The public battle between Ukraine’s rich and powerful oligarchs and the government has shifted to the Black Sea port city of Odesa, and the current battleground – appropriately for a seaside city – is a beach.
Citing a broadly defined
law in the Water Code that allows the public unimpeded access to shorelines,
Odesa Governor Mikheil Saakashvili on July 20 ordered a fence to be removed made
of concrete blocks and shattered glass that had prevented public access to a
city beach.
The seashore area is part
of a private residence that sits on land leased from the city government. The
residence belongs to multi-millionaire property developer and former Party of
Regions lawmaker Vasyl Khmelnytsky.
Khmelnytsky, in an
emailed statement on July 24, said that on the day the concrete fence was
removed, the city government had given him notice either to provide within 10
days permits for the leased land and other related documents, or to remove the
barrier.
“But immediately after
this (receiving the notice) the fence was demolished without any judicial
ruling, without court executors and without even waiting for July 30, (the
date) set by the city council,” Khmelnytsky said.
Former Party of Regions member of parliament Vasyl Khmelnytsky.
He said the way
Saakashvili had taken down the concrete perimeter smacked of “populism that is
an invasion of private property.”
“Populism and threats are
a road to nowhere,” Khmelnytsky said. “The real battle today is not between the
east and west…the real battle is unfolding between real business and populism.
And (such battles) always lead to poverty.”
He added that such
measures threaten investment into Ukraine’s economy.
And three days later,
while Saakashvili was in Kyiv attending a meeting of the National Council of
Reforms on July 23, a chain-linked fence appeared around the same beach.
In a response on the same
day to Khmelnytsky on Facebook, Saakashvili again invoked the Water Code,
saying putting up the fence violated legislation.
“No one touches your
private property and you can enclose your villas with ugly fences on your own,
but do not touch the beach and do not test the patience of the people,” Saakashvili
wrote. “You should understand that you do not have the right to take away even
one square centimeter of the best beach from the people of Odesa.”
Former Georgian President and current governor of Odesa Mikheil Saakashvili.
The battle for control
over access to a public beach is perhaps symbolic of the wider changes Ukraine
is going through to shake off cronyism and corruption.
President Petro
Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk say they are on a
“de-oligarchization” campaign to reduce the influence rich businessman have on
the economy and in government.
The government is
currently embroiled in a battle over energy resources and control over
state-owned oil producer Ukrnafta with billionaire partners Igor Kolomoisky and
Gennadiy Bogolyubov. The latter have started litigation in the London Court of
Arbitration as part of the battle. They are seeking a reported $5 billion in
compensation.
Another influential
businessman is Dmytro Firtash who has connections to the Kremlin and controls
four of the nation’s six lucrative nitrogen fertilizer plants. He is in a
dispute for access to large amounts of natural gas – a key input in the
manufacture of the fertilizer – and over tax evasion charges that his companies
deny and are challenging.
The government also
accuses Ukraine’s richest billionaire, Rinat Akhmetov, of thwarting attempts to
reform the electricity sector. Akhmetov’s DTEK energy holding is a huge player
on the market.
In April, prosecutors
announced they would seek to cancel three allegedly rigged privatizations of
electricity utilities conducted under ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled the
country during last year’s EuroMaidan Revolution.
In one of the transactions,
Akhmetov’s DTEK acquired a controlling stake in Dniproenergo, one of the
country’s largest thermoelectric generators, allegedly without competition and
at a firesale price, causing massive losses to the state budget.
Akhmetov’s business holding
has insisted the acquisition was fair; he has threatened to uphold his property
rights in the courts.
“Any move towards
re-privatization would lead to further uncertainty and non-transparency in the
already troubled Ukrainian economy, and would undermine a return to stability
and investor confidence, and by doing so, delay the nation’s recovery, which
both government and business recognize is the priority,” System Capital
Management added.
Kyiv Post editor Mark
Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].
