Instead of fighting against the oligarchs, the government forces them to make concessions and to share. As a result, the system is not being cleansed. The flows of money are simply being redistributed in the interests of the presidential clan.
The de-oligarchization project announced in the spring of 2015 was a fiasco. Now, Petro Poroshenko behaves like a typical Ukrainian president – he builds a clan, designed to be a financial base of the political superstructure. It guarantees a long term in power and then a peaceful retreat from the position.
There are several close associates of president at the core of the clan, providing a continuous flow of funds. Primarily, there is Ihor Kononenko, who gives directions for enrichment, and in return receives a commission.
For instance, this is the case with the company Centerenergo where a lawmaker from Poroshenko’s Bloc, Serhiy Trehubenko, being close to the top, is responsible for the coal supply schemes. For the second year in a row, the privatization of the company has been disrupted in spite of the interest shown by the large French company, Gaz de France. Even the process of transparent competition for the head of Centerenergo was blocked. Kononenko personally called all the applicants and asked not to publicly protests.
Another large-scale scheme of Kononenko includes withdrawing money from state electricity companies, where the Kryuchkov brothers’ company Energomerezha worked under his cover. One of the Kryuchkov brothers has recently been placed on a wanted list. But a day before, he came to the State Property Fund to discuss the terms of privatization of a regional power company in a new Rolls-Royce. In an interview, the Head of the State Regulation Commission Dmytro Vovk openly said that Kononenko tried to control Vovk’s agency and protected the Kryuchkovs, calling them “nice guys.”
Lawmaker Oleksandr Granovsky works as Kononenko’s apprentice in building the family clan. He is responsible for passing the right decisions in the courts and guarantees the adoption of the right decisions through the prosecutor’s chain.
At Security Service of Ukraine levels, the vertical of Kononenko, Granovsky is served by the deputy head of the SBU, Pavlo Demchyn, who was recently appointed as the first deputy head of the SBU, and the head of the anti-corruption department.
The chief curator of the country’s defense contracts, Oleh Hladkovsky, is the second pillar of the clan.
The owner of the Kremenchuk Automobile Plant, Kostyantin Zhevago, is angry – his machinery sells in more than 80 countries around the world but is not suitable for his home country. The orders instead are made to the Cherkasy plant, Bogdan, which produces primitive screwdrivers used to assemble the Belarusian MAZ.
The third pillar of the president’s family is the head of the State Fiscal Service, Roman Nasirov, whose name has become a symbol of the preservation of old customs schemes and the non-transparent operations of the tax services.
After chief of state Borys Lozhkin’s position was weakened, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko adopted the role of oligarch contactor, and spent time talking with billionaire Igor Kolomoisky during a recent visit to Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast.
At the moment, Kolomoisky is trying to frighten people about what could happen is Privatbank is nationalized, which is supposedly at the request of the Americans, instead of offering to negotiate. In turn, Kolomoisky, realizing that his dekulakization could be a new “national project,” builds defenses. His main support is not just the Reniassance political party, which is saving the coalition with its votes, it’s also the Popular Front party and Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, who are sending signals on his behalf about possible protests of the armed battalions against Poroshenko.
Even political rivals are able to negotiate when it comes to controlling the main cash cows of the country. And so, Kononenko and Avakov are curators of the Ministry of Infrastructure, where corruption seems to be indestructible.
One story is revealing: when the head of the Danube Shipping Company was summoned to the Ministry of Infrastructure and they tried to fire him, he asked to use the toilet and made a call to Avakov. After that, the infrastructure minister was summoned to the Ministry of Interior.
Or there’s another case, when the head of the Poltava Ukravtodor, the state roads company, in an interview for a promotion, and in the presence of cameras, proved his indispensability with the words: “I am from Kononenko.”
Since any economic breakthroughs before the next presidential election are doubtful, and the party cash till is bursting with unexplained income, all the more likely it is that he will have to hold onto power Leonid Kuchma style. This means that during the second round of the next presidential elections,the most odious and least well-suited candidate will stand against the incumbent president.
In the meantime, instead of fighting with the oligarchs, the conditions are being created in which they are forced to make concessions and to share. As a result, the system is not being cleaned. It only redistributes the flows of money and assets in the interests of the presidential clan. The only way to stop this wave is to force the power to cleanse itself is through uniting new politicians and propaganda on their intolerance towards corruption. And there should be a strong argument in this fight for the introduction of international sanctions against corrupt officials in the new government.
