Транснистриядағы "Шериф" компаниясының ықпалы

Company in Transnistria

Sheriff (Шериф) is the second largest company in the unrecognised breakaway state Transnistria, behind Moldova Steel Works. Based in the city of Tiraspol, it was formed in the early 1990s by Viktor Gushan and Ilya Kazmaly, former members of the KGB. Sheriff has grown to include nearly all forms of profitable private business in the unrecognised country, and has even become significantly involved in local politics and sport, with some commentators saying that company loyalists hold most main government positions in the territory. Anatoly Dirun, director of the Tiraspol School of Political Studies, stated that "Viktor Gushan is the person with the most influence here, both in politics and economics."

Sheriff owns a chain of petrol stations, a chain of supermarkets, a TV channel, a publishing house, a construction company, a Mercedes Benz dealer, an advertising agency, a spirits factory, two bread factories, a mobile phone network, the football club FC Sheriff Tiraspol and its home ground Sheriff Stadium, a project which also included a five star hotel.

Due to Transnistrian government policies that have isolated the region from the rest of Moldova, Sheriff holds a monopoly in multiple industries in the unrecognized state. In the early years, this has also led to corruption between the government of Igor Smirnov and Sheriff. Over the years, Transnistria's indeterminate status has slowed the growth of Sheriff. When a new party, Renewal, was formed in 2000 which had the goal of Transnistrian independence from Moldova and also supported big business interests, Sheriff supported them, Sheriff co founder IIya Kazmaly, as well as the company's Human Resources Director, Ilona Tyuryaeva, were elected to serve in Transnistrian parliament as members of Renewal. Sheriff has used its economic clout to sway elections in Transnistria, by virtue of their ownership of the country's mobile/landline phone network and of TSV, a local television station. However, in the 2011 Transnistrian presidential election, Shevchuk beat both Igor Smirnov and Renewal's new leader Anatoliy Kaminski to become president. On 29 December 2012, Shevchuk issued a decree abolishing all preferences previously granted to Sheriff by Igor Smirnov and which ending the period of the company's unfair market position in Transnistria's economy. In 2015, it was alleged that roughly one third of all the money from the Transnistrian budget was paid out to companies owned by Sheriff.