In a statement released on November 23 the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine (ZCMC) insisted that the businessman in question is no longer its majority shareholder and that no international sanctions were currently applicable to the company.
Sanctions targeting Russian businessmen over Russia’s war in Ukraine that Washington announced in early November also included those imposed on several businesses of Gleb Trotsenko, a purported close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin. AEON Corporation owned by the Trotsenko family was also mentioned in the sanctions list.
Both Trotsenko and AEON Corporation have links with Armenia. According to Armenia’s State Register, Trotsenko is the largest shareholder in the ZCMC, holding a 40-percent stake in the company, which is based in the country’s southern Syunik province.
It was due to Trotsenko’s acquiring the largest stake in the ZCMC and donating part of it to Armenia that the Armenian government also became a shareholder of the company in 2021, currently holding a more than 20-percent stake in it.
The ZCMC explained, however, that Trotsenko, who formerly did hold a beneficial ownership position in the company, no longer retained such status “due to the alienation of all his indirect shares in the Company on October 27, 2023.”
“Currently, there is no relationship between Mr. Trotsenko and the Company,” the ZCMC said.
In its press release the ZCMC provided a link to the official website of the State Register of Legal Entities of Armenia’s Ministry of Justice, according to which Trotsenko’s name is absent from the list of the company’s shareholders.
The biggest shareholder listed there is Svetlana Ershova, a Russian citizen with a participation size of nearly 48 percent. Ershova is known to have had business links with the company owned by Gleb Trotsenko’s father Roman Trotsenko.
“The ZCMC remains steadfast in its commitment to transparent corporate governance, and periodic publication of ultimate beneficial owners’ declarations according to the Armenian legislation underscores the Company’s continuous efforts to uphold the highest standards of business conduct,” it said.
The ZCMC was Armenia’s number one tax payer in 2022 and remains one this year. According to the data released by Armenia’s State Revenue Committee, the company contributed 52,4 billion drams (nearly $130 million) to the state budget during the first nine months of 2023.