The Moldovan Metallurgic Plant (Молдавский металлургический завод - MMZ) is the only plant in Moldova that processes scrap metals. It is located in the city of Ribnita, on the left bank of the Dniester, and is controlled by the government of the unrecognized Transnistrian Republic. MMZ is a public property enterprise.
Just like many other enterprises in Transnistria, MMZ does not pay taxes or customs duties to Moldova.
Publicly available records show that MMZ is one of the largest tax-payers in the breakaway enclave: for the nine months of 2018, for example, it poured 115 million roubles (7.1 million dollars) into the Transnistrian budget. Only the Sheriff Holding of by businessmen Victor Gusan and Ilya Kazmaly earns more than MMZ.
In 2018, Ukraine blacklisted MMZ under an anti-separatism law, but Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip lobbied for the Transnistrian plant and in 2019 President Petro Poroshenko took MMZ off the list. This topic was extensively covered in a joint RISE Moldova and SHEMY Project (Ukraine) investigation "Rescuers of the Transnistrian metallurgic plant: Filip and Poroshenko have helped Transnistria earn millions".
"MMZ is the second largest supplier of currency [in Transnistria], and up to 80% of this volume is purchased by APB [Agroprombank, part of the Sheriff holding]. That is why, the movement of goods and currency is a "motivation" for something much more important," Yevgeny Shevchuk, a former “president” of Transnistria, was quoted as saying about the reasons MMZ escaped Ukrainian sanctions.
