[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 47 (Friday, March 15, 2024)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E255]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          UNITED CEMENT GROUP

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. WESLEY HUNT

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, March 15, 2024

  Mr. HUNT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to inquire about a possible and 
deliberate violation of U.S. imposed sanctions due to Russian 
aggression.
  As the war in Ukraine carries on and as Russian sanctions are 
imposed, I worry that our focus on Russian assets and agents in Europe 
has overlooked assets and agents in former Soviet republics such as 
Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.
  I would like to draw specific attention to various companies 
registered in Cyprus which operate in these former Soviet republics. 
One such example is a Cyprus-registered company which operates in 
Uzbekistan and Russia called United Cement Group (UCG).
  UCG acquired the Uzbekistan government's stake in one of the 
country's largest cement factories in early 2022 in what has been 
described as an ``opaque'' transaction with no formal tender and a 
significant discount on the sale price. This acquisition by UCG has 
positioned the company to now control about 50 percent of Uzbekistan's 
cement capacity.
  We are seeing monopolization under the guise of privatization, to the 
benefit of Russia.
  This is just one example of a bad actor in these relatively 
overlooked countries that are taking advantage of the international 
focus on Ukraine. I will be sending a letter to Treasury Secretary 
Yellen imploring her to further investigate these apparently corrupt 
improprieties and potential sanctions violations that continue to 
transpire in this region of the world.

                          ____________________