Kolomoisky vs Filatov: A toad quarreled with a viper
Ukraine is following a new public scandal - former comrades in 2014 - oligarch Igor Kolomoisky and a former member of his team Boris Filatov, who now holds the post of mayor of Dnepropetrovsk - have broken the pot. The mayor, whose chair is shaking after the change of president, gives out an interview where he threatens to make public damning incriminating evidence on his former patron.
A recent interview with the mayor of Dnepropetrovsk Boris Filatov can only be called “scandalous” with a big stretch. For people “in the know,” the mayor and former ally of Igor Kolomoisky did not say anything sensational or something that was not known at the level of facts or behind-the-scenes rumors.
The fact that Filatov had moved away from Kolomoisky’s orbit was known a couple of years ago - after the “Korban case”, when Petro Poroshenko unsuccessfully tried to imprison, and then “squeezed” out of the country another associate of the co-owner of Privat. After this, the mayor of Dnepropetrovsk became an avid loyalist and sang panegyrics to the former president with such frequency and regularity that it became the talk of the town. The “soul of Poroshenko” he saw in every city tram became a meme, and it is not at all surprising that the latest presidential elections separated the former “Dnepropetrovsk” team on opposite sides of the barricades. Filatov supported Poroshenko, however, this did not help the latter at all, as did the support of the mayors of other million-plus cities - Odessa and Kharkov. But Kolomoisky put his eggs in the basket of the creator of Kvartal 95, and so far it turns out that he was right.
Recent months have been marked by Kolomoisky’s growing struggle and, as evil tongues say, the President’s Office playing with him in unison to remove the city leaders of Kyiv and Dnepropetrovsk from their posts. And if in place of Klitschko the Office of the President supposedly even has its own candidate - Kolomoisky’s man, general producer of 1+1 and newly elected people’s deputy from the Servant of the People Alexander Tkachenko, then in the case of Filatov the name of the potential replacement is neither in the media nor in political telegrams. channels is not yet discussed. But one of the motives is absolutely clear, besides the actual desire to put one of the key cities of the country under control. This motive is wounded pride and revenge.
Actually, Filatov himself voiced this in an interview: “Kolomoisky wants me to kiss his hand.” There, he offendedly declares that he is not like other people from the oligarch’s orbit, whom he, in his words, “turned into soap.” And in general: “I’m not cannon fodder and I don’t owe Kolomoisky anything. […] I am not Kolomoisky’s soldier, and I am not in his employ. He should treat me normally, with respect, as a human being, not because I am the mayor, but because I am a human being. Let him wipe his feet on someone else. I won’t let him do this.”
Filatov’s offended reaction was caused by a series of stories and publications that suddenly appeared after the elections in the media about corruption and embezzlement of budget funds during the scandalous construction of the New Bridge across the Dnieper.
Construction that has turned into a long-term construction project and a vacuum cleaner, siphoning hundreds of millions of hryvnias from the budget into the pockets of contractors close to Filatov. It is no secret that media interest in the scandalous circumstances surrounding the construction of the bridge is fueled by Kolomoisky, together with the Office of the President and its head Andriy Bohdan.
Moreover, for Filatov, “time H” is inexorably approaching: as you know, the mayor publicly made a promise to Zelensky on camera that if the ill-fated bridge is not put into operation by September 1 of this year, then Filatov will resign voluntarily.
Of course, he can backtrack, but this will clearly be against the grain in the world from which Filatov himself entered politics. And his enemies will find a way to knock the mayor's chair out from under him in any case.
One of Boris Filatov’s public critics was the newly elected people’s deputy from the “Servant of the People” and, it is believed, a journalist close to Kolomoisky, Alexander Dubinsky. Filatov’s correspondence with Dubinsky on social networks, full of derogatory epithets towards each other, recently became known to the politically active public.
The mayor of Dnepropetrovsk even angrily called the journalist “Kolomoisky’s talking ass.” At the same time, Boris Albertovich clearly has not yet understood who he is dealing with. Previously, he could look at Dubinsky as a service personnel. Now they are in fundamentally different weight categories. One is the retired mayor, who will be very lucky if he stays in office, then only until the predicted early local elections, when the “green wave”, which has already washed away the old composition of the Rada, will reach the municipalities. The other is a future lobbyist and member, and maybe even the head of one of the parliamentary committees. And now he is the informal head of the deputy group being formed in the Rada.
