2015 Economic Crisis
OP-ED
Brian Mefford: The Achilles’ heel of Ukraine’s mighty oligarchs
A serviceman leans on an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) in front of slagheap of a coal mine on the position of Ukrainian forces on front line near small eastern Ukrainian city of Kurakhove, Donetsk Oblast on March 11.
The Ukrainian government's well-executed showdown in March 2015 to rein in the country's wealthiest oligarch is the first of many battles with the oligarchs that lie ahead. In the battle with the oligarchs, President Petro Poroshenko -the owner of Roshen Confectionery Corporation and an oligarch himself - is uniquely positioned to fight. The President and his reform-minded parliament will need all the help they can get when they face their likely next opponents: Rinat Akhmetov and Dmitro Firtash.
