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reprimand. In this way, the opposition media, not the council, made the decision to make this information public, Shapran complained, calling this “a direct interference with the communication policy of the NBU.” He also accused one of the punished deputy NBU governors of leaking such info to the “opposition media.” In his view, the opposition disclosed this information through friendly media to trigger more “panic and instability” and “get closer to its dream of change of power” in the country.​ ​Recall, Rozhkova and Sologub are the only two members of the NBU executive board (out of six) who have remained in their positions since the recent board rotation, which started with the replacement of the NBU governor in early July.
Bogolyubov initiates lawsuits against Privatbank nationalization.​ ​Former Privatbank co-owner Gennadiy Bogolyubov has filed four complaints to Kyiv’s economic courts contesting the bank's 2016 nationalization, the ​nv.ua​ news site reported on October 20. The media highlighted that this is the first time Bogolyubov has sued against the bank’s nationalization. In the claims, he has asked the court to determine his stake in the bank, declare the sales-purchase agreement of the bank’s shares as illegal, return the shares and declare his rights to own the shares.​ ​Recall, within three days after Privatbank was declared insolvent in December 2016, the Deposit Guarantee Fund increased its share capital by 138% to UAH50.7bn, and sold all the old and new shares of the bank to Ukraine’s Finance Ministry for a symbolic price of UAH1. Before the bank was declared insolvent, Bogolyubov was a direct owner of a 33.3% stake. In November 2017, Bogolyubov, as a British citizen, ​sent the Ukrainian government an official notice of claim​ demanding to either return his Privatbank shares or compensate his losses.​ ​This move opens another front of pressure on Privatbank and the government in the battle against the bank’s bail in and nationalization, but the prospects of this complaint do not look solid. Recall, Ukraine’s parliament adopted a law in May 2020 that prohibits the return of failed banks into the hands of its former shareholders (the ​so-called anti-Kolomoisky law​), and only allows them to count on some compensation for the lost property.
Almost four years after nationalization, PrivatBank is Ukraine’s most profitable bank, recording $65mn in profits through August​, according to the data on the website of the National Bank of Ukraine. Ukraine’s largest bank, PrivatBank was taken over by the state after central bank auditors found that the previous owners, led by Ihor Kolomoisky, created a $5.5bn hole in the bank’s balance sheet. Since July, the central bank’s leadership has changed. Kolomoisky, Zelenskiy’s main media backer in the 2019 presidential campaign, has stepped up his legal campaign to get ‘compensation’ for the bank he bankrupted.
Intent on purging the entire 6-member central bank Board within 90 days, the National Bank of Ukraine Council yesterday approved reprimands and votes of no confidence in the two last Board members remaining from the 2015 bank cleanup era​. The two, Yekaterina Rozhkova, the first deputy governor, and Dmitry Sologub, a first deputy governor, became familiar figures to Western investors and IMF missions over the last five years. Although the Council decisions are non-binding, the central bank’s new Governor, Kirill Shevchenko, voted for the motions, reports Interfax-Ukraine. As a result, both veteran central bank officials are expected to resign. Kateryna Rozhkova, the veteran Central Bank number two, snapped back yesterday at a move to push her and another deputy to resign denouncing it as “a triumph of the past over the future” and “an alarming signal for National Bank
49​ UKRAINE Country Report​ November 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com