exclusive
Despite indications of military use, the Frankfurt airport operator Fraport continues to hold shares in St. Petersburg Airport. According to the company, you cannot cancel. Research by WDR and NDR however, show possible exit clauses.
When Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plane crashed shortly after takeoff in the area around Moscow on August 23, it sparked worldwide speculation about the possible death of the mercenary boss. Prigozhin and his entourage were on their way to St. Petersburg Pulkovo Airport, the fourth largest airport in the country.
The German airport group Fraport still has an indirect 25 percent stake in its operating company – as does the Russian state bank VTB. A political issue that the opposition in Hesse is heavily criticizing. Especially since NDR, WDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) revealed that planes from the Wagner mercenary force also repeatedly stopped off in Pulkovo. The Hessian state government, which together with the city of Frankfurt holds the majority of Fraport’s shares, had repeatedly asserted that it was not possible to withdraw from the contract.
Possible Get out clauses
But in the original contract – a public-private partnership agreement that was concluded between the Pulkovo operating company and the Russian authorities and the city of St. Petersburg in 2010 – it sounds different. WDR and NDR could now see it. It contains a so-called “force majeure” clause and an “illegality clause”. Such clauses are intended to create an opportunity in contracts to consider the contract as partially no longer binding should unexpected force majeure events occur.
Almost all other contracts that Fraport has approved as co-owner or signed itself also refer to these clauses – loan agreements, seizure agreements and guarantees that were concluded around the financing of the airport expansion.
Frank Bernardi from the law firm Rödl und Partner considers an attempt to exit under certain circumstances to be conceivable: “From a force majeure point of view, it is difficult to terminate such contracts. However, one could partly rely on the force majeure clauses and the illegality clauses and thereby argue that it is unreasonable for the group to continue to hold the share and thereby indirectly support acts of war.” Of course, this is not an easy route; there is always a residual risk that the company could be sued for damages.
“Every contract can be terminated”
Sanctions expert Viktor Winkler, the German Bundestag’s expert on the Sanctions Enforcement Act, goes even further in his assessment: “The statement that the contract cannot be terminated is nonsense. Every contract can be terminated, even if it is extraordinary,” said Winkler. He argues that since Fraport’s fulfillment of the contracts would violate sanctions, Fraport should not fulfill them at all. “The obligations have expired as a result. You can no longer watch this back and forth,” said Winkler.
Fraport, on the other hand, is convinced that the group cannot withdraw from the investment: the examination of the contracts to which Fraport is legally bound did not reveal any contractual clauses on which an early termination of the contracts by Fraport could be successfully based, the group explained Inquiry.
Ministry: Military use not proven
In the budget committee, Hesse’s Finance Minister Michael Boddenberg also confirmed that there was a force majeur clause in the contracts. But you can only draw this if you are no longer able to fulfill your obligations as a result of a force majeure event. Since Fraport is only indirectly involved, such a termination cannot be enforced.
In the budget committee he also questioned whether there was any evidence that the airport was used for military purposes. “The Hessian Ministry of Finance has drawn the conclusions from regular contact with the Foreign Office that there is no evidence or reliable evidence of military use of Pulkovo Airport in Russia’s war against Ukraine.”
This statement is surprising given the fact that WDR, NDR and SZ had already reported in July about several Wagner aircraft and a long-range bomber equipped with cruise missiles that had used Pulkovo. Military bloggers also report on other military aircraft that are stationed at Pulkovo: For example, an Ilyushin IL-76MD from the Russian Air Force is said to have been spotted at Pulkovo Airport on July 16, 2023.
Criticism from the FDP
For Marion Schardt-Sauer, member of the FDP state parliament, all of this is difficult to understand: “Vladimir Putin is responsible for Russia’s attack on Ukraine, which violates international law, as well as the cruel and ongoing war, and there is an arrest warrant against him for terrible war crimes. Whoever “Even thinking about any relationship or business with such a despot weakens the fight for the freedom of Ukraine and the freedom of Europe.”