Sharks and Remoras. The Davos Forum

Sharks and Remoras. The Davos Forum

As is known, billionaire Viktor Pinchuk is a big fan of gathering an oligarchic crowd in Davos.

For many years these gatherings of millionaires and billionaires have resembled a kind of "meet-up" where people come to talk with a knowing air in front of TV cameras and pontificate about Ukraine's role in global, so to speak, processes. Along with the oligarchs come those for whom it is vitally important to feel involved and to appear in photo reports alongside the "powerful of the world." All kinds of "experts," PR people, and political technologists roam the halls in herds, trying to chat with Pinchuk, Akhmetov, Yaroslavsky, and so on. This year's forum was no exception. The only thing that changed is that some former journalists and regulars of Davos "meet-ups" arrived now in a new guise—as deputies, suddenly imagining themselves to be the authorities. This year's meet-up in Davos more than ever resembled a gathering of sharks and remoras, feeding side by side and cleaning the sharks' scales. For more details, read Kristina Berdynskikh's report for Novoye Vremya, which we publish uncut...

OLIGARCH

Overheard in Davos. What Ukrainian oligarchs and politicians were saying on the sidelines of the forum in Switzerland

The Ukrainian breakfast as part of the World Economic Forum in Davos brought together ministers, politicians, and billionaires. Their discussions and disputes at the microphone and in the corridors were heard by NV

COURTS AND DISPUTES

This year the "Ukrainian lunch" in Davos, an event that businessman Viktor Pinchuk organizes annually within the World Economic Forum, turned into an early breakfast. The discussion about Ukraine began on 22 January at 7.30 a.m. and took place in Chatham House format. That is, everything said by the speakers at the breakfast could be quoted and retold, but without attributing it to the source. That was the organizers' requirement.

At 6.30 a.m. Ukrainian journalists and deputies of the Verkhovna Rada from the inter-factional group Euro-Optimists arrived at the Morosani hotel where the breakfast was held. At the same time, Alexander Yaroslavsky, the Kharkiv businessman and owner of the DCH group, appeared in the forum corridors with his wife, Marina. Despite the early hour, he looked energetic and in good spirits. "I'm fine. We celebrated the New Year until 8 a.m. in Kharkiv," he said about recent events in his life. He added that this year he plans to invest in Ukraine, refusing to specify the amounts and sectors that attract him.

"Who from the authorities are you talking to now?" Sevhil Musaeva-Borovik, editor-in-chief of the online publication Ukrainska Pravda, asked him. "I'll be talking to Leshchenko now. He's part of the authorities too," Yaroslavsky quipped, noticing Serhiy Leshchenko, a people's deputy from Petro Poroshenko Bloc (PPB).

"I'll troll you," Leshchenko greeted the businessman. "How's the situation with Metalist [the Kharkiv football club formerly owned by Yaroslavsky, current owner — fugitive businessman Serhiy Kurchenko]? Wouldn't you want to get the club back?" the deputy asked.

- And how's it being in power? Pretty weak so far, - the businessman mocked in reply.

- Wait, I've been in politics since November 2014.

- I have the impression you've been there forever.

- And they've already restricted Benya [businessman Ihor Kolomoyskyi], Martynenko [former deputy of the People's Front faction, whom the Swiss prosecutor's office suspects of taking a bribe] is gone.

- Benya doesn't give a damn about you! Where are you, and where is Benya? You can't spread Benya and Martynenko on bread.

- Since you say I'm a bad deputy, that's a compliment for me. You are a representative of the oligarchic clan, - the deputy continued.

- My dear, I built a hotel, a stadium, an airport. Those are concrete things people see. And where are your investigations supposed to stick? I'm addressing you as a deputy: when will there be a law on casinos? – Yaroslavsky asked.

- That's a question for the finance minister.

- But you are a deputy. I don't know her like I know you.

At the end of the exchange with Leshchenko, Yaroslavsky said he still considered him a good deputy: "You didn't really manage to troll me much." After Leshchenko went to other participants, Yaroslavsky continued speaking with the media. When asked whether he would still buy the Metalist football club from Kurchenko, Yaroslavsky replied briefly: "Buy what? Debts of $30 million?" He said he's fine in Kharkiv, even though the city's mayor is Hennadiy Kernes: "Kernes is here today, gone tomorrow. But I'll be forever," he revealed his long-term plans.

At that moment the organizer of the Ukrainian breakfast, Viktor Pinchuk, appeared.

- Vitya, hi, - Yaroslavsky greeted him.

- Why so early? – Pinchuk asked him.

- For you I'd be ready not to sleep at all.

The main question people asked Pinchuk before and after the Ukrainian breakfast concerned his dispute with Ihor Kolomoyskyi in London. This process promises to become the loudest and most scandalous litigation between Ukrainian oligarchs. Pinchuk filed a lawsuit in the High Court of London against Kolomoyskyi and Hennadiy Boholyubov back in 2013. In January 2016 they were finally due to meet in court over the conflict around the Kryvyi Rih Iron Ore Plant.

