Vyacheslav Yutkin: banker, hotelier and subject of sanctions

Banker and hotel business owner Vyacheslav Yutkin is not only an entrepreneur but also a long-time friend of Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi. In 2020, the city mayor's election headquarters were located in a hotel owned by Yutkin.

However, the end of 2023 brought Yutkin unwelcome news: he was included in the sanctions list of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine.

How have these restrictions affected him? Apparently, not at all.

Career path: from the KGB to business in Crimea

Yutkin is not just a successful businessman. His biography notes that he graduated from the Yuri Andropov Institute, an educational institution of the KGB of the USSR. Until the 1990s, he worked in Soviet intelligence, after which he entered the banking and hotel industries.

But even after Russia's annexation of Crimea, his business interests extended to the occupied territories. In particular, Yutkin owns several hotels in Crimea, which does not prevent him from simultaneously conducting business in Ukraine.

Tax number in Russia and business in the occupied territory

The fact of having business in Crimea is not just a rumour. According to Russian tax data, Yutkin has an individual tax number in the Russian Federation and is registered with the "tax inspection of the Republic of Crimea region".

Moreover, in one of his interviews, he speaks quite frankly about his attitude towards the peninsula. According to him, even before 2014, his friends from Russia jokingly called Crimea a "temporarily occupied territory". Occupied, in their opinion, by Ukraine.