JRL NEWSWATCH: “Ukraine oligarch urges Volodymyr Zelensky to default on debt; Concern grows over Igor Kolomoisky’s influence on the novice president” – Financial Times/ Max Seddon

International Monetary Fund Logo Over Ukraine Flag

“… Zelensky should … reject[] the [IMF] austerity programme and default[] on … external debt, according to his contentious oligarch supporter[] Igor Kolomoisky … [a suggestion that] will ring alarm bells with … western backers even though … Zelensky … said he would stick to the terms of Ukraine’s $3.9bn bailout. Concern among Ukrainians and western officials about … Kolomoisky’s […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Ukraine election turns ugly as president and comic reach run-off” – Financial Times/ Roman Olearchyk, Ben Hall

Column in Maidan Square in Kiev, Ukraine

“Poroshenko expected to launch onslaught on Zelensky in bid to make up ground” “… exit polls indicated [that Volodymyr Zelensky] … convincingly won the first round of Ukraine’s presidential election …. The 41-year-old actor and comic[‘s] political experience is limited to playing an honest teacher elected president in a popular TV series …. [T]here was already anxiety … that the […]

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District 205: what the Chernihiv elections mean for Ukrainian politics

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

Ahead of municipal elections in October, Ukrainian politics gets dirty, hot and local in the northern town of Chernihiv. (opendemocracy.net – Valery Kalnysh – August 3, 2015) Valery Kalnysh is deputy editor of Ukraine’s Radio Vesti. Meteorologists in Ukraine called 26 July the hottest day on record for 80 years. But while temperatures reached 26 degrees in Chernihiv, some 140km […]

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Team Kolomoisky; It’s easy to make misleading conclusions when it comes to Team Kolomoisky – if you don’t know Dnipropetrovsk from the inside

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

(opendemocracy.net – Victoria Narizhna – April 9, 2015) Victoria Narizhna is a Ukrainian columnist, essayist, translator, cultural manager, and civil activist from Dnipropetrovsk. After Ihor Kolomoisky, a pro-Maidan oligarch and governor of Dnipropetrovsk, allegedly used volunteer fighters to seize control of Ukraine’s state-owned gas company, he resigned his governorship live on television, causing a rift in Ukraine’s power elites. The ensuing scandal […]

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Fight between Ukraine’s government and oligarchs embroils largest lender Privatbank

Maidan Square in Kiev, Ukraine

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Graham Stack in Kyiv – April 1, 2015) The war between Ukraine’s government and the oligarchs has reached into the fragile banking system, as the central bank felt moved to reassure depositors in Privatbank, the country’s largest, after allies of President Petro Poroshenko made murder allegations regarding its owner, Ihor Kolomoisky. The National Bank […]

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NEWSLINK Kyiv Post: Kolomoisky speaks of his inner tug-of-war and patriots from the Opposition Bloc

Maidan Square in Kiev, Ukraine

The former governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, businessman Igor Kolomoisky, appeared on the political talk show “Pravo na vladu” on 1+1 TV channel on March 26 in a sort of farewell address after his high-profile resignation. He stepped down from his post in the early hours of March 25 after a dramatic showdown with the government that saw Kolomoisky twice dispatch […]

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Pressure on Kolomoyskyi is U.S. attempt to create centralized Ukraine with strong anti-Russian govt – Duma deputy

Maidan Square in Kiev, Ukraine

MOSCOW. March 24 (Interfax) – The events around Ukrainian governor Ihor Kolomoyskyi attest that he is not among the people the West is planning to build relations with, says Mikhail Yemelyanov, first deputy leader of A Just Russia Party faction. “It is clear that Kolomoyskyi is not the politician with whom the U.S. and Europeans would like to deal, hence […]

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NEWSWATCH Christian Science Monitor: Ukraine’s latest challenge: oligarchs with private armies

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

[“Ukraine’s latest challenge: oligarchs with private armies; Gov. Igor Kolomoisky, who was given political power and the right to create a private army last year, last week used that power to seize the state oil company’s headquarters in Kiev” – Christian Science Monitor –  Fred Weir – March 25, 2015] The Christian Science Monitor reports on developments in Ukraine surrounding billionaire […]

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Moscow Times: Internal Rifts in Ukraine Play in Russia’s Favor – Analysts

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – March 25, 2015) When the incoming Ukrainian government faced the threat of sweeping separatism in the country’s eastern regions one year ago, pugnacious billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky was the only oligarch to help. As other tycoons hovered on the fence, unsure of how the ongoing fighting between pro-Russian rebels and government troops in the country’s […]

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Ukraine’s Catch 22 over its oligarch class

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Mark Adomanis in Philadelphia – March 25, 2015) As the Soviet Union collapsed in both Russia and Ukraine, small groups of extremely clever and even more ruthless men “privatized” (or if you prefer less exalted language “stole”) all of the prize industrial assets. Virtually overnight, these formerly mid-ranking bureaucrats and functionaries became billionaires, some […]

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