"You're asking questions first thing in the morning," Pinchuk dodged a direct answer about the London case. That same day British media reported that the Ukrainian businessmen had agreed to settle the dispute without court proceedings.

Yuriy Kosiuk, owner of Nasha Ryaba and the agroholding Myronivsky Hliboproduct, who served as deputy head of the Presidential Administration in 2014, also attended the Davos breakfast. Recently he criticized the free trade area between Ukraine and the EU, which came into effect on 1 January of this year. "The Ukrainian market is open to European goods by 100%, while Ukrainian goods for the most part face restrictions on access to European markets," the agrarian explained his position. "Will your business suffer from this?" NV asked Kosiuk. "Nothing has changed for us. We sell [to the EU] tears — 16 thousand tons," he explained.

While guests were taking their seats, Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolyev told NV that Naftogaz would soon sue Russia for stealing the "Boyko rigs." This concerns not only seized property that rightfully belongs to Ukraine, but also untapped resources.

CORRUPTION AGAIN

The main topic of Ukrainian conversations in Davos was the country's successes and failures in fighting corruption. Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko talked about what had been done in this direction, supported by Minister of Economic Development and Trade Aivaras Abromavicius and Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Dmytro Shimkiv. Yaresko sympathetically acknowledged the existence of the problem. "I'm from Chicago. The issue of corruption is something that will never disappear completely," the minister explained.

Former Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt also recalled corruption in his country. "The level of corruption in Sweden in the 19 century was very high," he noted. The mention of the 19 century alarmed the Ukrainian guests; they were clearly not prepared to wait 100 years for corruption to be eradicated. José Manuel Barroso, former president of the European Commission, brought everyone down to earth harshly. "If you do not solve the problem of corruption, the US and the EU will not be able to acknowledge your successes," he said directly to all Ukrainian ministers rather than to any one person. Barroso suggested eliminating conflicts of interest in business and politics, declaring officials' incomes and expenditures, returning stolen assets, and reducing opportunities to hide property in offshore accounts.

After the discussion, Minister Abromavicius explained to NV why implementing Barroso's recommendations is not so simple. He described how he is hindered in putting state enterprises in order using the recent scandal at the Kharkiv plant Elektrotiazhmash as an example. On 19 January the director of Elektrotiazhmash, Vladimir Glushakov, who had been dismissed back in August, stormed onto the plant's territory accompanied by armed men.

"What did he forget there? Some tracksuit in his locker? Or some honorary certificates? Or did he forget his golden pen?" the minister asks. According to him, the enterprise's manager had sunk into corrupt schemes; the ministry announced a tender to elect a new director of the plant, more than 25 candidates are already being considered, but the former director continues to resist dismissal. "Instead of, like the rest of the world, focusing on new technologies, we are stuck in the middle of the 20 century, trying to fight red directors. This enterprise belongs to the citizens, not to a particular individual who sat on the flows and wants to keep sitting on them," the minister says. Abromavicius intends to invite law enforcement for assistance if the conflict is not resolved soon, hinting that the director has a high-ranking patron.

American financier and philanthropist George Soros told those present that Kyiv needs not only to fight corruption but to fundamentally reboot the judicial system. "We lack the political will to fight corruption," supported deputy Leshchenko. "It is shocking that [Viktor] Shokin remains attorney general."

REMINDING PEOPLE OF THEMSELVES

Former journalist and now Canada's minister of international trade Chrystia Freeland was optimistic about Ukraine. "This year should be the year of the Ukrainian economy. The free trade area with the EU is a huge breakthrough," she is convinced, unlike agrarian Kosiuk. While working as a journalist, Freeland repeatedly moderated discussions organized by the Pinchuk Foundation and knows many participants of these meetings. This year she had almost no time for hallway conversations. She managed only a few words with familiar politicians. "I must introduce you to our prime minister. He is into boxing too," Chrystia Freeland said with a smile to Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko and rushed to the next meeting. And Oleksiy Riabchyn, a deputy from the Batkivshchyna faction, reminded the mayor of his own campaign promise to return the Heavenly Hundred Square to Kyiv residents and handed over the petition text on that matter. Former Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski also spoke with Klitschko in the corridors. "What do you think about the situation in Poland?" NV asked Kwasniewski. Poland elected a new president and parliament last year. The first months of the new authorities' work caused concern in the EU. Kwasniewski said he did not want to discuss the topic. "I am used to speaking only well of Poland. Now I cannot speak; I prefer to remain silent," he explained.

Returning to the Ukrainian subject, one Western businessman advised deputies that Ukraine needs to carry out at least one major reform this year, for example in the judicial sphere. Summing up the discussion, many noted that the Ukrainian question was discussed at the World Economic Forum in Davos much less than last year. The world has many new conflicts, problems, and innovative breakthroughs. By the way, in the restaurant of the same hotel where the discussion about Ukraine took place, Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google's board of directors, could be seen. But he was participating on other panels.

Source: Novoye Vremya