Tantalit

Tantalit (TOB; Ukrainian: Танталіт, Russian: Танталит) is an originally Ukrainian association with limited liability. According to the State Committee of Statistics of Ukraine, the association was founded by the Austrian company Euro East Beteiligungs GmbH from Vienna^[1] and a native of Donetsk named Pavlo Lytovchenko (born in 1980, aged 41–42).

The company legally owns 129 ha (320 acres) of the former state property Mezhyhirya, the former residence of former President Viktor Yanukovych. This is because in the 2000s, former President Viktor Yuschenko agreed the transfer of 139.7 hectares of land at Mezhyhirya for a 49-year lease to the Tantalit company.^[2] Before the Revolution of Dignity, a share in the company was owned by the pro-Russian Ukrainian politician Andriy Klyuyev, who was close to former President Viktor Yanukovych.^[3] Before fleeing Ukraine, Klyuyev sold his share in Tantalit.^[4]

The company has been implicated as one of the holdings used by Yanukovych to embezzle funds,^[5] as well as act as a cover for full ownership of the Mezhyhirya property, of which its privatisation in 2007 was alleged as illegal by opposition activists.^[6]

According to rumours, one of the current owners is a resident of the United Arab Emirates.^[7] In 2018, a lawyer from the company arrived at Mezhyhirya to allege that the protestors occupying the complex were "thugs" and that on 22 February 2014 protestors broke into Mezhyhirya in what was a criminal action and that they were now illegally occupying it. Though legal paperwork was prepared, a lawsuit was never filed, reportedly because of Ukrainian popular support for those occupying the complex.^[8]