Ukrainian Oligarchs

According to UKRANIAN Institute for the future - (founded by Ukranians)
The old Oligarchs are -

When it comes to “the old oligarchs” we refer to those who gained their wealth mainly during the 90s and continued to be the richest people in the country for many years up until now. “Novoe Vremya” magazine defined 10 businessmen who remained in the top 20 richest people in the country for 11 years. They are those who can be considered “the old oligarchs”. They are Rinat Akhmetov, Victor Pinchuk, Kostyantyn Zhevago, owners of Privat Group (Ihor Kolomoyskyi, Gennadiy Bogolyubov, Oleksiy Martynov), Yuriy Kosiuk, Oleksandr Yaroslavsky, Dmytro Firtash and of course the current President, Petro Poroshenko
This list is incomplete because Surkis brothers or Vadym Novynskyi appeared in such ratings much less frequently. However, the same principle of “enrichment during the 90s” should be applied to them. Therefore, they can also be categorized as “the old oligarchs”, as long as they maintain their wealth and influence on Ukrainian politics.It is important to note that we do not include Serhiy Taruta, Yulia Tymoshenko and Viktor Medvedchuk in this list. Let us explain our logic.


Young oligarchs can be divided into two subgroups:
1. The politicalconjuncture subgroupThis includes those who transfer to the category of “the rich and influential” purely by political chance. Today they are Ihor Kononenko, Dmytro Kropachev, Arsen Avakov, etc.
2. The economicconjuncture subgroupThis group includes those who have become rapidly rich because of the economic situation; for example, agro-oligarchs Oleksiy Vadaturskyy and Andriy Verevskyi. The rapid growth of grain exports, which began in 2012, and the depreciation of the Ukrainian currency took them into the top-20 richest people in the country. Another example is the construction boom having a significant impact on the wealth of the Hereha family after 2015. They are now beginning to convert this into a serious local political influence.The young oligarchs completely replicate the behavior of “the old” ones in their activities. They try to monopolize certain sectors of the economy, form political power groups, put their people into the management of state enterprises and authorities and “arm” themselves with small media. However, the key problem for them is stability. Despite their considerable financial and political resources, they are very vulnerable to changing conditions and environment.


The energy sector of Ukraine is controlled either by the state (represented by large energy companies, which are often informally controlled by the authorities) or by big business, mainly from the sphere of influence of oligarchs.Rinat Akhmetov, Dmytro Firtash, Ihor Surkis, Kostyan-tyn Grigorishin, Ihor Kolomoyskyi – are representa-tives of “the old” oligarchy that control a significant part of the domestic energy sector


Nuclear power and the nuclear industry are fully controlled by the state and are not controlled by any oligarchic groups. However, according to the investigative authorities, Ihor Kononenko, who is close to President Poroshenko, was involved in the schemes of enrichment at the expense of this sector.Former menber of parliament Mykola Martynenko, was suspected of schemes with the company engaged in the extraction of uranium ore and its enrichment; The Eastern Mining and Processing plant (East MPP). Martynenko, who is close to current and former top officials like Petro Poroshenko and Arseniy Yatsenyuk is associated with “the interlayers” through which the purchases for the East MPP were made. According to NABU estimates, the plant overpaid US $ 17.29 million for uranium raw materials because of such schemes.


The next largest gas producer is Burisma Group (includes 12 companies, 4.8% of production in the country), controlled by Mykola Zlochevsky, Minister of Ecology during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych. In January 2015, general prosecutor’s office started criminal cases against Zlochevsky, and a number of his assets were arrested. In early 2017, the company announced the closure of criminal cases against it and its owner Zlochevsky. Before that Zlochevsky met Kononenko. And according to the runaway deputy Oleksandr Onyshchenko, negotiations on the closure of cases were conducted with Kononenko. In early 2018 Zlochevsky freely visited Ukraine. He bought gas assets from Yury Ivanyushchenko (a close associate of Viktor Yanukovych), and it was done in collabora-tion with Kononenko

https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/the_future_of_ukrainian_oligarchs_0.pdf