Feature Story For The Day -- March 7, 2022

From a reader. 

Link here.

• Howard Dahl: president and CEO of Amity Technologies of Fargo, ND.
• highly connected with Russia and Ukraine
• Dahl's grandfather, E. G. Melroe; Dahl's father, Eugene, Dahl; and, Dahl's uncles developed and manufactured the Bobcat skid-steer loader at Gwinner, ND
• Eugene Dahl:
• chairman of the board / CEO of Steiger, during periods between 1970 and 1979
• filed for bankruptcy / reorganization in 1986; emerged as part of CNH Industrial
• 1977: Howard and brother Brian developed and marketed "Concord" air seeding drills
• eventually sold to Case-IH, now CNH
• after the sale, Howard and Brian renamed their company Amity Technology
• acquired WIC sugarbeet and Wishek tillage lines
• 1992: Dahl traveled to Russia for the first time
• 2011: Amity and AGCO created a joint venture based in Wahpeton, ND, to sell Wil-Rich, Wishke tillage and Concord air seeders around the world
• 2021: they sold the joint venture to a family-owned company in Sweden
• Astarta Holding
• Dahl is chairman of the board of Astarta Holding, a Ukrainian agricultural and industrial holding company
• the company is listed in Kiev; has been listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange since 2006
• main producing assets are in central Ukraine, in the Poltava, Vinnytsia, and Khmelnytskyi oblasts
• Astarta controls six sugar beet factories and 700,000 ares of farmland in Ukraine
• #1 sugar company in Urkaine with 100,000 acres
• significant exporter of a variety of crops, including soybeans
• produces sugar, corn, wheat, rapeseed
• the country has reduced sugar beet production by 75% in the past 20 years
• comments by Dahl on agriculture and Putin's religion are must-read

One paragraph in the linked article stands out. I alluded to that sentiment some weeks ago on the blog. 

Despite his knowledge of the region, Dahl didn’t think an invasion would happen. A week before it happened he'd been cheered by letters written by retired Russian generals, who recently had warned Putin about invading. Two or three oligarchs have denounced Putin. They’ve arrested 7,000 citizens.