Ahmetov’s reaction to the call for “economic patriotism”

After Zelensky took office as president, he began to fight against the country’s richest people, introducing a bill on “de-oligarchization” into parliament. Zelensky was well aware that the system would destroy him if he did not break its backbone. Presidential aide Serhiy Leshchenko says that “Zelensky is an extremely ambitious person who takes on the challenge of the system.”

In an interview with The Post, one of Ukraine’s richest men, Rinat Akhmetov, stated that the law did not apply to him as he had left politics long before its adoption and did not plan to return to politics. According to Bloomberg, assets of Rinat Akhmetov are $5.25B.

In February, shortly after the Russian invasion, Zelensky took a decisive step by militarizing all national television channels and proclaiming a “unified information policy” calling for uniform coverage of news. The absence of entertainment programs also affected the channels’ revenues. 

Zelensky called for “economic patriotism” and said that businesses should protect the Ukrainian economy. On the same day, Akhmetov announced that his holding company SCM would pay about $34 million in taxes upfront to “strengthen the country.” The next evening, when American and European officials warned of the inevitable Russian invasion, Zelensky invited Rinat Akhmetov and about fifty other influential businessmen to his office to ask for their support. As Akhmetov told The Post in an interview, a few hours later he was already asleep when his assistant burst into the room and said, “Wake up, the war has started.”

Respondents said that Ukraine is now focused on the war, not on what will happen after it. However, Timofey Milovanov, former Minister of Economic Development of the government and current president of the Kyiv School of Economics, noted that for most Ukrainians, the war has made it clear that their economic future should follow the Western model, not the Russian one.

According to The Washington Post in its article Rinat Akhmetov said in personal correspondence that he supports the idea of Ukraine joining the European Union, which would make the country’s economy more open and competitive. Yuriy Nikolov, a journalist for the Ukrainian website Nashi Hroshi, believes that after the war, Akhmetov has a chance to revive his energy business, DTEK.

Nikolov hopes that businessman Ahmetov will remain in his place, but the monopolistic power of the rich will not be revived.

Article written using The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/08/ukraine-oligarchs-power-war/.