Ukraine's President Takes on Its Richest Man
Apr 24, 2015 10:34 AM EDT
By Leonid Bershidsky
A month after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ostensibly defeated billionaire Igor Kolomoisky in a battle for control of a state-owned energy company, another oligarch is in his crosshairs: Ukraine's richest man, Rinat Akhmetov.
For the last couple of days, hundreds of people who say they are miners have flooded the government quarter in the capital, Kiev, banging their helmets on the pavement, demanding the payment of salary arrears and the firing of the energy minister. Poroshenko's allies say Akhmetov has engineered the protests as part of an effort to keep control over the assets he amassed under deposed President Viktor Yanukovych.
Akhmetov was a close ally of Yanukovych, helping bring him to power in 2010 and benefiting hugely from government contracts and privatizations afterwards. Bloomberg Billionaires estimates his fortune at $7.2 billion. The source of that fortune is System Capital Management, a huge diversified holding that includes steel mills, coal mines and power plants, as well as investments in media, telecommunications, financial services and real estate.
Perhaps because he has so many assets in Ukraine, Akhmetov didn't flee to Russia with Yanukovych and many of his allies after last year's "revolution of dignity." Unlike fellow oligarch Kolomoisky, however, he's done little to fight the pro-Russian insurgency in his eastern Ukrainian power base, seeking only to keep most of his factories running. That requires maintaining a working relationship with Russia and its eastern Ukrainian proxies, which, in Kiev, is a badge of disloyalty.
Given the delicacy of Akhmetov's balancing act, losses are inevitable. Last year, the revenue of steel holding Metinvest, SCM's most valuable asset with production facilities mostly in east Ukraine, dropped 18 percent and profit fell 59 percent. That, and the effect of the festering conflict on the entire group's results, led Bloomberg Billionaires to revise Akhmetov's fortune downward by $1.1 billion on April 8.
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http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-04-24/ukraine-s-president-takes-on-its-richest-man
newthinking
(3,982 posts)Rinat Akhmetov has been providing aid to the civilians in Eastern Ukraine.
Akhmetov was from party of regions.
Helping people in the East and being a member of the wrong party. That is what this is about.
Poroshenko himself is an oligarch?
newthinking
(3,982 posts)MisterP
(23,730 posts)newthinking
(3,982 posts)http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=post&forum=1016&pid=121002
Amid a country in conflict, their industry is in crisis and Ukraines miners are making themselves heard.
From the west and war-torn east, hundreds gathered in Kyiv breaking through police lines in a protest near the presidents office and banging their helmets on the ground.
Our correspondent in the Ukrainian capital, Dmytro Polonsky, said: Miners are demanding the restitution of their mines, an increase in salaries, restoration of state subsidies and the dismissal of the Energy and Coal Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn who has said at least three state-owned mines must be closed.
Safety is a major concern. Just last month 33 miners died
in a methane gas explosion in the east.
Denouncing security standards underground, one miner told euronews that theyre not in a position to buy equipment for tunnelling or mining.
We are risking our lives to give coal to the state and earn money for our families, he said.
How do I explain to my four-year-old child that I cant buy food for him?
But it is hard to see where the money will come from.
Reliant on international aid to avoid bankruptcy, Ukraine is facing near economic collapse and a plunging currency as well as the conflict with rebels in its east.