Billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky may be Exhibit A for why Ukraine needs to defang its oligarchs. But Rinat Akhmetov, Victor Pinchuk and Petro Poroshenko are in competition with him, or certainly reasons B, C and D.
These four men, the subjects of the Kyiv Post’s “Oligarch Watch” in the last four editions, vaulted to wealth and power during Ukraine’s lawless 1990s. More than 25 years after national independence, they refuse to let go of their power and privileges.
Kolomoisky, whose estimated net worth is $1.46 billion, is known to be especially aggressive when it comes to protecting his interests, standing out even among the sharks. In 2014, he tried on a mask of a savior, taking charge of a region that bordered the war-torn Donbas. He maintained the flattering role for a year – until the authorities tried to remove his grip of Ukranafta. That’s when he bared his teeth, showing he was as ready to bite off a piece of the country’s wealth as ever.
The ability of Ukrainian society and friends abroad to defeat the oligarchy will remain the nation’s defining internal challenge. Akhmetov, Pinchuk, Poroshenko and Kolomoisky are young enough to dominate Ukrainian society for decades to come. They are, collectively, not showing enough signs of socially redeeming traits. They act as if they are in constant fear that someone is going to take away their wealth and throw them in jail. Considering how they got rich in the first place, these are valid fears and explain a lot about why Ukraine’s rule of law is the rule of the jungle — only the strongest thrives.
But a more reasonable outcome is a divestiture of some of their largest holdings, which include too many monopolies, and an end to their strangehold over the media. Further political changes – including public financing of elections, an end to parliamentary immunity, strict campaign spending limits – will help break their grip over lawmakers. President Poroshenko is arguably the greatest threat today to perpetuation of the oligarchy, but at least he has to face the voters in 2019. The others aren’t accountable to anyone.
