Disinformation Obscures Ferocious Battles Among Ruling Oligarchs Dougal MacDonald

On March 24, it was announced that an open dispute has broken out between current Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko, the billionaire "chocolate king" who came to power in the June 2014 coup, and billionaire Igor Kolomoisky, Governor of Dnipropetrovsk district and owner of Privatbank and major interests in metals, oil and media. Dnipropetrovsk is Ukraine's most important industrial region. The specific subject of the dispute is Kolomoisky's control over two state-owned energy companies, UkrTransNafta and Ukrnafta. The dispute was stopped, at least temporarily, only by the direct intervention of the U.S. Embassy, using the leverage that Kolomoisky might endanger his own investments in the west if he continued his attacks on Poroshenko. This meddling of the U.S. in Ukraine's internal affairs and the country's increasing dependence on the U.S. is clearly not in the best interests of the people. Meanwhile, the dispute between Poroshenko and Kolomoisky reveals once again how real power in Ukraine is held by about a dozen businessmen or billionaire "oligarchs." The oligarchs, who have a combined wealth amounting to a fifth of the country's gross domestic product, constantly battle each other for increased profit and political power, using the Ukrainian people as their cannon fodder. Kolomoisky is rated the third richest person in Ukraine. He has a triple Ukrainian-Israeli-Cyprus citizenship and runs his business empire from Switzerland. Kolomoisky controls a number of profitable Ukraine-based companies, including Privatbank and Burisma Holdings, Ukraine's largest private gas firm. While U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was engaged in diplomatic talks with Ukraine in May 2014, Burisma announced that Hunter Biden, Joe Biden's son, had joined the Burisma board. Kolomoisky uses Privatbank's security forces to enforce hostile takeovers of companies along with phoney court orders and strong-arm tactics to replace directors on boards of companies he purchases stakes in. Kolomoisky has used some of his billions to create and fund his own private armies now waging war against the Russian people, including the Dnipro Battalion which has been blocking humanitarian aid, the openly pro-Nazi Azov battalion, and the Aidar battalion which has been accused of war crimes. The Ukrainian oligarchs became rich by grabbing and privatizing former government assets after the so-called "fall of communism" in 1991. President Poroshenko was a close ally of Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine's president from 2005-2010, and served in the Yushchenko government. Yushchenko is also godfather to Poroshenko's daughters. Poroshenko was the wealthiest businessman among Yushchenko supporters, and was one of the main financial backers of the Our Ukraine political party and the made-in-USA Orange Revolution that brought Yushchenko to power. However, Yushchenko failed to secure a run-off spot during the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election, gaining only 5.5 per cent of the vote. He was also unsuccessful in 2012. In the 2010 election, most of the oligarchs supported Victor Yanukovych who became the new president. Rinat Akhmetov, the country's wealthiest man due to his grab of state assets in the steel, coal and power sectors, helped finance Yanukovych's 2010 campaign. Ukraine's second-richest man, steel pipe billionaire Viktor Pinchuk also supported Yanukovych. The situation changed at the end of November 2013, when Yanukovych rejected a pending trade agreement with the EU, calling for closer ties with Russia. The EU treaty would have allowed European monopolies to grab Ukraine's crucial energy markets. Instead of signing with the EU, Yanukovych went to Moscow on December 17 and signed several agreements with Russian President Vladimir Putin that would reduce by a third the cost of Russian gas sold to Ukraine. Russia also agreed to lend $15 billion to Ukraine on easy terms. Certain oligarchs behind Yanukovych had interests in tightening Ukraine's connections with Russia. Titanium king Dmytry Firtash has close ties with Russia. Exports of Ukrainian titanium dioxide to Russia in January-June 2013 totaled about 13,000 tonnes, 19.5 per cent of the total shipments to foreign markets. Another rising monopoly group with connections to Russia was closely connected to President Yanukovych's son, Oleksandr, including 27-year old "gas king" Sergey Kurchenko, who also owns a large media group. However, other oligarchs such as Akhmetov and Pinchuk saw any turning away from deals with the EU as a potentially huge financial loss to themselves and their empires and not to be permitted at any cost. The agreements with Russia led to the parliamentary coup that removed Yanukovych on February 22, 2014 and, eventually, the appointment of EU-friendly Petro Poroshenko in June. Between November 2013 and February 2014, Poroshenko had actively and financially supported the U.S.-backed Euromaidan protests against Yanukovych's government to advance his own economic and political interests. In March 2015, Poroshenko sealed a deal with the International Monetary Fund, which is controlled by the world financial oligarchy, giving Ukraine a $17.5 billion, four-year loan and firmly tying the country to U.S. and European interests for years to come. The Ukrainian oligarchs like Poroshenko and Kolomoisky and their backers in Europe, Russia, the U.S., and Canada are playing out their economic battles by trying to mobilize popular support, not in the interests of the Ukrainian people, but for their own private interests. The private takeover of the state by the oligarchs is the root cause of the shooting wars, killings of innocent civilians, destabilization, street demonstrations, foreign intrigue, and passing of state laws favouring one bloc or the other. Foreign politicians such as the Harperites and their sycophants in the monopoly media are blatantly interfering in Ukraine's affairs by spreading disinformation using misleading pro-democracy slogans to promote the interests of certain of the Ukraine monopolies. The Harperites openly support Poroshenko and the pro-EU forces, even though their pro-Nazi connections are very well-known. (TML Weekly No. 18, May 2, 2015)