Democracy in Ukraine, Oligarch style.
The front-runner in the presidential race is Petro Poroshenko, a 48-year-old tycoon known as the Chocolate King for his candy empire. Mr. Poroshenko has political strengths: he was the first and only Ukrainian oligarch to join the protesters in Kiev that led to President Viktor Yanukovych’s ouster in February; he favors a trade pact with the European Union; and he has been deeply involved in Ukrainian politics almost from the outset.
But the fact is, Mr. Poroshenko is also a member of the clique of very rich businessmen who have been at the root of the corruption of Ukrainian government.
So are two of his rivals in the race — Yulia Tymoshenko, the former prime minister who made a fortune in energy deals, and Sergey Tigipko, a banker and member of Parliament.
Two other oligarchs, Rinat Akhmetov, the richest Ukrainian of them all, and Igor Kolomoisky, a banker who was recently appointed governor of Dnepropetrovsk Province, have recently become active in repelling secessionists in southeastern Ukraine — Mr. Akhmetov by sending his steel and mining workers to recover occupied buildings in Mariupol and Makeyevka, and Mr. Kolomoisky by offering bounties for arms and captured “terrorists.”
Like Russian oligarchs, the Ukrainian tycoons made their fortunes in the chaotic privatization of state assets that followed the collapse of Communist rule. Like the Russians, they hide much of their shady wealth abroad. But, in Ukraine, the oligarchs have been far more closely involved in politics, often changing sides as political winds shifted. Mr. Poroshenko, for example, was foreign minister under the West-leaning Viktor Yushchenko, and then economics minister under Mr. Yanukovych. So the question is whether an oligarch-president, most likely Mr. Poroshenko, will mean business as usual, or whether the new leader can really give Ukraine a clean start.
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