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2.0 Politics
2.1 Ukraine draws up oligarch list
Ukraine’s Security Council has draw up a list of 13 oligarchs in an effort to restrict their influence on politics and curb their ability to earn economic rents from the state, the National Security and Defence Council (NSDC) Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said on May 11.
The full list of names has not been released yet, but several names are expected to appear on the list as they fit the criteria defining an oligarch laid out by the NSDC.
Top of the list is likely to be oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky who financed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy successful election bid in 2019, but has been working to undermine both Ukraine’s $5bn Stand By Agreement (SBA) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the independence of the central bank as part of his campaign to have his PrivatBank returned, which was nationalised in 2016 after $5.5bn hole was discovered in its balance sheet.
Kolomoisky and his partners have been accused of stealing that money can triggering the largest bank bailouts in Ukraine’s post-Soviet history. Yet despite multiple court cases in places like London and Cyprus none of the money has been returned and Kolomoisky continues to operate in Ukraine unimpeded and has not been arrested or investigated at home.
After Zelenskiy’s election, Kolomoisky made advances, gaining control of Centrenergo, a highly attractive state-owned energy company, and preserved his control over Ukrnafta, a state-owned petroleum producer where he owns a minority stake.
As bne IntelliNews reported “The Oligarch Problem” is one of the main challenges Ukraine faces today as after three decades the most power businessmen are deeply entrenched into Ukraine’s political and economic life. Oligarchs control more than half the seats in the Rada and routinely attempt to stymie reform legislation that hurts their business interests or block privatisations of attractive companies that they are trying to take over themselves by more nefarious means.
While Zelenskiy has sat on the fence for most of first term, something changed earlier this year when he launched a concerted campaign to curb the oligarchs excesses. In a move reminiscent of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s infamous oligarch meeting a year after he took office, where the Russian president struck a devils bargin telling the captains of industry “you can keep what you have, but stop the stealing,” Zelenskiy did more or the less the same with his oligarch speech in March.
Zelenskiy followed the speech up with outspoken public comments in April
calling oligarchs “bandits that robbed the state.” In one TV address, he listed several top oligarchs by name, ironically echoing Putin by saying they will have to “live by the law.”
8 UKRAINE Country Report XXXX 2018 www.intellinews.com