The family of an OPZZh MP owns an agribusiness in the temporarily occupied territories of Zaporizhzhia and pays taxes to Russia — media reports
According to media reports, the family of Vitaliy Bort, a member of parliament from the banned “OPZZh” party, owns an agricultural company in the temporarily occupied part of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. The company has been re-registered under Russian law and pays millions of rubles in taxes to the Russian Federation’s budget.
This is reported in an investigation by "Schemes" (a project of "Radio Liberty").
The journalists’ investigation focuses on “Agrofirma Niva”—a company founded in the village of Uspenivka in Zaporizhzhia Oblast in the late 1990s. In 2023, following the occupation of Uspenivka by Russian troops, the company was officially registered under Russian law.
Investigators note that this was not an automatic but a deliberate action—as confirmed by documents from the registration file of "Agrofirma "Niva," which "Schemes" managed to obtain.
As early as 2012, Olga Bort, the wife of Vitaliy Bort, appeared among its owners—through another company, “Agrofirma “Progress”—and prior to that, the MP himself had been a shareholder.
After the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in August 2022, Olga Bort gifted a 75% stake in “Agrofirma “Progress”—that is, the co-founding company of “Agrofirma “Niva”—to her father, Anatoliy Trandafilov. The relevant gift agreement is in the possession of "Schemes."
It is noted that Trandafilov is not only the father-in-law of MP Bort, but also his former volunteer assistant.
At the time the agreement was signed, the MP’s wife was in Florida, so she enlisted a trusted representative for this purpose. As journalists reported, a woman with the same name is mentioned in Bort’s declarations as the manager of the MP’s and his wife’s bank accounts.
Less than a year later, in April 2023, the father-in-law’s firm sold its stake in “Niva” to Larisa Poladyan—a close relative of the MP, the sister of his wife Olga Bort.
In the deed of transfer, Larisa Poladyan is listed as a citizen of Ukraine; however, at that time she already held a Russian passport issued in 2022 in Rostov-on-Don.
"Subsequently, a copy of the deed of transfer and its Russian translation were filed in the registration dossier of Agrofirm "Niva," and, as the meeting minutes show, it was Poladyan who initiated bringing the company’s documents into compliance with Russian legislation," Schemes reported.
Journalists found that in order to conclude the agreement to purchase a stake in the company, Poladyan traveled to Kyiv, as evidenced by both her signatures on the documents, certified by a Kyiv notary, and her border crossings. She visited Ukraine a month before the documents were signed—in March 2023—and left a few days later—at the end of April 2023.
Currently, the family of Deputy Bort co-owns the "Agrofirma Niva" in Zaporizhzhia, splitting ownership equally with another Russian citizen.
Taxes to the Russian Federation Budget
According to data from the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation, from 2023 through the end of 2025, the agricultural firm’s net profit from trade with Russian companies amounted to nearly a quarter of a billion rubles. That is over 100 million hryvnias at the time.
During the same period, the company paid over 27 million rubles in taxes to the Russian budget—equivalent to 12 million hryvnias.
In addition, as journalists discovered, to certify its products, "Agrofirma Niva" uses the services of, among others, a network of private laboratories owned by a sanctioned businessman from the inner circle of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
In the Kyiv region, a former member of the Opposition Platform—For Life party was exposed for financing the Russian budget.
As a reminder, a former MP from the banned OPZZ party was notified of suspicion of treason. According to the investigation, after the start of the full-scale war, he was in Russia and publicly supported the actions of the aggressor state. If found guilty, he faces life imprisonment with confiscation of property.
The Office of the Prosecutor General has submitted a resolution to the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv regarding the application of a series of security measures in the case of the MP from the banned OPZZh party.
