Billionaire oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky’s successful push in stalling crucial legislation is much of the same old. Ukrainian oligarchs are effectively running the country over the heads of nominal presidents.
Yet, while politicians are often comfortable with such an arrangement, Ukrainians are the ones who pay the price, with their wellbeing dependent on the will of a small group of professional sharpers.
On April 7, Ukraine was set to overcome the last hump to receive a much-needed $8-billion loan from the International Monetary Fund. Without it, Ukraine’s economy is heading deep into a recession.
To receive it, Ukraine needs to pass one bill — to ban the return of nationalized banks to previous owners who looted the financial institutions and stuck taxpayer with a $20-billion tab.
The law goes against the interests of Kolomoisky, whose PrivatBank was nationalized in 2016, after his alleged orgy of bank fraud and insider lending robbed the nation’s largest financial institution of $5.5 billion.
Seven lawmakers, most of them with known links to the oligarch, proposed more than 16,000 amendments. The law is now effectively blocked, as each amendment requires a separate parliament vote.
A single person, with no official post, blocked the parliament and took Ukraine’s economy and the wellbeing of 37 million people hostage. Yet, as odd as it sounds, it’s nothing new for Ukraine.
Oligarchs control television channels, and they are also among the primary employers, after acquiring the best of Soviet assets for almost nothing and no competition — some would call it legalized theft. The careers of Ukrainian government officials, lawmakers and presidents are born on television. Their campaigns are financed by oligarchs. Even those politicians who campaign on breaking corrupt patterns and promise change rely on oligarchs to show their campaign promises on TV, online and in print. And, as during COVID‑19, government relies on a traditionally heartless class of people to have a heart and help the nation.
Each Ukrainian leader falls for this practice of deal-making with oligarchs. It always backfires as the nation suffers more.
In 2018, Kyiv City Council was forced to pay $85 million to state-owned Naftogaz, covering the debt of Kyivenergo, owned by billionaire oligarch Rinat Akhmetov. The city conceded after the nation’s capital didn’t have hot water provided by Kyivenergo for almost six months.
It’s always the same — and always at the people’s expense. Today, Kolomoisky holds the nation hostage. Tomorrow, it will be someone else.
It will go on the same way until there comes a leader who ends oligarchs’ influence instead of supporting it by making deals with them.