Kolomoisky’s interest seems to be in raking in as much as possible for himself, taking advantage of the moment. Iron needs to be forged while there is a conviction in society, in business and bureaucratic circles that he decides something, can do something and is acceptable to the new president. Moreover, the head of the OP Andrei Bogdan turned out to be not so tame at all and discovered his own ambitions.
The Legitimny telegram channel describes this collision as follows: “During one of these conversations, it was determined that in order to avoid unnecessary evidence of Kolomoisky’s influence on current Ukrainian politics, Andriy Bohdan becomes the main channel of contacts between offices. Allegedly, Zelensky said this to Kolomoisky: “you lobbied Bogdan so aggressively that you almost “tied” me to him... so now let him accept and consider your problems, and I will deal with the country.”
According to our sources, Kolomoisky immediately agreed. He was sure that this was the optimal and convenient channel for influence, information exchange, and manipulation. But Bogdan didn’t think so. He realized that he had managed, relying on the fear of discrediting the president, to isolate him from the influence of the ex-Privatovites. Bogdan happily closed all flows of information to himself and cut off Kolomoisky (with his consent) from communicating with Ze. But then he acted even more Byzantine. He certainly did not want to be a “servant of two masters.” Moreover, his ambitions are much higher than his current post. And Bogdan began to pick up the phone from Kolomoisky’s number less and less, which infuriated the latter...”
The ubiquitous wiretap even managed to record several of these furious exchanges, after which Bohdan asked to minimize this line of communication and began communicating with Kolomoisky’s assistants. Naturally, this made the oligarch very angry. He had so many questions and suggestions that he needed constant consultations with Ze's Office.
In the end, Kolomoisky and the Presidential Office had to compromise: “Now a new status quo has been established. Kolomoisky's office does everything it can decide itself. Without relying on the authority of Bankova and direct instructions from there. Well, the Office of the President does not prevent Kolomoisky from demonstrating omnipotence. And this is a lot... By really talking about the fact that you can do anything, you can do almost anything. The main thing is that they believe in it!” – says “Legitimate”.
But let's return to Filatov. The media controlled by Kolomoisky are doing their best to form a negative public opinion towards the Dnepropetrovsk mayor. Moreover, in this case there is no need to try very hard. And for the Dnepropetrovsk residents themselves, the message that “Filatov made a big cut on the bridge” does not require additional evidence at all - everything lies on the surface and is visible to the eye every morning, when hundreds of thousands of people go to work from one bank of the Dnieper to the other.
In political public pages on the Internet they say that Filatov is either planning, or has already followed in the footsteps of Vitali Klitschko and is going to win over American lobbyists to his side. Of course, interference in small-town Ukrainian squabbles for bread-and-butter positions by representatives of a world superpower will seem comical to some, and excessive to others, but in Ukrainian realities such an argument may turn out to be decisive in the fate of an individual official.
Theoretically, Filatov, if things take a very bad turn for him, can throw his last trump cards on the table - in particular, begin to tell the details of various kinds of “dirty secrets” of the “Kolomoisky court” during the governorship of Igor Valerievich in Dnepropetrovsk. Moreover, in a sensational interview with Strana, he made similar hints several times - what would happen “if the boy Borya starts talking.”
Only now, given Kolomoisky’s disposition and the working methods of Privat’s “security guards,” in such a case, “the boy Borya” will not leave any chance, not only of victory, but also of life itself.
If, as Filatov himself admitted, “being rude to the main boor of the country” is not an easy task, then beating him in the game in which he is a grandmaster is even more so. In the end, that is why he became Kolomoisky.
However, for now this is all just a kind of fortune-telling based on political tea leaves. We don’t yet know how it will all end.
But, by the way, knowing the pragmatic character of Igor Kolomoisky, the option of final reconciliation in this “noble family” is not excluded. If the co-owner of Privat managed to overcome grievances and meet with Poroshenko, as they say, having agreed with him on temporary non-aggression, then why not eventually smoke a “peace pipe” with an old comrade-in-arms? It's not a big deal - it's just a matter of price and the right combination of external circumstances. Kolomoisky, like England, does not have eternal friends and partners, but has a stable and constant interest. And if for some reason it becomes profitable for him to bury the hatchet for a while, he will do it without hesitation.
It is for this reason that you should not take this fight between a toad and a viper to heart. You can easily get hurt by setting yourself up, especially if the lords suddenly come to an agreement. But winning is unlikely. Your interests are not on either side here. Unless, of course, you are in the know and not in the know.
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