Rinat Akhmetov (Photo: Danil Shamkin/NurPhoto via Reuters) //Akhmetov's interview with The Washington Post. Pomace
On December 8, the influential American publication The Washington Post dedicated a lengthy article to Ukraine. Its title is The conflict restrained the Ukrainian tycoons, making space for democratic changeen. Rinat Akhmetov, the wealthiest Ukrainian, took center stage.
The tycoon provided written responses to queries from WP journalists, revealing little-known aspects of his life and outlining his economic development vision and the post-war future of Ukraine for the first time.</p
NV presents the most captivating excerpts from the article featuring quotes from Akhmetov and commentary from other subjects of the American newspaper.
Akhmetov's interview with The Washington Post. Squeeze: Childhood. A throwaway fool
Rinat Akhmetov was born in 1966, raised in a miner's family in Donetsk, as the publication recounts.
Akhmetov: I was brought up in a modest household where we struggled to make ends meet. Our residence was 20 square meters, housing the four of us, and we slept on the floor. In the mornings, we kindled a coal stove, and the toilet was located outdoors.
The businessman asserts that his challenging upbringing toughened him and influenced his future business philosophy. Since then, he has abhorred poverty and the plight of people.
They claim that Akhmetov experienced his initial triumph at the card table.
Sergei Taruta, a businessman from Donetsk:
strong> He was among the top five or six card players in the Soviet Union and participated in competitions.
Akhmetov insists this is an exaggeration. However, he admitted to WP that in his early twenties, he indeed played a lot of throw-in fool.
Akhmetov: To be frank, I amassed my first wealth from playing cards. I realized the following: cards require tactics and strategy, an analytical mindset, a practical approach, and the ability to win.
Crime. The tale of Alik Grek
Rinat was 24 years old when Ukraine gained independence. It was a dismal period, especially in the Donbass, embroiled in the conflict of local factions for power and violence, notes the American publication.
Akhmetov:The entire economy, overseen by the government at the time, came to a standstill. I resolved to invest in the industrial sector.
In 1992, he and two partners established a firm called APC, which processed coal into coke. One of the partners was Akhat Bragin, also known as Alik the Greek. He was reputed to be one of the most influential criminal figures in Donetsk. Akhmetov mentions that Bragin departed ARS in 1993, but they remained close associates.
This companionship fueled speculation in the media about the potential ties of the wealthiest Ukrainian with criminal organizations. Akhmetov successfully sued several media outlets that accused him of having a criminal record.
Akhmetov: I have never been involved in any criminal organizations, I have never been prosecuted or faced any criminal charges.
Sergey Taruta: He was not a member of a criminal group, but he associated with and befriended individuals who were.
In October 1995, Bragin was killed by a bomb that detonated at the Shakhtar stadium when he arrived for a match of the football team he owned. In 2003, a member of a rival criminal group was found guilty of involvement in the murder and sentenced to life in prison. However, at the time of the killing, suspicion fell on Akhmetov.
AkhmetovThis is not true, and it really hurts me. Akhatem and I were five minutes late for the game, and he ran from the car to the stadium without waiting for me. The time gap was only five seconds. The explosion happened as soon as I opened the car door. When your best friend dies in front of you, you realize that death was five seconds late, and then being accused of something is very painful and unfair.
…Akhmetov purchased Shakhtar and transformed it into a dominant force in the country, doing well in European competitions. He constructed a $400 million stadium in his hometown Donetsk, which was inaugurated in 2009 with a Beyoncé concert.
Major privatization. Krivorozhstal, SCM. Interview with Akhmetov
Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma actively supported the privatization of state industries and agriculture. Akhmetov believes Kuchma deserves recognition for modernizing the country's economy.
AkhmetovThe government was the most corrupt manager. Then, large-scale privatization began in the country. It wasn't perfect, but was there any other way to develop besides transitioning from state ownership to private ownership and from a command economy to a market economy? No, there wasn't.
The Donetsk businessman was acquiring an increasing number of industrial assets, particularly in the coal and metallurgical industries.
Avdeevka metallurgical plant owned by Akhmetov's company Metinvest (Photo: REUTERS/Gleb Garanich /File Photo)
AkhmetovI obtained most of my assets on the secondary market, meaning after they were privatized. We modernized steel production and began to compete in global markets in a highly competitive environment.
Then he invested in acquiring Dongorbank, which he described as “the gateway to financial resources.”
Vladislav Rashkovan, Deputy Executive Director of the IMF from UkraineAkhmetov's Bank was never used as a personal piggy bank; it was simply a bank. Akhmetov was clever. He organized his business as if it were a Western business.
However, the oligarchic system in Ukraine matured at that time, according to WP. In 2004, Akhmetov and business tycoon Viktor Pinchuk paid $800 million to purchase Kryvorizhstal, a state-owned company that produced about 20 percent of Ukraine's steel. Viktor Yushchenko, who became president after Kuchma, claimed that the plant was “stolen” and canceled the agreement. The government auctioned the plant on live TV and it was sold for $4.8 billion—six times the previous price—to Mittal Steel.
