Trading firm Gunvor, accused by US of being ‘Kremlin’s puppet,’ drops plan to buy Lukoil assets

GENEVA (AP) — A top-tier international commodities trader has dropped plans to buy the international assets of Russia oil company Lukoil as it rejected U.S. government allegations of being “the Kremlin’s puppet.”

Trading firm Gunvor, whose main trading office is in Geneva, announced on X that it’s withdrawing its proposal to acquire the Lukoil assets, a deal that the Russian company announced last week. Lukoil said it agreed to the deal, pending some conditions — including permission from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC. Terms of the deal were not specified.

On the same social media platform late Thursday, the Treasury Department alluded to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to send Russian troops to invade Ukraine in February 2022 and U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the war, which has killed and injured hundreds of thousands of people.

“President Trump has been clear that the war must end immediately,” the department’s post on X said. “As long as Putin continues the senseless killings, the Kremlin’s puppet, Gunvor, will never get a license to operate and profit.”

Gunvor, in its post shortly afterward, said Treasury’s statement about it was “fundamentally misinformed and false.”

“Gunvor is and has always been open and transparent about its ownership and business, and has for more than a decade actively distanced itself from Russia, stopped trading in line with sanctions, sold off Russian assets, and publicly condemned the war in Ukraine,” the post said.

“We welcome the opportunity to ensure this clear misunderstanding is corrected. In the meantime, Gunvor withdraws its proposal for Lukoil’s international assets,” it added.

Gunvor was founded by Swedish oil magnate Torbjörn Törnqvist, its chairman, and Gennady Timchenko, an oligarch close to Putin. Its headquarters are in Nicosia, Cyprus.

The company says Timchenko is no longer affiliated with Gunvor and his shares, in anticipation of “potential economic sanctions,” were sold to Törnqvist in March 2014 — as Russia moved to annex the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine.

Lukoil had said it was selling its international assets in response to U.S. sanctions, which aim to push Russia to agree to a ceasefire in its war against Ukraine. The company has stakes in oil and gas projects in 11 countries, refineries in Bulgaria and Romania, and a 45% stake in a refinery in the Netherlands, as well as gas stations in many countries.