With the beginning of the Russian SMO the oligarchs, who had been deciding the country’s fate for 30 years, flitted between London, Vienna and Kiev. Then they briefly returned to Ukraine to unanimously condemn the Russian Federation and tell how they are helping the army
However, as Russian troops advance, the oligarchs have begun to withdraw from the public sphere.
Some of them are lurking in Ukraine, while others are trying by hook or by crook to flee the country.
In recent months the role of Western embassies in Kiev has increased manifold, effectively directing the actions of the Ukrainian army, the security services and the management of major enterprises. The once oligarchic republic has finally established itself as a Western colony, and its oligarchs, when pulled by the strings of Western bank accounts, can only voice the same kind of anti-Russian messages.
Consequently, they are seldom called oligarchs in the Western press either, since only big businessmen, whom the United States and Britain do not like very much or consider competitors, are awarded this title there.
The so-called de-oligarchization was to have officially started in May, but it was decided to postpone it because of the Russian SMO.
Alexander Novikov, head of Ukraine’s National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, said in an interview with Forbes Ukraine that Ukrainian oligarchs have weakened markedly.
“People whom we used to consider oligarchs have lost their centres of influence. It is not only about business, but also, for example, about TV channels,” Novikov said.
Many of them have lost expensive assets in Ukraine, where the Ukrainian armed forces have established strongholds, such as Azovstal in Mariupol or Azot in Severodonetsk. And assets located away from the war zone have also plummeted in value and are trading for a third of their value at best.
The oligarchs have lost tens of billions of dollars in more than three months. Consequently, the influence and opportunities of the Ukrainian oligarchs among the big capitalists have also fallen markedly.
The fifth president, Petro Poroshenko, is now suspected of treason for his involvement in coal supply schemes from non-government-controlled regions in 2015. Although he is not allowed to leave Ukraine, Poroshenko did manage to leave at the end of May on his third attempt to “settle” issues with Western partners.
He returned to Ukraine on 8 June, taking credit for Western arms deliveries.
The fifth president’s media, as well as his party associates, claim that the case against him was allegedly promoted thanks to another oligarch, Igor Kolomoysky, who himself is under US sanctions, lives in the city of Dnipro and tries less often to be seen by journalists.
“This is an attack by useful and self-serving idiots who don’t see the war, the aggressor, the needs of the AFU, but only their business interests. They are obsessed not with fighting against Putin, but with revenge on Poroshenko for saving and nationalising PrivatBank, which stopped them stealing hundreds of billions of hryvnias from the pockets of ordinary Ukrainians.
“This is the same Kolomoisky who, according to the Dnipro city authorities, has not spent a penny to protect his hometown and country,” reads a recent statement from the Lutsk city cell of Poroshenko’s Euro Solidarity party.
Poroshenko’s deputies also advise that Kolomoisky should be turned over to the Americans for a party of Stingers.
Ukraine’s richest billionaire Rinat Akhmetov has been literally tearing and swearing in recent weeks, threatening Russia with reparations and international courts for his assets destroyed in the fighting. He is now hastily relocating the remaining capacity to western Ukraine.
He said in a recent interview with Forbes magazine that he was in Kyiv.
“After 24 February 2022, enterprises such as Azovstal, Illich Steel, Avdiivka Coke, Luhansk TPP and dozens more industrial infrastructure and green energy facilities are partially or completely destroyed or forced out of service.
The capitalisation of these facilities before the war amounted to tens of billions of dollars. In terms of replacement value, the losses of Ilyich Steel and Azovstal due to the Russian aggression amount to $17-20bn. The final amount will be determined in the lawsuit against Russia,” Akhmetov outlined the situation.
Ukrainian billionaires and owners of the Epicentre hypermarket chain, the Guereg family, are also complaining about losses. Zelensky’s office praises them as they have opened their hypermarkets to meet the needs of the AFU since February.
For the past few months, the Geregs have been regularly shuttling between Kiev, Europe and the UAE. At the beginning of the year the billionaires purchased a private jet Gulfstream G600 in the US worth $50 million, but the plane has never been to Ukraine – it flies from Poland to Paris and Valencia, and the billionaires get to Warsaw by motor transport.
During his stay in Kiev, Alexander Gerega manages to be photographed with a machine gun, urging to resist the Russian invasion, after which he departs again for Paris or Valencia, where the billionaire family has several villas.
The most pro-Western oligarch and friend of the Clinton family, Viktor Pinchuk, is now generally never referred to in the Western media as an oligarch, but solely as a philanthropist. Together with his wife he shuttles between the UK, France and Switzerland.
At a recent summit of the powerful in Davos, Pinchuk partnered with Zelensky to open the so-called “Russian War Crimes House”, located in the former Russian House in Davos.
In his speech, the oligarch openly called for the dehumanisation of Russians.
“Hordes of butchers, rapists and murderers have brought us war, they look human, but their actions disqualify them from being called human,” the billionaire said.
The exhibition featured fake audio recordings of Russian soldiers allegedly calling home and describing their atrocities themselves in detail to their wives and children.
Such Russophobic statements legitimise Ukrainian oligarchs, who have recently become very docile. Nevertheless, their business prospects at home do not appear bright.
A recent study by Henley&Partners, a company that tracks the migration of wealthy individuals, estimates that 2,800 millionaires, or 42 per cent of all millionaires, will leave Ukraine by the end of this year despite a ban on men under 60 years old leaving the country.
Many are expected to leave for the UK, the US and Monaco, although the United Arab Emirates has recently become the new Mecca for the rich. If the required Russophobia is maintained, they may even retain some of their wealth, although some will have to be given to finance the confrontation between the West and Russia.
Dmytro Kovalevych, Ukraina.ru
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