A businessman connected to Russia and an assistant to MP Zhelezniak wants to seize Kyiv's Atlas Plaza from the Atlas festival team
Kyiv • UNN
Businessman Maksym Shulzhenko, linked to Russia, has filed a lawsuit to reclaim the Atlas Plaza premises, which ARMA transferred to new managers. Shulzhenko is threatening the Atlas Plaza team, who report pressure and intimidation.
A scandal has erupted in Kyiv around the Atlas Plaza concert venue (formerly Stereo Plaza). This premise is sought to be returned under the control of Russian-linked businessman Maksym Shulzhenko, who was an assistant to People's Deputy Yaroslav Zheleznyak. Shulzhenko filed a lawsuit with the Holosiivskyi court for the return of the building and is threatening the team of the new Atlas Plaza manager - the owners of the Atlas festival, UNN reports with reference to UNIAN.
In November of this year, ARMA transferred the Atlas Plaza premises to new managers for a five-year period, with an obligation to transfer at least UAH 44 million to the state budget. Previously, this building was seized due to the origin of its owners - Russian citizens associated with the defense industry and weapons production.
As Dmytro Sydorenko, CEO of Atlas Festival, notes, the former tenant of the venue, Maksym Shulzhenko, has direct ties to Russia and continued to transfer funds to the Russian owners of the building even after February 24, 2022.
"His father is a current Russian official, a graduate of the Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation. There is also data that in 2009, Shulzhenko, together with his mother, applied for Russian citizenship," writes the CEO of Atlas Festival.
After the war began in 2014, Shulzhenko continued to hold concerts in Kyiv for Basta and other Russian artists who publicly promoted pro-Russian rhetoric. A year before the full-scale invasion, Shulzhenko created a public organization that included one of the largest Russian concert agencies - "Melnitsa", as well as other structures that had ties to Russia. It was this NGO that publicly attacked the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation before the competition, - notes Dmytro Sydorenko.
The owners of the Atlas festival report attempts to pressure technical staff, partners, and tenants, as well as cases of intimidation of employees. These actions are called an attempt to destabilize the work of one of the country's largest cultural venues.
"Today, we see an attempt to return a strategically important cultural venue under the control of structures with a toxic Russian trace. We are already preparing materials for law enforcement agencies," the Atlas Plaza management stated.