A Tale of Two Oligarchs
Image by flickr
Western observers ponder Russia's "injustice" and lament Ukraine's chaos. Yet, it was Putin's Russia that took Western examples and applied it, while Orange Ukraine (emboldened by empty Western guarantees and promises) decided to hurl themselves out of their window of opportunity.
Russia's Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Ukraine's Rinat Akhmetov embody the evolution of their contemporary nations. Both oligarchs are remarkably similar in many ways, but the courses taken by their respective countrymen have largely dictated where they are today.
Rinat Akhmetov (left) is the richest man in Ukraine
When Russia's reformers made an example of their richest man and top white collar criminal and threw him into jail, Putin's approval ratings soared. A few years later, Ukraine's reformers campaigned on a platform of sending thieves to the slammer, won (eventually) and then failed to effectively prosecute a single transgressor leading to their coalition's popular support plummeting. Meanwhile, Ukraine's richest bankrolled an effective counter-campaign (including hiring foreign consultants and other USAID camp followers who cut their teeth working for Orange/Western democracy promotion agencies) that now shows signs of not only holding a plurality in Ukraine, but evolving into something respectable. (Although, ask the average citizen in the east or west and most will affirm that the entire spectrum of the Ukrainian political class is just one big clown-heavy circus.)
Khodorkovsky's story is best-known. He was one of the Russian oligarchs who made his fortune in petroleum and, like so many of his era, most likely had shady dealings that involved dishonesty, the occasional murder, and some light treason. Undoubtedly, his decision to court Western support and fund opposition parties such as Yabloko (Russian for "Apple"), Union of Right Forces (SPS), and the Communist Party led to him being selected to serve as an example to others that there were now limits to the games the Kremlin would let the oligarchs play. His conviction of fraud and tax evasion led to a nine year sentence (by comparison, Ken Lay of Enron-fame was expected to receive 20-30 years before he did the honorable thing and died). Khodorkovsky now languishes in a Siberian cell and his never dull attorney, Robert Amsterdam, is currently helping him spend his last half billion defending and defaming people of note.
Similarly, Prime Minister-in-waiting Akhmetov, a Tatar-Ukrainian oligarch made his fortune in steel and maneuvered (or actually vacationed) around a possible prosecution and imprisonment while the Orange Coalition spent all their time dithering over what chairs they were going to sit in. There is probably even more reason to believe that Akhmetov has an even murkier past than Khodorkovsky (even by CIS oligarch standards), but as time has moved on and while Tymoshenko has been braiding her hair, to most observers, Akhmetov and the other targets of her "re-privatization" (Ukrainian for "nationalization") have made the transition from robber barons to respectable industrialists.
Recent pieces by the Kyiv Post, Korrespondent, and Focus, took note that Rinat Akhmetov, the richest man in Ukraine, may well become the richest man in the former Soviet Union before the decade is out. Last year, using estimates from Forbes, Dragon Capital, and others who should know these things, he saw his wealth grow from $3.8 billion to $15.6 billion.
However, rather than Akhmetov actually raking in an extra $10 billion over the last 365 days (that would be an impressive money market account!), it is more likely that just as in the last few years it has been easier to gauge wealth in Russia (where Forbes also logged some significant increases and added billionaires who had not even been previously on the radar), that Ukraine is also now experiencing similar maturing in their financial and other markets, thus allowing for better access to information (and more of a willingness on the part of those who have wealth to allow it to be seen and accounted for.)
Still, (I begrudgingly write), Ukraine's increased wealth and transparency probably has more to do with a resurgent and ever more open Russian market dragging it into the world economy than anything Kyiv has done in the last millennium.
Nick Slepko, borscht lover and Galician nationalist is also Deputy Director of the Real Russia Project and has been working with law, investment, and aid agencies in Ukraine. He is currently based in Kyiv.
I think what’s missing on RussiaBlog is a forum for venting to the most recent news.
Despite that this post by Nick Slepko is about Oligarchs, I must make a comment about Bush’s yammering and threats towards Russia.
Today we see the headline “Bush says Russia won't attack Europeâ€. Good grief, it’s obvious allready. This is old news that Russia will not attack anyone. In fact, let’s all make a list of Germany, US, UK, France, and Russia, lets see who attacked the most. Russia has always been a great partner, it’s the Germans that created two world wars… are we so naïve today? My own German grandmother said it right, just before she died (early 1990's), the Nazis will try again.
What Bush is doing by announcing falsely that Russian reforms have stopped, that democracy is back sliding - I must protest that his accuracy on this subject has as much resolution and mechanical tolerance as Bush’s efforts in Iraq, and US domestic back sliding and chaos.
Creating all these fairy tales about Russia, do they think this will cover up the many failures in the west? Are Western nations so desperate to lead in the resource wars that they need such rhetoric? Is Europe ready for war again? Is Germany ready to attack again?
