Will you be the third?

The success recipe for Sergey Tigipko

Deus Ex Machina. Sergey Tigipko is the only presidential candidates who can drink champagne now. Having joined the election campaign in the summer, he managed to gain more than 13% and come to the finish line third. Now the favorites fight for his voices. The recipe for success was disassembled by The New Times
Tigipko left big policy 5 years ago. The cruel laws of Ukrainian political life still did not imply the return to the game of those who fell out of it. Moreover, he left the post of head of the campaign headquarters of the candidate Viktor Yanukovych, who was daring to the “Orange Revolution”. It seemed that that Kyiv Maidan forever set up a cross on the presidential ambitions of a politician and businessman. But Tigipko seems to have overlapped these rules. So far only for yourself.

Thirst for revenge?

What exactly prompted the successful banker to return to politics again is certainly unknown. The election rhetoric “About the Fatherland in the danger and the need to build a strong country” in the calculation, of course, is not taken. Analysts call several reasons: for example, the desire to correct allegedly shaken financial affairs. Or play along with Tymoshenko, whose adviser Tigipko was appointed in 2008. That is, to enter the elections by an independent candidate, but to trample, pulling the voices, it was on the electoral field of Viktor Yanukovych - which, in fact, Tigipko did: almost everywhere in the east and in the Crimea, he was second according to the results of the first round. It is possible that Tigipko could move his own ambitions exclusively: 5 years ago, when he was the head of the National Bank of Ukraine, he was not allowed to nominate his candidacy in the presidential election - they only instructed Yanukovych’s election headquarters.
The fact that, deciding with the successor, Leonid Kuchma made an irreparable mistake, putting on Yanukovych, they spoke back in 2004. Both to the Maidan, and after him. Like, to appoint Kuchma a successor not Yanukovych, but Tigipko, the transfer of power would have passed without excesses. And this had its own logic. Since the alignment of Tigipko VS Yushchenko left the latter much less chance of victory than in the fight against Yanukovych. On the one hand, it would be a duel of two bankers. Since both Yushchenko and Tigipko had a leadership of the National Bank behind his back. Both had parliamentary experience. At the same time, Tigipko did not cause such idiosyncrazes in the west of Ukraine as Yushchenko in the east and in Crimea. Yes, and Tigipko’s banking past was much more advantageous. For Yushchenko, in addition to the leadership of the National Bank, there was a scandalous bankruptcy of the Ukraine Bank. Tigipko was an example of a banker very successful. His name was associated with one of the most successful banking projects - Privatbank. In addition, Tigipko worked in the government of Viktor Yushchenko as Minister of Economics. So he had the right to his share of glory in the “most successful Ukrainian government”, as the cabinet of ministers of the model 1999-2001 was called. It is clear that it was not without compromising evidence: evil languages ​​accused the Minister Tigipko of lobbying the interests of the French company Lafarge cement, which seemed to be close to Jacques Shirak. This structure wanted to take control of Nikolaevsky, Kamenetz-Podolsky and Lutsk cement plants. And allegedly for this, Tigipko was awarded the French Order of the Legion of Honor. By the way, French ties also affected the preparation of Tigipko for the 2009 presidential campaign. In Kyiv, it is argued that the famous French image maker Jacquel Segel participated in the creation of the image of a presidential candidate Tigipko. Although Tigipko’s election campaign was not much different from competitors' campaigns. Standardly boring television videos. The same posters. Unless Tigipko more actively exploited the image of Macho, effectively demonstrating the advantages of his sports figure on the covers of glossy magazines. Of the little that was remembered in the actions of the candidate of Tigipko, one can note his participation in the salvation of the Ukrainian sailors of the Ariana vessel, captured by Somali pirates. Tigipko brought a significant part of his money to a three -million ransom.

Loster lucky

But despite the unrealized presidential plans, a native of the Moldavian village of Dragonesta Sergei Tigipko, who turns 50 on February 13, it is difficult to call a loser. He is lucky, and lucky in a large way.
In 1984, he began a Komsomol career. He worked as the secretary of the Committee of the Komsomol of Ukraine, the factory and deputy director for the educational work of the Dnepropetrovsk mechanical-metallurgical technical school, the plant department of propaganda and agitation of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Committee of the LKSMU. In 1989-1991 He was the first secretary of the regional committee of the Komsomol. In October 1991, he smoothly moved to bankers, offering the founders of the Privat group (today's billionaires Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov) to create a commercial bank. And in 1992 he became the chairman of the board of Privatbank KB. Since 1994, Leonid Kuchma consulted, with which his political career began: Deputy Prime Minister on Economic Reform in the Government of Pavel Lazarenko, Deputy Prime Minister in the government of Valery Pustovoitenko, Minister of Economics in the government of Viktor Yushchenko. In 2000 and 2002, he was twice elected to the Verkhovna Rada. Further - the National Bank, the headquarters of Yanukovych and, finally, the current triumph.
By the way, the conversations that the financial affairs of Tigipko allegedly staggered are unlikely to have real ground. According to various sources, its fortune ranges between $ 780 million and $ 1.6 billion. It is clear that the rapid formation of such capital in the difficult conditions of post -Soviet being could not do without scandals. Tigipko was no exception. In 2001, political opponents on parliament accused him of creating one and a half dozen interconnected commercial structures, the authorized fund of which Tigipko contributed the amount of about $ 150 million in cash. These money, according to deputies, were washed abroad in 1995-1996 through the correspondent accounts of Privatbank. They say that Kuchma personally dealt with the Tigipko business, which perhaps affected when he chose his successor.
But these are the affairs of the past days. Today, he, firstly, took the revenge, sending Viktor Yushchenko to the political backyards of a longtime competitor. Secondly, it became the personification of the "new person" in Ukrainian politics. Thirdly, it is he who is the owner of the Golden Promotion: both Tymoshenko and Yanukovych are doing everything today to enlist the support of the “bronze medalist”. Negotiations are negotiating with him. He is promised various benefits: from the post of head of the National Bank to the Premier Chair, which Yulia Tymoshenko has already promised him. But Tigipko is in no hurry. He publicly declares the reluctance to support both finalists, but does not refuse negotiations and consultations. In parallel, he is preparing for the local and parliamentary elections, strengthening the positions of his party “Strong Ukraine”, and as an experienced manager plans this time to gain a foothold on the Ukrainian political Olympus seriously and for a long time.

Deus Ex Machina is a literal translation from Latin "God from the Machine." A digging, meaning an unexpected denouement of the situation with the involvement of an external factor that had not previously acted in it.