Poroshenko is weaving bast shoes: oligarchs held a secret meeting in Kyiv
Ukrainian oligarchs are tired of the Ukrainian government, writes Sergei Leshchenko, a former employee of this publication and now a deputy from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, in his blog on Ukrayinska Pravda.
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“Last weekend, on August 1, an unofficial meeting took place in Kyiv, about which no announcements were published and no documents were signed as a result of which,” the politician informs. “But I think dozens of journalists would give anything to get a transcript of the meeting.” I learned about what is written below from informed sources. It was an informal “gathering” of former and current oligarchs, as well as simply representatives of big business, which took place at the Hyatt Hotel. Rinat Akhmetov, Sergei Taruta, Victor Pinchuk, Vasily Khmelnitsky, Yuri Kosyuk were present. Some of the participants specially missed their vacation for this meeting, others did not make it, like Konstantin Zhevago, who delegated his confidant. There was a representative from Evgeniy Utkin. Valery Khoroshkovsky was on the phone with one of the initiators of the meeting.”
Leshchenko reports that the meeting participants were unanimous in their assessment that “something is going wrong in the country.”
“The main discussion was about how to respond to what is happening,” the people’s deputy continues. – Some took the initiative to create a new party that would defend the interests of those gathered. Taruta is named among the lobbyists for this idea. Others - Pinchuk, Khmelnitsky - spoke about the ineffectiveness of this approach, that it is impossible to achieve anything with the help of parties, and it is necessary to influence the authorities from civil society. Those who did not want to create a party proposed instead to establish a powerful “Union of Industrialists” that would defend the interests of the class.”
According to Leshchenko, the meeting of the oligarchs became another alarming signal for President Poroshenko and Prime Minister Yatsenyuk.
“It would be one thing if the oligarchs’ discontent grew against the backdrop of effective measures to combat them,” emphasizes the former UP journalist. – If the Treasury accounts were bursting with money from those wishing to conclude a tax compromise, and Western investors were pushing Ukrainians out of the market. However, the oligarchs' anxiety is based on the inability to earn as before - and the emergence of others who began to pack at double speed. At the same time, leaving some of the “old oligarchs” on dry rations. And destroying the illusions of those who believed in “life in a new way.” As a result, half-hearted reforms, procrastination, timidity, sabotage and corruption will lead to disastrous consequences. And the announced “deoligarchization” will result in a banal redistribution of property and “neo-oligarchization.”
“Or it will be “old oligarchs” who will concentrate around a new project and restore their influence,” Leshchenko sums up. – Or the “new oligarchs,” declaring a fight against the “old ones,” will fill their pockets tightly, and then, fleeing retribution, will begin to defend their gains through politics. Either way, it will end badly."
It is noteworthy that Sergei Leshchenko does not classify Petro Poroshenko, one of the richest people in Ukraine, as an oligarch.
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