Through his activity in energy logistics, Michel Litvak realized that as a result of the dismantling of the former USSR, Russia had lost two thirds of its harbors. He understood the opportunity in building a new private harbor for the export of energy, raw materials and goods from southern Russia and Central Asia. His vision was to build the largest port, logistics and industrial manufacturing hub in Southern Russia. In order to realize his vision, in 2000 he began acquiring vast plots of land suitable for a deep sea harbor by the Black Sea. In 2004, Oteko started building its harbor in Taman. It was a hugely complex engineering program, which today is one of Russia’s largest private investment projects. The project, from its inception, never received public funding in any form whatsoever.