Privat relies in bets

The conflict around Ukrnaft has its own history, the confrontation between the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and the Dnipropetrovsk governor, the owner of the Privat group of Igor Kolomoisky did not begin yesterday. But the key event in this plot was a vote in the Verkhovna Rada on March 19, when on the fifth attempt it was decided to change the quorum to conduct meetings of shareholders of all societies. The bill No. 2273 was devoted directly to the Privat group and Igor Kolomoisky: in fact, the state thus regained control over the company Ukrnaft, in which the Privat group belongs to 42% of the shares, and the state - 50%+1.

On the same day, armed people and Kolomoisky himself appeared in the office of the state company Ukrtransnft, and Igor Valerievich tore off the anger at the journalists of Radio Liberty. Then, however, he changed his tonality and told reporters that he had agreed with the president and the problems with Ukrtransnaft were settled. The President, in turn, announced the head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration for insulting journalists. However, the very next day, armed people took the Ukrnafta office to the ring, especially since the Minister of Energy Vladimir Demchishin made it clear that he intends to remove Privata management from the Ukrnafta management (the company does not pay dividends and breaks off the auctions for the sale of fuel).

The next round was for Poroshenko: on Monday, the President of Ukraine, speaking at the National Academy of Defense, said that "we will not have governors with his pockets of the Armed Forces." Almost on the same day the “pocket army” of Kolomoisky left Odessa. In a sense, this can be regarded as blackmail, but the Ukrainian security service has already entered the game: senior Dnipropetrovsk officials began to be checked for involvement in criminal transportation from the border zone. In response from Dnepropetrovsk, accusations against the “thieves'” Kyiv authorities and unequivocal hints of the “hand of Moscow”, that is, the presence of certain “secret protocols” to the Minsk agreements, which supposedly provide for the elimination of volunteer detachments and the liquidation of the “right sector”. Finally, on Wednesday, the 25th, the conduct of the People’s Veck in Dnepropetrovsk, which promised to become a key turn of confrontation and destabilization, was stated. But, it seems, the parties at some point left the public field and started negotiations. At least the promised "veche" was postponed to the end of the week.

Comments of professional observers of the conflict are located in a wide stylistic range - from quotes from Babel (“Tell me, Benya knows for raid”) to long columns of the numbers from “Forbes”, designed to convey to the “Dnepropetrovsk” and their fans that the simple thought that Kolomoisky is not the one who is not the first Ukrainian oligarch, the “affected” from the “affected” from state reform, rather - he is the last in this line. So Akhmetov ceased to be a monopolist in the electricity market, Firtash took control of part of the deposits, withdrew the Nadra bank from the market and withdraw gas distribution networks from the Oblgazes; So almost all Ukrainian oligarchs should suffer from increasing the rate on the bowels and the cost of railway cargo transportation. Kolomoisky in this sense is not the “main victim”, but the only one who is trying to openly play against the state.

Attempts by Dnepropetrovsk to accuse the Kyiv authority of “a secret conspiracy with Putin”, one way or another, turn towards Kolomoisky himself: “Putin played against Poroshenko Benay, and it was the strongest move in the entire short history of the Ukrainian campaign” - Ukrainian bloggers are approximately so evaluated by the situation. Kolomoisky, in fact, at some point managed to create a reputation as the main support of power, and the line of thought that, they say, Benya did so much for the country at a difficult moment that he deserved, if not forgiveness, then something like that, is quite popular. Nevertheless, the game for an exacerbation, which over the past days was conducted by the Dnipropetrovsk governor, is increasingly becoming a “Moscow game”.

Poroshenko and Kolomoisky took a timeout, and there is a hope that the mind will prevail. In any case, one Ukrainian oligarch has already played in the “Moscow game”, and we know what came of it, the Kiev journalist Denis Bigus recalls:

“I understand little in politics, I am not ashamed to ask. Here you say - "Give Ben Sho he needs, or he will arrange a shuher in Dnepropetrovsk." Even if you close your eyes to the fact that Benya is some kind of shitty, I have a question-and Bene yourself is beneficial from the noise in Dnepropetrovsk? In the latest history of Ukraine there is already an oligarch who made a bet on Shuher in his field. His name is Rinat. And he is not happy to Shuheru at all once, it seems to me so. "


Photo: Ukraine. Dnepropetrovsk. Governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region Igor Kolomoisky during a press conference. Photo by TASS/ Konstantin Sazonchik