Watch Sunday's ICTV interview with Yulia Tymoshenko here. Her burning sense of injustice about the rigged privatization of many of Ukraine's most valuable enterprises, is almost palpable.
And contrast this with photos of Yushchenko [and family] hobnobbing in the rarified atmosphere of Davos with some of the the very people who benefited most from these blatantly rigged privatizations.
Yush calling out Yulia's privatization plans:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ukrainianjournal.com/index.php?w=article&id=5918
She's not so holy either. Does she really want a fair privatisaion or to transfer assets to her own backers?
ReplyDeleteAlso Punchik and company are regularly villified, perhaps justly, but is it so simply black and white? It appears that they do also run enterprises that actually manufacture things the country can export and provide jobs with liveable wages - perhaps they are not only plunderers but have also built some industries?
Photos hobnobbing ... What you did not mention is the disclosure on the page - the journalist's trip to Davos was paid for out of the Pinchuk Fund (Pinchuk is the very person who organized the special luncheon at Davos.) Why would he throw the party and make sure that it received max. coverage in Ukraine via UP? Raises some interesting answers.
ReplyDeleteThanks to everyone for their comments. I would add that there were others present in Davos apart from Pinchuk and Akhmetov. These two jointly bought Kryvorizhstal, but then had it taken from them by the Tymoshenko government and it was resold for five, or was it six times more. Also there were wealthy businessman and 'BYuTivets', Oleksandr Feldman, and Serhiy Taruta, co-owner with Vitaliy Hayduk, of IUD, who were allegedly covert financial backers of BYuT in the recent parliamentary elections.
ReplyDeleteHayduk has been 'pencilled in' for the fuel and energy portfolio in the KabMin.
No, it's certainly not black and white, but Yush himself did say during the O.R. that "Kryvorizhstal was stolen in one night by Kuchma's son-in-law",
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2008/1/25/70391.htm
Pinchuk's wife Olena, is also implicated in shady telecoms businesses too, http://eng.cnews.ru/news/top/indexEn.shtml?2007/12/21/280587
So for many Ukrainians the sight of these guys 'air-kissing' the Yushchenkos is distasteful, to say the least.
Incidentally, new head of Naftohaz Ukrainy, Oleh Dubina has been accepting lifts in the private jet owned by the owner of Russian gas middleman 'Itera', Igor Makarov, an old associate of Tymoshenko's from the days of UESU http://www.epravda.com.ua/publications/4799efb3a8cd4/
Finally, I think Ukr.Pravda's articles on the Davos visits have been quite objective, despite their journalists being sponsored by Pinchuk. [check out link above] Or maybe the Pinchuk's are so full of themselves that they can take any criticism without any personal distress, knowing that they are well esconced under Yush's 'roof'.
Thanks for the plug! I think today's rallying call is "Biznesmeny syditymut v Davosi":)
ReplyDeletePresident of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko, with his decree (#61/2008) adopted the staff of the National Council for Charity “Warm a Child with Love”. The Council was created with the President’s decree (#1238) of December 19, 2007. It is headed by President’s daughter Vitalina Yushchenko.
ReplyDeleteThe text of the decree is posted at the official web site of the Ukrainian President.
In line with the document, the National Council for Charity staff includes: Vitalina Yushchenko (chief of the Council); top deputy President’s Chief of Staff – President’s Representative to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Oleksander Shlapak; chief of the Presidential Secretariat social-economic development service Oleksander Kulyk; chief of the Presidential Secretariat organizational support department Svitlana Reva; top deputy Minister for Labor and Social Policy Pavlo Rozenko.
At the same time, in line with the President’s decree, the Supervisory Council includes lawmakers, businessmen, and government members, in particular: lawmaker Rinat Akhmetov, PryvatBank CEO Hennadiy Boholiubov, lawmaker Vyacheslav Bohuslayev, Mariupolskiy Metallurgic Industrial Complex chief Volodymyr Boyko, lawmaker Oleksander Buryak, Education and Science Minister Ivan Vakarchuk, lawmaker Tariel Vasadze, lawmaker Kostyantyn Zhevago, “Stolytsia” corporation president Valentyn Isak, lawmaker Leonid Klimov, lawmaker Serhiy Kliuyev, Health Minister Vassyl Knyazevych, lawmaker Ivan Kurovskiy, Smart-Holding close corporation Vadym Novynskiy, XXI Century director general Lev Partshaladze, chief of “Pinchuk Foundation” Victor Pinchuk, chief of Industrial Union Donbass corporation Serhiy Taruta, lawmaker Victor Topolov, lawmaker Oleksander Feldman, Group DF chief Dmytro Firtash, and others.
http://unian.net/eng/news/news-233514.html