Kolomoisky and thimbles: the wealthy businessperson makes a counter move
The previous owner of Privat is still attempting to disrupt the situation in Ukraine
While the wealthiest businessperson Rinat Akhmetov, in an interview with the Washington Post, discusses how he began his career by playing a throw-in fool, his colleague Igor Kolomoisky, after transferring his assets to Ukrnafta and Ukrtatnafta under state control, seems to have decided to carefully irritate the state through his Russian connections. Will Bankovaya want to finally sever ties with their partner, and what future awaits the wealthy businessperson after the end of the war – read the article in “Apostrophe”.
More than a month has passed since November 7, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov announced that by decision of the National Security and Defense Council, the assets of Ukrnafta and Ukrtatnafta were transferred to the control of the Ministry of Defense. Here it should be noted that NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine owns 50% + 1 share of Ukrnafta, another 42% were owned by the companies of the Privat group of Igor Kolomoisky and his partners. Privat has exercised operational control over the company since February 2003, actually managing it manually through its proteges. In turn, Naftogaz owns 43.05% in Ukrtatnafta, the rest of the shares were distributed among offshore companies, the beneficiary of part of which is also Kolomoisky, who was called the actual owner of the company's main asset – the Kremenchug Oil Refinery, which was destroyed by the Russians this spring.
The silent Kolomoisky, who has not been heard from the very beginning of the large-scale attack on Ukraine, seems to have decided to respond to the nationalization of these strategic facilities in an asymmetrical way – and again turned to Privatbank.
After 2021, the London Court of Arbitration made final decisions on the proceedings initiated against the bank, rejecting all claims against the bank, it decided to move the legal battles to Ukraine, involving his Russian acquaintance from Switzerland, businessperson Vladimir Yorikh.
The latter, the former co-owner of one of the largest Russian metallurgical corporations Mechel, through his company Pala Assets Holdings Ltd, is attempting in a Ukrainian court to declare illegal the technical procedure for the nationalization of Privatbank bail-in. In particular, the agreement on the purchase of shares concluded between PrivatBank and UK SPV on December 20, 2016, by which PrivatBank's obligations to UK SPV were exchanged for shares of the bank's additional issue when PrivatBank was withdrawn from the market with the participation of the state. In fact, this is another attempt to cancel the nationalization of Privat in court.
The next “collision” of the Dnipro businessperson on “Privat” is not at all accidental. He, like his colleagues in the workshop, found himself in an uncomfortable position with the start of the war, political expert Viktor Nebozhenko tells Apostrophe.
“For all the businesspersons, including Akhmetov and Kolomoisky, the war was a big annoyance, because they know how to steal and exploit only in peacetime, and during the war everything should work for defense and victory, and the businesspersons, it turns out, interfere with this. In fact, we are faced with the need to nationalize business structures during the war – you never organize a war economy if part of it belongs to the businesspersons, that's all,” the expert says.
Nebozhenko’s coworker, political expert Oleksiy Golobutsky remembers that Kolomoisky’s bad influence has not disappeared, and the United States, our main supporter now, has many concerns about the wealthy businessman. According to the specialist, the reason he is still not in America and does not yet respond to queries from law enforcement agencies is solely due to the war, and the Ukrainian authorities want to say goodbye to him.
“Kolomoisky’s power comes not only from money and connections, but also from control over specific groups of Verkhovna Rada deputies. Zelensky wants to eliminate them as soon as possible. Once peace is restored, martial law is lifted, and elections are announced, everything will be done to ensure these people do not remain in the Rada, along with their relevant connections. Zelensky has every opportunity to make this happen,” Golobutsky explains.
He points out another interesting aspect: after the war, Ukraine will not receive money for reconstruction easily. This is evident from recent reports, which suggest that not 300 billion, but 100 billion Russian gold and foreign exchange reserves are supposedly “frozen” in the West. Accordingly, the expert believes there is a high chance that they will tell us we have enough of our own money, which is in Western accounts and was stolen by Igor Kolomoisky, Konstantin Zhevago, and others. If the West is willing to bend the rules by “freezing” Russian reserves for the first time and giving them to us, then the issue of the oligarchs will definitely be raised. There is too much money at stake to wait for us to reform and fight corruption. Therefore, Golobutsky notes that the “Kolomoisky issue” will be resolved as soon as the fighting stops.
Viktor Nebozhenko is less optimistic about the change in Bankova's attitude towards Kolomoisky. In his view, the state simply took control of his assets in Ukrnafta and Ukrtatnafta “for safekeeping,” as Kolomoisky cannot manage them during the war. After the war, the oligarch's assets will be returned to him. This is essentially a way of preserving the old oligarchy and dividing property between new and old oligarchs. Therefore, this is not about nationalizing the oligarchs' assets; they are simply being helped to survive.
Political expert Yevhen Magda agrees with his colleague, highlighting that the flow of crude oil to Ukraine has decreased, and we are mainly buying finished petroleum products. Consequently, Kolomoisky's Ukrnafta and Ukrtatnafta are not very necessary at the moment.
“Seizing his shares in these companies may be a form of “streamlining” his business. In addition, Kolomoisky always has a confrontational nature and will act on it when it suits him, but right now is not the time to provoke him. So, the wealthy businessman is comfortable and will continue to be so. Only after the victory can he be threatened with a trip to America, but not before that. It's easier for them to change power and get everything,” Magda tells Apostrophe.
In his opinion, the West will give us funds in such a way that they can grab a billion or two without control or “exchange” them for some necessary things are simply impossible for Americans. It seems that this was not understood either at Bankovaya or at the headquarters of the Ukrainian nouveau riche.
“Big oligarchs – Yaroslavsky, Akhmetov, Kolomoisky, others – still have the opportunity to compromise with the President's Office, national interests are not taken into account by any of the parties. Here Churchill, after the start of the Second World War, did not stand on ceremony with “bags of money” and oligarchic incomes – Britain needed to survive. And we are cunning, cunning and cunning again,” Viktor Nebozhenko concludes.
Denis Zakharov
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