
The state of Hesse is opposed to the sale of Frankfurt-Hahn Airport
The Hessian Ministry of Finance is against the possible sale of the insolvent airport in Hunsrück to a Russian investor.
"We ask the federal government, which is entrusted with examining the process in accordance with the Foreign Trade and Payments Act, to explore all of its options for preventing this sale," the ministry said in Wiesbaden on Monday.
A corresponding letter to the federal government is in preparation.
"The insolvency administrator will also be contacted," it said.
Hesse sees the possible sale to a Russian investor as "extremely critical".
The country had once entered the airport with 17.5 percent.
Economics Minister Habeck initiates review
Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) comments on the planned sale: "We are currently screening it," he told the Reuters news agency on Monday during his visit to Washington.
Such investment reviews would always be conducted when there was concern that critical infrastructure could potentially be affected.
"So also in this case.
But that will take a few weeks now."
(with dpa)