Viktor YushchenkoThis transaction was clearly corrupt. It was important to hold a public auction so that Ukrainian society and foreign investors would see it as transparent and honest, and to build confidence in the privatization of state assets.
In 2000, Akhmetov established System Capital Management, a holding company for many of the enterprises he had acquired. Soon, a giant called SCM dominated Ukraine's metallurgical and energy sectors. Akhmetov's business included agriculture, transportation, and other areas, as well as a media empire comprising television channels and other media.
Oligarch. Denial
“Akhmetov had everything, including what he didn’t want: the label of an oligarch with all the negative meanings of the word,” WP notes.
In 2021, the sixth leader Volodymyr Zelensky proposed a bill on reducing the power of wealthy individuals. The president, whose popularity was decreasing and who was being attacked by TV channels owned by the rich, made a clever political move by going after the despised wealthy people in the country, according to the newspaper.
Sergey Leshchenko, adviser to the head of the President's Office: Zelensky is an overly ambitious person who knows that if he doesn't dismantle this system, it will destroy him. They decided to challenge him. And one day Zelensky said: “Okay, are you challenging me? I accept it.”
The President signed the law passed by the Verkhovna Rada in November 2021. An “oligarch” is defined as a person who meets at least three of four criteria: political influence, media holdings, economic monopolies, and a minimum total assets of approximately $100 million.
Akhmetov: The requirements of this law do not concern me: I left politics in 2012, long before the law came into force, and I do not plan to return… Relations with business should be regulated in a civilized way, which is observed by all developed countries, and not through populist laws. There are no oligarch laws in either the United States or the EU that allow illegal undesirable lists to be drawn up out of court. Lobbying laws apply there… I am not an oligarch. I have never been and am not going to be an oligarch. I am the largest private investor, employer and taxpayer in Ukraine.
But in the summer of 2022, the businessman announced that he was relinquishing the licenses of his media empire, including two large national TV channels. He called the reason for this step precisely the “discriminatory” law.
Viktor Andrusiv, ex-adviser to the head of the Presidential Office: This is the end of an era, the end of political culture… Oligarchs don't disappear. The main thing is to end their monopolies created through political connections. Now they will have to act more like big businessmen.
Patriot. Repentance?
On February 22, 2022, two days before the Russian invasion, Zelensky addressed the nation with a call for “economic patriotism.” Akhmetov announced that his SCM holding would prepay about $34 million in taxes to strengthen the country.
The next evening, when Ukraine's Western partners warned of an imminent Russian attack, Zelensky summoned Akhmetov and about 50 other top business leaders to his office to ask for their support. When explosions were heard in Kiev a few hours later, the businessman was asleep.
Akhmetov: My assistant burst into the room and shouted: “Wake up, the war has begun.”
He claims that he has not left Ukraine since February 24 and lives in Kyiv. In these months, he has become Ukraine's largest private donor, providing more than $100 million in military and humanitarian aid, from drones for the Armed Forces of Ukraine to food.
Some critics say Akhmetov is trying to atone for his actions in 2014 when he seemed to hesitate after Russia annexed Crimea and backed the separatists in the country's east. But, in the end, he supported Ukraine.
Daria Kaleniuk, Executive Director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center: I will start to respect him when he starts selling all his mansions in Switzerland, France and the UK and creates a fund to support the army in Ukraine.
Akhmetov: My business has suffered the most. It may not be very modest of me, but I help much more than anyone else, and I'm not going to stop.
Akhmetov and Azovstal defense hero Mikhail Dianov (Photo: System Capital Management/Facebook)
An impoverished billionaire. Ukraine — Europe
According to Forbes, Akhmetov's fortune dropped from $7.6 billion to $4.3 billion after the outbreak of a full-scale war. The greatest losses are the mines and metallurgical enterprises of Donbass, as well as the facilities of the energy company DTEK, suffering from crushing strikes from Russian missiles. The entrepreneur filed a $20 billion lawsuit against Russia with the European Court of Human Rights.
Answering a question about his vision for Ukraine after the war, he called for a “new Marshall Plan” with hundreds of billions of dollars of investment and the transformation of the country on the model of the West, not Russia.
Akhmetov: The goal is to build a new, strong and European Ukraine, a member of the EU, with strong institutions, the rule of law, clear anti-corruption rules, a democratic political system and fair treatment of citizens… Competition in the economy means the market. Competition in politics means democracy… The concentration of power leads to authoritarianism and economic decline.
Yuri Nikolov, a journalist for the Nashi Groshi website, believes that Akhmetov has a chance to restore the energy business after the war. But tougher competition will likely mean the end of his monopoly, from control of 90 percent of coal mining to rail networks that transport fossils, power plants that burn coal to generate electricity, power lines.
Yuri Nikolov: I hope that businessman Akhmetov will stay with us, and oligarch Akhmetov will not be reborn.
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