Deoligarchization in Action: Akhmetov Buys Another Villa, Poroshenko Hastily Gives Up Ownership of His TV Channels

Meanwhile, a scandal erupted around Naftogaz and Kolomoisky.

On November 5, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law that introduces the concept of an “oligarch” and certain restrictions for such individuals. 

Under it, the National Security and Defense Council will be able to add to the “oligarch register” individuals who meet certain criteria, in particular those related to owning media outlets or influencing the country’s political life.

At the same time, the public is wary of the law, suspecting that it may not produce any real economic effect for the country.

The cause for concern was the second recent purchase of an expensive villa by Ukraine’s largest businessman Rinat Akhmetov, while Naftogaz became embroiled in a corruption scandal over an alleged attempt to transfer to businessman Ihor Kolomoisky a significant volume of gas at a discount of UAH 20 billion.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s fifth president and businessman Petro Poroshenko keeps repeating that the law’s criteria are supposedly written in such a way that they will hit him the hardest, and that this is allegedly almost a personal revenge by Zelensky himself.

As a result, Poroshenko created the media concern “Vilni Media” to transfer to it his ownership rights to the Pryamyi and 5 TV channels.

Akhmetov’s Villa

Rinat Akhmetov’s family bought another luxurious villa on the shore of Lake Geneva. It was registered in the name of Damir Akhmetov, the eldest son of the Ukrainian oligarch, reports the Swiss newspaper Le Temps. The villa was bought for more than UAH 1.2 billion.

In 2020, Akhmetov also made a purchase of the most expensive villa in the world for UAH 1.7 billion.

The Akhmetov family bought the new villa in March. The oligarch has already spent more than UAH 2.8 billion on real estate near Geneva.

Akhmetov also bought two neighboring plots in Collonge-Bellerive with a total area of 20,000 square meters. The houses without basements there alone have an area of over a thousand square meters.

Kolomoisky Scandal 

The state company Naftogaz of Ukraine will give businessman Ihor Kolomoisky natural gas worth over UAH 100 billion, wrote Eurosolidarity MP Oleksii Honcharenko in a blog on “Ukrainska Pravda”.

Oleksii Honcharenko
MP

The president signed the oligarch law, and oligarch Kolomoisky will receive 3.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas that was supposed to go to the population. Quite a start to ze-oligarchization.

According to him, on October 26 Naftogaz of Ukraine allegedly signed an amicable settlement agreement with Kolomoisky and agreed to give him 3.5 billion cubic meters of gas from storage facilities. He said the first 700 million cubic meters are to be handed over as early as November 30.

Oleksii Honcharenko
MP

3.5 billion cubic meters is a third of all the gas the state has stored for winter for the population. There is not enough gas for the population, but apparently there is enough for oligarch Kolomoisky.

According to him, losing a third of the gas reserve before the heating season may lead to a fuel shortage and ultimately become a reason for negotiations with Russia on gas supplies.

In an official Twitter post, Naftogaz refuted this information.

“The information that Naftogaz signed an amicable settlement agreement with businessman I. Kolomoisky and agreed to give him 3.5 billion cubic meters of gas does not correspond to reality. The statement by Ukrainian People’s Deputy A. Honcharenko is untrue,” the message says.

Poroshenko’s Channels

Ukraine’s fifth president Poroshenko “dumped” shares in his TV channels Pryamyi and 5 Channel onto media representatives, some of whom are MPs.

He did this because of the oligarch law and accused Bankova of trying to bring Ukrainian media under its control.

Poroshenko said corporate rights were transferred in compliance with the law to the management of the holding “Vilni Media,” into which the channels have merged; its owners are media representatives, media professionals, MPs and public figures.

Corporate rights to the TV channels were acquired at market price. The deal value is not disclosed.

It is worth noting that, according to the agreement, Petro Poroshenko is prohibited from controlling or influencing the holding’s work.