Two presidential candidates, four oligarchs, two top law enforcement and security officials, the prime minister, and an anti-corruption investigator – these are the most influential people in Ukraine, according to a rating by Ukrainian magazine Novoye Vremya.
President Petro Poroshenko tops the rating, with his job title, control over the largest faction in parliament (135 seats), and $1 billion in business assets placing him first. His only weak spot, Novoye Vremya writes, is his low popularity rating – around 7 percent by various estimates.
“Poroshenko has not become the author of the Ukrainian miracle, neither economic, nor reformist,” the magazine wrote in an article on the rating published on Aug. 30. “As a result, the Bankova chief is losing people’s support, and his chance of being re-elected.”
To compile the rating, Novoye Vremya surveyed 83 experts among politicians, journalists, artists, and civil activists. Many familiar faces from Ukraine’s elite remain in positions of power, the magazine said.
“Several presidential elections, two Maidans, and political perturbations in society have not changed the established power landscape: the same group of people hang out in government offices,” the magazine’s editorial on the ranking read.
Poroshenko is followed by the richest man in Ukraine, Rinat Akhmetov, whose fortune Novoye Vremya estimated at $6.9 billion in 2017. It seems that there’s no area where he doesn’t do business: from metallurgy and energy to media.
“Akhmetov discovered a success formula: become the richest, and whoever is in power will help you get richer – be it “the corrupt regime” of Viktor Yanukovych or “Maidan reformer” Petro Poroshenko,” Novoye Vremya wrote.
The third on the list is Interior Minister Arsen Avakov. He has over 370,00o armed and trained law enforcement personnel under his command, as well as (reputedly) the Azov regiment.
“In a country at war even the defense minister has fewer subordinates,” Novoye Vremya wrote.
In addition, Avakov is one of the leaders of the People’s Front party, which has the second largest number of seats in parliament (81).
The only woman in the top 10 is the leader of the Batkivshchina parliamentary fraction, Yulia Tymoshenko. Currently ahead in the polls for the 2019 presidential election, she has a broad yet controversial, and populist political platform, Novoye Vremya writes.
Post-EuroMaidan years took a heavy toll on oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, now at No. 5, who lost his government job and PrivatBank, the country’s largest bank, which was nationalized to prevent it from collapsing. However, he is still among the country’s richest, with an estimated $1 billion fortune, thanks to other businesses he owns through his Privat Group business. In addition, Novoye Vremya writes, he has two aces up his sleeve – the popular comedian Volodymyr Zelensky, who is said to be among the potential candidates for the presidency, and Borys Filatov, the mayor of Dnipro.
Novoye Vremya was brief about the No. 6 most influential person: “(Prime Minister) Volodymyr Groysman has been in charge of the Cabinet of Ministers for two years… and all this time the prime minister has balanced on the verge between success and failure.”
The Chicken King, as they call businessman Yuriy Kosyuk, came in at 7th. His Mironivsky Hlibproduct, or MHP, is the most successful agrocompany of Ukraine and accounts for almost half of all domestic chicken production. Its revenues are growing thanks to exports to the European Union.
“And Kosyuk’s political connections help MHP receive generous subsidies from the state budget,” Novoye Vremya wrote.
Another fixture figure in the rating is a billionaire Viktor Pinchuk, who ranked 8th this year.
“Although he is struggling with the debts of his steel pipes business (Interpipe), he keeps investing in status events and the media,” Novoye Vremya wrote.
Such events include Pinchuk’s annual Yalta European Strategy forum, which will take place in Kyiv on Sept. 13-15, and the Interpipe TechFest of science and innovation, which will take place in Dnipro on Sept. 15-16.
Oleksandr Turchynov, the secretary of the State Security and Defense Council, is ninth on the list. Among his main achievements Novoye Vremya names securing sanctions against Russia, and increasing spending on the army, new military equipment, and cybersecurity.
Finally, No. 10 is the head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, Artem Sytnyk. Under constant attack and obstruction, he has managed to retain his reputation as an independent corruption fighter, opening 700 cases against high-ranking officials and return Hr 360 million to the state budget, Novoye Vremya wrote.
