Ukrainian tycoon urges to get rid of oligarchic system

Rinat Akhmetov, the richest person in Ukraine, whose assets have decreased from almost 14 billion dollars to 4.2 during the war, has expressed his support for the Ukrainian leadership even if it involves a decline of the oligarchs. 

"EU candidate status is not just an opportunity to build a new free and democratic European country, without corruption, with a market economy, with fair and independent courts, freedom of speech and functioning institutions. It is also a way to really get rid of the oligarchic system," says the one who is considered the most powerful among the oligarchs, according to the Italian news outlet Corriere Della Serra.

"We will not have another chance. It is our historical responsibility to do it now,” he added.

He points out that the law on oligarchs was approved without waiting for an opinion from the advisors of the Council of Europe on the defence of human rights and democracy. "If such a law existed in Italy or elsewhere in the free world, the courts would be overwhelmed by absolutely justified causes and appeals," he added.

Akhmetov points out that he is with Zelensky in the challenges facing Ukraine, not only with his aid to the war effort.

He has allocated 100 million euros for the war, donated 100,000 bulletproof vests and produces anti-tank materials.

The entrepreneur lists his properties destroyed, damaged or stolen from Russia: the Azovstal and Ilych steel plants in Mariupol; Avdiivka coal mines near Donetsk; the Luhansk power plant and dozens of others. The prices of two plants in Mariupol alone were between $17 and $ 20 billion before the war, Akhmetov said.

These devastations convinced Akhmetov to sue Russia in international courts for "tens of billions of dollars". This raises "a fundamental question of the coherence, fairness and effectiveness of the international legal system," he said.

"We have suffered significant losses," he admits. "35% of public spending is not covered today, we have lost a fifth of the territory, half of the gross product, a third of the steel capacity, 40% of the export of cereals," the oligarch added.

He said that with 11 million refugees and displaced persons, Ukraine now is dependent on the support of the West.

Akhmetov forecasted that the next few months will be very hard, saying that "we are the largest private gas producers, we guarantee the energy independence of Ukraine. But next winter will not be easy, the energy problem should be a priority for the authorities".

A few days ago, the announcement of his exit from the media sector, was a radical turning point for the oligarch. 

"There is only one reason: a discriminatory law on oligarchs has entered into force," he said, adding that "it is a difficult decision against our will, which I took reluctantly".

In the past, his relations with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy have been strained and perhaps remain so even now that the president applies the law to dismantle the power of the oligarchs who leverage politics to extract private benefits.

Akhmetov claims to have created a "free, professional and interesting" media empire.