The company ČEZ has repeatedly requested exemptions from the sanction regime in order to trade with Czech engineering companies owned by Rosatom or sanctioned oligarch Pumpyansky, writes Seznam Zpravy.

“Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the Financial Analytical Unit (FAU) has granted 33 Czech organizations exemptions from anti-Russian sanctions.

According to the response provided to Seznam Zprávy in accordance with the Information Act, the agency has granted exceptions to some applicants on multiple occasions.

“In all cases, the exception was granted because it allows for the relevant EU legislation that imposes a sanction regime,” wrote Magdalena Plevova, Director of the Legal Department of the Financial Analytical Unit. The majority of the granted exceptions are related to nuclear energy (37% of cases) and pharmaceuticals (45%). “In other cases, the reasons were so diverse that they are not statistically significant”, - Plevova added.

Although the agency does not disclose the names of the applicants or other specific data about them, it is clear that in the case of nuclear energy, the exceptions were mainly requested by ČEZ to continue cooperation with certain engineering companies. As for pharmaceuticals, the applicants are not as clear, but it is known that the requests were related to exporting certain substances to Russia for the production of medicines. The fact that applications were made to the Financial Analytical Unit for exemptions from sanctions was confirmed by the semi-state energy company ČEZ, which owns the Czech nuclear power plants in Temelín and Dukovany. The company’s spokesperson, Ladislav Kriz, informed the editorial office that “no more than ten” such requests were submitted.

“These are exceptions mainly for nuclear energy, but there are also other critical infrastructure facilities”, he clarified. Without these exceptions, the spokesperson said, they would not be able to continue working with certain Czech contractors who have (or had) Russian owners and, in some cases, are also subjects subject to sanctions.

Ladislav Kriz confirmed that ČEZ’s requests for exceptions concerned, for example, engineering companies MSA, Škoda JS, and Arako. Due to the sanctions, said the spokesperson, ČEZ had to check a total of 155,000 legal entities.

The exception for trade with the engineering company MSA, a valve manufacturer located in Dolni Benesov in the Opava district, was necessary at least until August of last year.

Until that moment, the Czech register of beneficial owners listed the sanctioned Russian oligarch Dmitry Pumpyansky as the ultimate owner. The Opava company had been owned by his TMK group for many years. Since August, two other Russians from Dmitry Pumpyansky’s circle have been registered as ultimate owners of MSA”, - writes the author.