The economy today
Why did the Ukrainian oligarchs convert to the cause of their country?
Audio 04:14
The oligarch and former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, at a defense point in the suburbs of kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday March 5, 2022. © AP - Emilio Morenatti
By: Dominique Baillard Follow
3 mins
The arrest of a Ukrainian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin has shed light on this caste of corrupt billionaires.
What happened to the Ukrainian oligarchs?
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Ukrainian oligarchs have kept a low profile since the start of the Russian offensive against their country.
In the fall, they fought hard in kyiv to oppose the law designed against them by Volodymyr Zelensky.
Failing to succeed in preventing them from constantly interfering in political life for the benefit of their business, the president sought to draw up a list to list them in the hope that they would eventually mend their ways in order to escape this infamous classification.
To avoid it, they had to stop financing political life, renounce their media, and future privatizations.
They had until March to comply.
This anti-corruption law was put on hold with the war, but the president did not forget them.
On the eve of the Russian offensive, the president gathered the leaders of the country's largest companies.
The most powerful had already fled, on board private jets, some very quickly returned.
All were summoned to support the national cause.
What the club of oligarchs had not done in 2014, each then evolving according to their personal interest.
Those who were established in the Donbass, for example, very quickly switched to the camp of Vladimir Putin.
This time it's different.
With the exception of Viktor Medvedchuk.
This Ukrainian citizen very close to the Kremlin was prosecuted before the start of hostilities for the looting of Crimea.
He had disappeared from radar before being spotted and arrested on Tuesday April 12 by the Ukrainian services.
The majority of Ukrainian oligarchs have taken a clear stand against Russia
At least 16 of the top 20.
They invest to support the war effort, and especially act publicly in humanitarian aid.
The richest of them, Rinat Akhmetov has been competing with declarations and charitable actions since February 24.
Azovstal, his metallurgical complex in Mariupol, which he visited recently, is today the stronghold of the Ukrainian resistance.
This child from Donetsk, long pro Russian, had distanced himself from Putin's Russia in 2014. It was then that he diversified his investments in the west, like many of his bets.
Viktor Pinchuk, like former President Petro Poroshenko, are also very vehement in their speeches.
The oligarchs owning the four main media groups have put their antennas at the disposal of government information.
of
others, on the other hand, have disappeared.
Igor Kolomoisky, the one who propelled the career of comedian Volodymyr Zelensky, would be in his Dnipro region.
He is known for his local commitment, but also for a vast fraud committed
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the Privatbank which he founded and which has since been nationalised.
Is it patriotism that drives them?
Undoubtedly, an economic patriotism and a well-understood sense of business.
If their country is occupied by Russia, their assets could be plundered, misappropriated by potential Russian competitors.
What they have already suffered from 2014 in the Donbass.
And with their activism, they are in the process of rebuilding a virginity while the team in power tried to neutralize them, under pressure from international donors.
What distinguishes them from Russian oligarchs?
Their level of wealth: it is much lower than that of their big brothers.
And their relationship to power.
The Russian oligarchs made their fortune under the presidency of Boris Yeltsin, then they were brought to heel by Vladimir Putin, their business is conditioned by their submission to the Kremlin, while in Ukraine they are able to bribe deputies or ministers to satisfy their interests.
Before the Russian army launched its offensive, it was President Zelensky's mother of battles.
All of our daily, live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
© FMM Graphic Studio
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