Businessman Dmytro Firtash plays a significant role in Ukraine, says Leonid Kravchuk, Ukraine's first president.
“I think Firtash is a very influential figure in Ukraine,” he said while giving witness evidence at a Vienna court which on April 30 heard a case of Firtash’s extradition to the Untied States.
He said the businessman is so influential thanks to his serious assets, as well as the fact that he is the head of Ukraine’s Federation of Employers and owns the Inter television channel.
The Ukrainian businessman was backing Viktor Yanukovych and not ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko who was serving a prison sentence at the time, Kravchuk said. “Support was coming through the Inter television channel,” he said.
At the same time, in 2013 Firtash backed the faction leader of the UDAR party, Vitali Klitschko.
“Mr Firtash found himself in a situation where he became an object of games played by small and big geopolitical actors,” the former president said.
Speaking of the trial, Kravchuk suggested that the businessman’s fate should be decided in Ukraine.
