President Petro Poroshenko accepted resignation of Igor Kolomoisky as governor of Dinpropetrovsk Oblast in the early hours of March 25, his press service reported.
“A decree was signed by the president during meeting with him (ex-governor Kolomoisky),” the press service said.
The resignation follows an increasingly ugly and public conflict between the authoritiesand Kolomoisky, who in the past week attempted to take over the buildings of two state-owned companies that he was involved in managing.
Thetakeovers came on the back of a vote on March 19 by the parliamentthat attempted to diminish Kolomoisky’s influence over thesecompanies. The bill reduced thequorum at state-controlled joint-stock companies’ shareholder meetings to 50 percent from 60 percent, and thus deprive Kolomoiskyof de facto control over the state oil extractor UkrNafta where Kolomoisky owns a minority share, while the state holds 50 percent, plus one share.
Poroshenkosigned the bill at the same time as he accepted Kolomoisky’sresignation, his press service said.
Poroshenko is to replace replace Kolomoisky with Valentyn Reznychenko.Dnipropetrovsk-born Reznychenko was a top manager of the UkrainianMedia Holding, a company set up by Poroshenko’s chief-of-staff Borys Lozhkin where the president himself owned a minority share.
