Family of MP from "OPFL" Bort has agricultural firm in occupied Zaporizhzhia region that pays millions of rubles in taxes to Russian budget – media
The family of Vitalii Bort, a Member of Parliament from the banned "OPFL" (Opposition Platform – For Life) party, owns an agricultural business in the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region that has been re-registered under Russian laws. The company pays millions of rubles in taxes to the budget of the aggressor state.
This is stated in an investigation by Schemes (a Radio Liberty project), Censor.NET reports.
Company re-registered under Russian laws
The journalists' investigation focuses on "Agrofirma Nyva" – an enterprise founded in the village of Uspenivka, Zaporizhzhia region, in the late 90s. In 2023, after the occupation of Uspenivka by Russian troops, the company was officially registered under the laws of the Russian Federation.
Investigators note that this was not an automatic but a conscious action – as confirmed by documents from the registration file of "Agrofirma Nyva" obtained by Schemes.
As far back as 2012, Olha Bort, the wife of Vitaliy Bort, appeared among its owners through another company, "Agrofirma Progres"; prior to that, the MP himself was an owner.
Following the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in August 2022, Olha Bort gifted a 75% stake in "Agrofirma Progres" – the co-founding company of "Agrofirma Nyva" – to her father, Anatoliy Trandafilov. Schemes has obtained the corresponding deed of gift.
It is noted that Trandafilov is not only MP Bort's father-in-law but also his former assistant on a voluntary basis.
At the time of the agreement, the MP's wife was in Florida and used a proxy. According to the journalists, a woman with the same name is mentioned in Bort's declarations as a 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 "Nyva" to Larysa Poladian – a close relative of the MP and the sister of his wife, Olha Bort.
In the transfer deed, Larysa Poladian is listed as a citizen of Ukraine, although at that time she already held a Russian passport issued in 2022 in Rostov-on-Don.
"Later, a copy of the transfer deed and its Russian translation were included in the registration file of 'Agrofirma Nyva,' and according to the minutes of the meeting, it was Poladyan who initiated bringing the company's documents into compliance with Russian law," Schemes reported.
The journalists found that Poladian traveled to Kyiv to finalize the deal for the purchase of the company stake, as evidenced by both her signatures on documents certified by a Kyiv notary and border crossing records. She entered Ukraine a month before signing the documents, in March 2023, and left a few days later, in late April 2023.
Currently, MP Bort's family co-owns "Agrofirma Nyva" in the Zaporizhzhia region, holding a 50% stake alongside another Russian citizen.
Taxes to the Russian budget
According to the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation, between 2023 and the end of 2025, the agricultural firm's net profit from trade with Russian companies amounted to almost a quarter of a billion rubles. This was 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.
Furthermore, as the journalists discovered, for the certification of its products, "Agrofirma Nyva" utilizes services including a network of private laboratories owned by a sanctioned businessman from the circle of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
