澳门六合彩

On February 24, 2022, the Russian invasion of Ukraine profoundly changed the political regime and social order in the country. However, the commitment of President Zelensky鈥檚 administration to deoligarchization not only survived the start of the large-scale war, it increased鈥攊n part because of wartime policies.

By May 2022, the Ukrainian government had adapted to the war situation and endorsed a multidimensional approach, simultaneously pursuing deoligarchization and anticorruption policies while mounting an all-out rebuttal to the Russian invasion. Deoligarchization and a continuation of anticorruption efforts were critical for preserving the trust of Ukraine鈥檚 Western allies, which were providing Ukraine with increased military, political, and financial support.

The Zelensky administration also started preparing the country for the possibility of a long war, and for the future reconstruction of Ukraine. The fight against the oligarchs and corruption is central to both efforts. And the martial law situation has provided the president and his team with more opportunities to crack down on the oligarchy.

Declining Asset Values and the Anti-Oligarch Law Have Hit Billionaires

In August, I wrote about how the administration鈥檚 struggle with the oligarchy had forced Rinat Akhmetov to exit his media business and Vadym Novynsky to relinquish his MP mandate; how the pursuit of deoligarchization had resulted in rolling the investigations of ex-president Petro Poroshenko and pro-Russia oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk into one criminal investigation; and how the war was making an impact on the Ukrainian oligarchy by physically destroying the oligarch-owned industrial complexes. I also reported on the speed with which the oligarchs鈥� net value fell.

Using Forbes magazine on the real-time value of billionaires鈥� assets and from Forbes Ukraine magazine on the market values of Ukrainian oligarchs鈥� holdings before the war (both expert teams used the same methods for data collection), it is possible to compare the change in the value of their assets. Based on these data, the wealth of the following individuals dropped considerably from January 15 to November 14, 2022, and continues to fall daily:

路聽聽聽聽聽聽 Rinat Akhmetov: from $13.7 billion to $4.3 billion;

路聽聽聽聽聽聽 Victor Pinchuk: from $2.6 billion to $2 billion;

路聽聽聽聽聽聽 Vadym Novinsky: from $3.5 billion to $1.3 billion;

路聽聽聽聽聽聽 Genadiy Boholyubov: from $2 billion to $1.1 billion;

路聽聽聽聽聽聽 Ihor Kolomoisky: from $1.8 billion to less than $1 billion;

路聽聽聽聽聽聽 Petro Poroshenko: from $1.6 billion to $0.7 billion.

The Zelensky administration has also moved forward with implementing the Anti-Oligarch Law, which envisages the creation of an oligarchs鈥� registry. Last week the Security Council鈥檚 secretary Oleksiy Danylov that the registry is under construction while his team investigates the legal grounds for declaring eighty-six citizens oligarchs. In October 2022 the Security Council a tender for the creation of the registry鈥檚 software. Moving ahead with plans for the registry has already had a noticeable impact on the oligarchs鈥� activities, though the registry itself does not yet exist.

The Zelensky administration has also continued stripping some of the oligarchs of Ukrainian citizenship. So far the are Ihor Kolomoisky, Hennadiy Korban, and Vadim Rabinovich. Rescinding the citizenship of these prominent figures has added to the general pressure on all oligarchs.

The Oligarchs Lose Shares in Industries Critical to the War Effort

The next critical step in deoligarchization was taken on November 6, 2022, when the National Commission for Securities and the Stock Market the decision of the headquarters of the supreme commander-in-chief to seize the shares of major industrial companies owned by the oligarchs. This was done, in part, because of the importance of these companies to the war effort and in accordance with the Law of Ukraine 鈥淥n the transfer, forced alienation or seizure of property under the conditions of the legal regime of war or state of emergency,鈥� which calls for 鈥渇orcefully alienat[ing] into state property鈥� the shares of strategically important enterprises. The takeover affected, among others, five big oligarch-owned industrial companies:

路聽聽聽聽聽聽 Ukrnafta (42% of shares belonged to Kolomoisky);

路聽聽聽聽聽聽 Ukrtatnafta (60% of shares belonged to Kolomoisky and Henadiy Bogolyubov);

路聽聽聽聽聽聽 Motor Sich (56% of the shares were almost sold to Chinese investors by Vyacheslav Bohuslaev, but the deal was stopped by the Antimonopoly Committee, and Bohuslaev himself is under arrest);

路聽聽聽聽聽聽 AvtoKrAZ (owned by Kostyantyn Zhevago); and

路聽聽聽聽聽聽 Zaporozhtransformator (owned by Konstantin Hrygoryshyn).

The confiscated shares now are considered military property and are managed by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. At the end of martial law, in accordance with the law, either these shares will be returned to the owners or the owners will be reimbursed their value.

All the above-mentioned steps of the Zelensky administration show that deoligarchization not only is back on track during the war, it is now a much more radical process, changing the established political economy in Ukraine. The ongoing war and imposition of聽 martial law have provided the government with the opportunity to destroy the existing oligarchic clans.

The opinions expressed in this article are those solely of the author and do not reflect the views of the Kennan Institute.