At the end of 2016, Victor Pinchuk—one of Ukraine’s wealthiest oligarchs and sponsor of the recent YES 2018 conference—published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal calling for “painful compromises” to establish peace with Russia. In particular, he urged Ukraine to table its NATO and EU hopes and put the Crimean issue on hold for decades. Pinchuk did not voice these ideas in vain; they have been adopted by Serhiy Taruta in his election campaign.
Taruta, a Ukrainian oligarch from the Donbas, is trying to perform an uncanny yet common feint in Ukrainian politics. He is positioning himself as a “fresh face” in the upcoming 2019 parliamentary and presidential elections, even though he has been active in politics for twenty years.
