Little Rock, AR – (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette) – August 24, 2025 – A report in Sunday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette suggests an Arkansas agricultural equipment dealer with ties to a Russian oligarch is at the center of an international battle over ownership of a canned food company halfway around the world.

According to the story written by Arkansas Democrat-Gazette staff writer Brett Barrouquere the attention centers on MirTech Harvest Center in Jonesboro, which is being subpoenaed by a California company trying to regain control of Glavproduct Group, its canned food company in Moscow that was the sole supplier of food to Russia’s National Guard.

Barrouquere reported that U.S. District Judge James Moody granted a request from Universal Beverage Company to subpoena records from MirTech as it fights in a Russian court to regain control of its canned food business. Universal Beverage said in court records it plans to appeal the decision by a Russian court and retake control of the business.

The legal fight took place under seal in U.S. District Court in Little Rock from late June until Moody released the records publicly on Aug. 12.

The Democrat-Gazette story says Moody found that MirTech had a direct tie to a Russian oligarch through marriage. Kirill Krattli, the son of MirTech’s owner Natalie Krattli, is married to the niece of Alexander Tkachev, the former Minister of Agriculture for the Russian Federation and a one-time regional governor.

“He is a politically connected oligarch,” Moody wrote.

Barrouquere writes that Tkachev, the main shareholder in the Russian company Agrocomplex, has been sanctioned by eight countries and the European Union, primarily stemming from Russia’s invasion and ongoing war with Ukraine. He also served as Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation and was awarded a medal “for the liberation of Crimea” stemming from Russia’s annexation of that part of Ukraine.

And that connection brought a legal fight 5,522 miles, from Moscow to Arkansas Barrouquere’s story says.

The issue first arose in October, when Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized the government to take “temporary administration” over the Glavproduct Group, a $200 million company.

“On information and belief, the decree was signed following intensive lobbying by Alexander Tkachev,” wrote Jacob Fair, the Little Rock-based attorney for Universal Beverage.

A few days later, the Russian Federation took ownership of the Glavproduct Group, fired the American managers of the company and replaced them with Russians. The Russian government in March started civil forfeiture procedures to take the company.

The Democrat-Gazette story says Fair said the Krattlis are running MirTech for the benefit of Tkachev and that the Krattlis have profited from the government’s seizure of the Glavproduct Group.

A Russian court in mid-July handed Glavproduct Group over to the government, Reuters reported. Universal Beverage said it intends to appeal the ruling.

As they attempt to claw back the company from the Russian government, Universal Beverage pressed its attempt to get documents from MirTech stretching from June 1, 2020, through the Russian government takeover, covering everything from communications between Tkachev’s companies and sales documents.

Attorneys for MirTech called the push for documents a “fishing expedition” and told Moody that, because the Russian legal proceedings are done, the request is moot.

“I have no idea if your client can introduce new ‘evidence’ on an appeal in Russia — obviously they could not in America — because for use on appeal was not the basis for or requested in the petition,” Chris McNulty, an attorney for MirTech, said in an email to Fair.

Fair, in response to McNulty, said the documents can be used in Russia, that his client needs the documents and intends to continue to press for them.

“It appears that MirTech has no intention to comply with this court’s order and produce the responsive documents,” Fair wrote. “That leads us to believe that it has responsive material relevant to the proceedings in Russia.”

Barrouquere’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette story can be found here. Barrouquere is a staff writer with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. A reporter and editor for more than 30 years, he’s worked a little bit of everywhere, mainly in the South. His most recent stop before Arkansas was in Baltimore, Maryland, as a night and breaking news editor.