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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Novynskyi will lead a new party and run for president
People’s Deputy Vadym Novynskyi intends to head a new party after the split of the “Opposition Bloc” into two political forces, and later to take part in the presidential election.
The ANTICOR portal reports, citing media sources.
The leadership of the “Opposition Bloc” party made a final decision to split the political project between the two groups of its main beneficiaries and form two new parties.
One of the parties will be led by Vadym Novynskyi, owner of 25% of the country’s most powerful metallurgical holding, Metinvest, 75% of whose shares belong to Rinat Akhmetov.
It is obvious that Akhmetov himself will remain behind the scenes and will not publicly support the new party.
But it is equally clear that Rinat Leonidovych will be an authority for this team #1, and no strategic decision will be made without his knowledge and approval. In Akhmetov’s arsenal are the largest capital in the country, a number of powerful media resources, and hundreds of thousands of employees at his enterprises.
As for the public leader of Akhmetov’s new party, despite Alexander Vilkul’s corresponding ambitions, it will be led by Vadym Novynskyi.
The Orthodox oligarch, who became more active in the media space after the Prosecutor General’s Office filed a request to lift his immunity to bring him to criminal liability, said in several interviews that he did not intend to become active in the information space. And he is probably sincere in that. At least from the summer of 2013, when Vadym Vladyslavovych became a deputy in the by-election in the city of Sevastopol, until the summer of 2016 he did not show much public activity.
However, the Prosecutor General’s Office’s submission put Novynskyi in a situation where he was forced to change his way of life. Although he had an alternative — to quit parliamentary activity and not appear on Ukrainian territory until better times. Moreover, the main place of residence of the former Russian citizen Vadym Novynskyi even during his tenure as a deputy in the Verkhovna Rada remained Saint Petersburg, where his family permanently lives. In addition, he owns real estate in other countries, including a villa on the sunny island of Sardinia in Italy.
Nevertheless, Novynskyi chose a different path and went all in, presenting the Prosecutor General’s Office’s charges as political repression and persecution not only of him personally but also of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, with which the oligarch has developed special relations.
After the flight to Russia of oligarch Viktor Nusenkis in 2014, Novynskyi remained the only major sponsor of the UOC-MP, and he was able to help elect Metropolitan Onufriy of Chernivtsi and Bukovyna, who is close to him, as the head of that church. According to witnesses, today Vadym Novynskyi has the greatest influence on processes in the UOC-MP, despite being a layperson; however, he is studying at a theological seminary and serves as a sexton at the Ioninsky Monastery.
In the context of the new political project, it is entirely clear that the Orthodox oligarch will use the charges against him to portray himself as a “suffering martyr,” the “main oppositional figure to the Poroshenko regime.”
Moreover, Novynskyi and Akhmetov have already decided that Vadym Vladyslavovych will run for President in the next election. Obviously, he objectively has no chance of victory. But he has high chances of winning a significant portion of the post-regional electorate’s sympathy and becoming an “icon for the pro-Russian voter.”
Recall that it was previously reported that the “Opposition Bloc” party will cease to exist and will be divided into two new political structures under the leadership of the main beneficiaries. On one side are Serhiy Lyovochkin, Dmytro Firtash, and Yuriy Boiko, and on the other are Rinat Akhmetov and his team.
People’s Deputy Serhiy Lyovochkin will try for the second time to create his own political project — the “Party for Ukraine’s Development.”
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Новинський очолить нову партію та балотуватиметься на пост президента". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.
