Despite two years of war in Ukraine, some MPs and officials continue to act in the interests of the tobacco industry, which actually supports the sponsors of the war. Investigative journalist Yevhen Plinsky noted that Metropolis-Tedis and Borys Kaufman play a key role in lobbying for the interests of the four largest transnational tobacco companies – Philip Morris International, JTI, British American Tobacco and Imperial Tobacco.
“We see that it is in the context of lobbying for the interests of the four largest transnational cigarette manufacturers that Megapolis-Tedis and Borys Kaufman play a key role in communicating with the Ukrainian authorities at all times and in the interests of these companies,” said investigative journalist Yevhen Plinsky.
Dmytro Kupyra, Executive Director of the NGO “Life”, spoke about the peculiarities of tobacco lobbying in the Ukrainian Parliament and who plays a key role in the emergence of this phenomenon. According to him, the price of tobacco products in Ukraine is tightly regulated, which creates great opportunities for distributors to manipulate margins and financial flows.
“This is my guess as to how this lobbying is structured, but it is based on a lot of materials we collect. Ukrainians may be interested to know that the only product in Ukraine whose price is determined by the manufacturer is tobacco products. So if the manufacturer says that a pack of cigarettes costs 70 hryvnias, then even if some oligarch decides to smoke for 100 thousand hryvnias, the seller has no right to sell a pack of cigarettes for more than 70 hryvnias.This is the only product for which our government protects the priceso rigidly . If the tobacco manufacturer has not allowed a penny more, no seller can sell a pack of cigarettes.
What is the distributor’s role here? The role of distributors in this process is key. They determine the price at which a pack of cigarettes reaches the end seller. For example, a distributor can sell a pack for 65 hryvnias, leaving the seller with 5 hryvnias, or for 50 hryvnias, creating a margin of 20 hryvnias. Sellers often receive only a small portion of the profit, making their activities unprofitable without additional incentives such as advertising.
But then this share goes to the distributor, who manages the financial flows and distributes these funds, which are very large sums of money.
There is reason to believe that these are regular payments to government officials, because I don’t think that government officials would be so willing to sacrifice their reputation to either restore indoor smoking or to make a tax preference for the same iqos heating cigarettes. I don’t think they do it for nothing,” Kupira said.
That is, while the country is fighting for its existence, some politicians continue to serve the interests of tobacco companies, such as Philip Morris International, which is actually financing the war. Philip Morris International is one of the largest foreign sponsors of the Russian war, paying 8 billion to the Russian budget in 2022, and is one of the largest donors to the military budget of the killer country.