Valeria Gontareva, former chair of the National Bank of Ukraine, poses for a photograph following an interview in London, Britain September 14, 2019. REUTERS/Simon Dawson
A picture is worth a thousand elections.
On September 10, the photograph of a meeting held between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and notorious oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky was posted online and cast a chill across Ukraine. To many, it confirmed the fear that another one of their presidents was in the pocket of an oligarch.
Then on September 21, an article was published which included a photograph showing Kolomoisky watching a basketball game with unsavory businessmen.
“Kolomoisky was at a basketball game with guys linked to
organized crime,” said Valeria Gontareva, former chairman of the National Bank
of Ukraine, who was sent the article.
She and her family have been the victims of attacks that have riveted
the country for weeks. She believes the oligarch is behind them. Kolomoisky
denies her allegations. The public believes otherwise.
That is because the president’s silence has provided cover for a
range of actions by the oligarch. Kolomoisky has made statements that have
stunned markets, bruised the currency, and alarmed Ukraine’s western partners. He
has intimidated individuals, competitors, unleashed hundreds of lawsuits, and allegedly
taken over the management of some key state-owned enterprises at a critical
time without pushback.
Kolomoisky claims Gontareva stole his PrivatBank without
justification. (It was nationalized because $5.5 billion in assets were
missing.) And he was able to obtain two court decisions that the deal was
illegal and should be nullified. The National Bank of Ukraine is appealing
these.
Finally, last weekend Oleksandr Danylyuk, former finance minister who approved the bank restructuring and now secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, stepped up to the Kolomoisky challenge. He warned on television: “Any instability around PrivatBank has direct consequences for the stability of the financial system. It is investor confidence, the trust of foreign partners, and trust in the new government.”
Clearly, there should
be laws against such mischief-making, and threats, but the new government
scrambles to pass a raft of reforms, appoint a new judiciary, and prepare for
major peace talks. And the new leader lacks the experience and toughness to
know how to keep oligarchs in line. It’s into this propitious governance vacuum that Kolomoisky
has leaped.
“The photo of Kolomoisky at the president’s boardroom table was
important for him,” said Gontareva. “It was just before the Yalta European
Strategy Conference, held by [oligarch] Viktor Pinchuk. Kolomoisky was a
special guest and had never been invited before. What does it mean? Pinchuk
recognizes who’s the boss.”
“Kolomoisky wants to be King of Ukraine, to keep everyone under
his control,” said Gontareva. “I’m the example to all people who won’t obey
Kolomoisky. There are 5,000 workers at the National Bank of Ukraine, its independent
supervisory board, and 120 people at PrivatBank, hundreds at the Ministry of
Finance, and all of them are terrified. Not just bankers, but all reformers.”
Gontareva said she has met 40 or 50 times with Kolomoisky over
the years and each time was threatened. Once the banks were restructured, she
moved to London to complete a book and do research at the London School of
Economics. But this August 26, she stepped onto the pedestrian crosswalk in
London and a car hit her, badly injuring her legs and a foot. Witnesses said
the driver saw her, and he stayed until police arrived. She’s now in a
wheelchair pending two more serious operations.
London
police thought it was a routine case of bad driving, but police have re-opened
their investigation after Gontareva’s apartment in Kyiv was ransacked by men in
masks with assault rifles, her son’s car was torched, and her country home was
burned to the ground.
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“Nobody can believe this can happen,” she said. “There has always
been political persecution in Ukraine, but not physical terror. My house burned
down in 28 seconds and it took three hours to stop it. We saw it on the
security cameras. Men threw two backpacks into the house and used military fire
to ignite it. This was professional people who did this.”
Zelenskyy said he was shocked at this arson and ordered a
special investigation to determine who was responsible.
But it may be too little, too late. Kolomoisky is winning. He is
the oligarch of oligarchs and has set himself a permanent plate at the table.
“Zelenskyy was never in politics and he could be just a weak
president,” said Gontareva.
Support for the National Bank of Ukraine and Gontareva from the
West has been overwhelming, but if Zelenskyy cannot take on Kolomoisky, then
his landmark election and reform agenda will be added to the trash heap of failed
Ukrainian presidents and support for the country will erode.
Gontareva says she has no regrets about cleaning up the banking
mess, but is “frightened.” She awaits the results of the police investigation
before deciding about her future.
When asked what her advice would be to Ukrainians she said: “Be
brave. Push Zelenskyy daily to get rid of Kolomoisky. Demonstrators recently
demanded that Kolomoisky lose his Ukrainian citizenship because he has Israeli
and Cypriot passports. That is a good idea. Anything will help. Too many have
sacrificed and died to let oligarchs run the country again.”
Diane Francis is a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic
Council’s Eurasia Center, Editor at Large with the National Post in Canada, a
Distinguished Professor at Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of
Management, and author of ten books.
Further Reading
Tue, Sep 17, 2019
Zelenskyy is consolidating power. Ukraine is rapidly switching to a presidential republic from the parliamentary-presidential system its constitution prescribes. And the worst part is that there’s little to stop him.
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Melinda Haring
Mon, Aug 12, 2019
Many regard notorious Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky as the puppet master behind the rise of Ukraine’s new president. The tycoon’s August 8 interview for the Russian media holding RBK is his second major interview since returning to Ukraine in May and his first to a Russian publication in five years. What he says is therefore of particular […]
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Bohdan Nahaylo
Thu, Sep 19, 2019
If Kolomoisky is not renounced and investigated, the world will turn its back on Ukraine. But the Russians and oligarchs won’t.
UkraineAlert
by
Diane Francis
Support for the National Bank of Ukraine and Gontareva from the West has been overwhelming, but if Zelenskyy cannot take on Kolomoisky, then his landmark election and reform agenda will be added to the trash heap of failed Ukrainian presidents and support for the country will erode.
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