Masked and armed agents from the security services this week launched raids at a series of companies connected with a leading tycoon linked to former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
The raids at tire producer Rosava, Finance & Credit bank and pharmaceutical company Arterium, among other companies – all owned by businessman Kostyantyn Zhevago – sparks concerns that President Viktor Yanukovych and his allies are increasingly seeking to assert their authority across the Ukraine’s political and economic life.
The ongoing trial of Tymoshenko on charges of abuse of power and probes into a dozen of her political allies are politically motivated attempts to squeeze the president’s main opponent out of the running in future parliamentary and presidential elections.
The pressure on Zhevago – who has adopted a neutral political attitude in recent months, despite being a lawmaker in Tymoshenko’s bloc – raises concerns that legal pressure is now spreading wider.
Most of the country’s leading oligarchs – such as steel magnate Rinat Akhmetov and gas and chemicals tycoon Dmytro Firtash – are supporters of Yanukovych.
It could be the start of a campaign, similar to the one pursued in the 2000s by then-Russian President Vladimir Putin, to force the powerful oligarchs to fall into line behind Yanukovych.
Most of the country’s leading oligarchs – such as steel magnate Rinat Akhmetov and gas and chemicals tycoon Dmytro Firtash – are supporters of Yanukovych.
But Yanukovych appears to want to send a message to all the powerful businessmen, including his supporters, who control much of the country’s economy and politics, in order to demonstrate who is now calling the shots.
In 2003, Putin had Russia’s then-richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, arrested and later jailed. He had made the mistake of funding opposition parties.
With this move, Putin send a clear message to Russia’s other oligarchs that they were either with him or against him and that he had the power to decide their fate.
It’s too early to say for sure whether the raids on Zhevago’s firms by Yanukovych’s henchmen will be the first steps in a similar campaign. But it certainly looks that way.
This newspaper is no supporter of the oligarchs, who have pillaged this country’s resources for two decades for great personal financial gain.
But having them all dancing to Yanukovych’s tune would be an even worse situation, and bring Ukraine closer to Putin-style authoritarianism.