And to say Russia won’t attack Europe sounds like a little child speaking. We all know this, Europe and Russia know this, and it’s the US administration that has issues in grasping reality, common sense and the obvious. Making such a pathetic comments by Bush only reflects bush’s desperation.
The real question is “Will the US attack Russia?†or “Will Germany attack Russia, once again?†Excuse me for looking at track records and history.
And at any rate, since Iraq is basking in such massive success, enjoying the fruits of all this “Yankee Know How†with such peace and economic activity, then it’s only logical that the US needs to deploy its missile defense in Iraq. You can crouch right up on the boarder with Iran; you catch the “little rascals†during boost phase when it is most important and easiest to shoot down a missile. Heck, while Iran exports its natural gas to Georgia to the north, add some radar stations in Georgia to augment the missile defense system in North Western Iraq.
Boy, in typical Darwinian evolution, people as clueless and far off as Bush usually becomes extinct. In economics they become homeless. In a career, they become failures. In relationships they become divorced.
Dear Luther,
Thank you for reading us closely, and thank you for your advice. It’s only that much manpower we have to put the information on the blog. A year ago we tried to be a news portal, but it played out that way that people can get common news from other media sources; therefore we started concentrating on unique and original content. I am working at the moment on expanding the program (by a lot). If that happens, your wish definitely will come true.
Again, thank you for reading us so often and for all the comments you are leaving here.
Sincerely,
Yuri
Hello Yuri,
Thanks for the kind words... Between my sarcasm and my analogies, my disgust and contempt for US/EU foreign policy is a cry for someone like Ron Paul. Looks like I will waffle back to the Republican party if Ron Paul runs, otherwise, I will give up my US citizenship for Belarusian as I retire. Some one like Lyndon Larouche is too much and I suspect Ron Paul as US president will never happen. First we need an economic 9/11 then we will get our Ron Paul. So we wait for the next US depression that will be egged on by the same incompetence and “good intension†that we exported to Iraq.
Well, Latvia today has announced it will offer to host elements of the US missile shield. Just friggen DANDY !
Somehow, if this new groupie or orgy claimed they needed this Eastward expansion for shooting down meteorites, this would have more credibility. I could even buy an explanation that the EU and the US were worried about Martians attacking.
So let me guess, GOD has whispered into Bush’s ear and has given orders to surround Russia, in order to squelch Iranian missiles?
Ladies and Gentlemen, “Commons sense has left the buildingâ€.
What a waste. 50 million people in America living below the poverty level, and we need to setup a missile shield to protect the paranoid who demand an edge and the option of bombing the hell out of another group of women and children. Please lets be real, the missile shield is to cover America’s next blunder and screw up. You need a missile defense system like that when you intend on spreading more love like we have done in Iraq.
Remember that it was the FBI that invested $560 million dollars in a large security software project that ended up a complete failure that they can’t even DEMO... the thing can't even boot.
Russia and her allies will prosper very well in the next generations ahead, and as it was just announced, Russia last year invested 160 billion dollars abroad. The economic success for Russia and her partners will not be based on hegemony or subsidy but it be based on resonance of cooperation, democracy, and the free market with gov protection of natural resources. The US can live in it’s fairy tale of gold finger or Dr Strange love, while eventually reality will settle in.
My emotions aren’t worried for Russia or Belarus, but it kills me that the US is dyeing. And a missile shield is proof of that. For those that are young and middle aged, you had better learn the Russian language if you want a successful life or to protect your investments. Zbigniew Brzezinski’s dream of splitting Russia up may very well end up in the US, and by market forces, go figure.
I am surprised that there is not more comment about Semyon Vainshtok, the former head of Transneft. According to the Daily Telegraph in October, he has popped up in London looking to buy a £25 million house, just months after resigning from the Winter Olympics management because of massive overspend. Why are people not more interested in these developments?
Here's the article about Semyon Vainshtok from the Dashwood column in the business section of the Sunday Telegraph, under the headline "Hard to believe, but someone wants a £25m London pad".
It reads: "As the London property market trembles at the much-mooted possibility of our resident Russian oligarchs selling up and fleeing to less tax- and extradition-friendly climes, it is nice to know that at least one of the magnates sees his future here. I gather that Semyon Vainshtok, former president of oil group Transneft, who built his power base as a director of the mammoth Russian group LUKoil, has property scouts scouring London for something suitable in which to enjoy his London life (in the region of £25m, I'm told).
Though he already owns apartments in Regent's Park and Belgravia, worth something like £7m, the new home could become Britain's most lavish property acquisition next year. Vainshtok's wealth has increased considerably in the last couple of years, catapulting him into the Russian Who's Who.
A friend of Putin, he worked on construction of the east Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline and Olimpstroi, the state corporation set up to prepare the town of Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olumpics.
Anyone with any ideas of where he might like to drop his £25m, do let Dashwood know."