The media empire of fugitive Ukrainian oligarch Serhiy Kurchenko, whose wealth skyrocketed during the corrupt rule of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, appointed Party of Regions lawmaker Olena Bondarenko as chief executive officer on Sept. 26.
Her appointment followed a trip she made on Sept. 17 to Moscow with a group of 24 Ukrainian lawmakers, most of whom are from the Party of Regions. Sergei Naryshkin, chairman of the Russian parliament, met with the delegation, but details weren’t disclosed.
Political analyst Taras Berezovets said that Bondarenko “received the highest approval from Kurchenko and his Kremlin handlers.”
She was apparently chosen for her political experience to oversee some 50 media brands, including the publication of Forbes Ukraine, and the widely read Korrespondent weekly magazine, the 30-year-old oligarch said in a Ukrainian Media Holding news release on Sept. 22.
“Today, everywhere in the world people with a wealth of political experience are entering mass media,” said Kurchenko, who is wanted on suspicion of embezzlement and tax evasion involving hundreds of millions of dollars. “Increased public interest in politics predetermined my decision, which should give a new impetus to the development of the (media) holding.”
On the day she took over as CEO of Ukrainian Media Holding, she gave an interview to Russian television station TVC on Sept. 26 in which she called the post-EuroMaidan Revolution government “insane,” adding that it “took power in a military coup.”
Prior to getting elected to parliament in 2006 and serving three consecutive terms, Bondarenko, 40, served as the press officer of the Donetsk Oblast legislature, and worked for local media outlets in the region.
In the same new release, the Donetsk Oblast native said her goal is to “preserve and strengthen objective journalism” in the holding’s publications.
The UMH CEO position was previously held by Yuriy Rovenskiy, a Russian media manager who led the RBC business news agency. He previously was the deputy head of Sberbank, Russia’s largest lender. Rovenskiy was banned from entering Ukraine in May.
Employing 4,400 people, UMH also publishes Vogue magazine, owns the popular Bigmir.net web portal, as well as the tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda, according to the holding’s news release. The group is a part of the oligarch’s VETEK conglomerate, and claims coverage of 50 percent the local online audience.
Kurchenko’s media holding has become an item of interest for the Kremlin after Ukrainian regulators in September banned the retransmission of 15 Russian channels in terrestrial and cable networks. “Today Moscow is fighting…an information war against Ukraine, while the Kremlin’s opportunities narrowed and Kurchenko has a powerful media holding,” added Berezovets.
Authorities opened seven criminal cases against Kurchenko after he fled for Russia in February. He faces asset freezes and other restrictive measures in the European Union, Great Britain, Canada and Luxembourg. He is currently challenging the EU sanctions in Luxembourg’s General Court.
He allegedly made his fortune as a gasoline and liquid gas trader, but is suspected of monetizing his connection to Yanukovych and his cronies. Korrespondent magazine estimated his fortune at $2.4 billion in 2013. “Seventy percent of my business is in Ukraine and (local) authorities are pressuring it. And Russia has strong and efficient power (to provide the needed protection),” Kurchenko told RBC.
Crimean media project
Kurchenko’s media expansion plans apparently include launching new projects in Crimea, which Russia annexed in a move that the international community condemned. On Sept. 18, Skif-Media gave a presentation in Simferopol.
The new business entity said it wants to “become the biggest media group on the peninsula and will speak not only Russian, but also English and Ukrainian,” according to Skif-Media head Serhiy Kyrylenko during the news conference. The group has plans to publish local versions of business daily Kommersant, Komsomolskaya Pravda and Telenedelya.
The Kommersant brand belongs to Russia’s richest man Alisher Usmanov with an estimated fortune of $20.2 billion, according to the Moscow Times. Betting on iron ore and telecommunications, Usmanov’s money is invested in shares of social media like Facebook and Twitter, while his Mail.ru is among the most successful Russian web projects.
RBC reports that Skif-Media also is after the rights to publish Izvestia, another Russian newspaper that covers political issues. The project would cost as much as $1 million.
Vetek’s press service denied any relation to Skif-Media. “Serhiy Kurchenko is not related to Skif-Media and did not ask Kommersant about buying the license for publishing … in Crimea,” reads the emailed statement.
However, Skif-Media founder Andriy Degtyarev publicly stated that he worked for UMH before Yanukovych was ousted in February, whose personal links with Kurchenko have been a topic of numerous journalistic investigations. Still, Degtyarev says he’s not acquainted with Kurchenko personally. “Rumors have swirled for some time that our project is financed by Kurchenko, (Mikhail) Prokhorov, even (Dmytro) Firtash’s name has appeared,” he said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Iana Koretska can be reached at [email protected].
