Posted on 03/24/2015 6:35:10 PM PDT by tcrlaf
What started off as a corporate dispute is swiftly turning into a battle between the state and a billionaire regional governor who was once credited for curbing separatism in his region.
The standoff between Kyiv's authorities and Dnipropetrovsk Governor Igor Kolomoisky is making a farce of the gains of the revolution a year ago that ousted the former corrupt president and his cronies, and is aiding the Russian cause of destabilization of the nation.
On March 23, accusations of involvement with organized crime became the latest twist in the oligarch saga.
Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, head of Ukraine’s Security Service loyal to President Petro Poroshenko, suspects that Dnipropetrovsk Oblast deputy governors Gennady Korban and Svyatoslav Oliynyk are involved in an organized crime ring responsible for abducting law enforcement officials, a claim which would implicate Kolomoisky at least indirectly because the people named are close to him.
Both men said the accusations were not true, and Olinyk said on his Facebook page that he was planning to sue Nalyvaichenko for libel.
Nalyvaichenko also said that six suspects in the murder of Security Service officer Dmytro Manzyk earlier this month had been detained in Dnipropetrovsk, the region Kolomoisky has a tight grip on.
“I don’t understand whether it’s a political case or some kind of bacchanalia,” Borys Filatov, a member of parliament and a long-time ally of Kolomoisky, told the Kyiv Post.
Volodymyr Fesenko of the Penta think tank says that the accusations are a part of an “information war” between Poroshenko and Kolomoisky, a way of discrediting the Dnipropetrovsk governor. He ruled out the idea that it would escalate into a real war, however.
“A rational way out of this conflict would be to avoid a real war, which would be a gift for (Russian President Vladimir) Putin,” he said
(Excerpt) Read more at kyivpost.com ...
I had thought earlier today that the Ukrainian "Oligarch's War" in Kiev was winding down, but something must have happened tonight that really set it off.
If Kolomoisky decides to fight, this could be the end of the Obama-backed Kiev junta.
Earlier today, the DNR's Zakrchanko was trolling Kiev in a presser by saying that he "welcomed the new "Republic of Kolomoisky"", and that the DNR could work with it.
Now I wonder, was he really trolling? Or is there more to it?
Interfax Tweets:
02:08 03/25/2015
Poroshenko signed a decree on the resignation of Kolomoiskiy
...
According to Poroshenko, the acting head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional state administration will be appointed Valentin Reznichenko.
TWEET:
Poroshenko signed the resignation of governor of Dnipropetrovsk region Kolomoisky, shortly after meeting US Ambassador. What’s next?
WOW...
Gennady Korban, Kolomoisky’s deputy, gave an impassioned press conference before his resignation in which he shed light on the problem of the wish for other regions to have more autonomy from Kiev unrelated to the struggles of the Russian-backed separatists in Lugansk and Donetsk.
“In Kiev, which has promised us decentralization, economic independence in some form, that is financial decentralization, and a lot more — and no one has done this — it’s time to bring order.
It’s time to stop lying about decentralization, that’s enough
lying about the successes of the ATO,
about the number of those killed,
we have exact information, we have been collecting this all this time, about the situation of the Ukrainian army and its supply.
There are thieves sitting in Kiev and it’s time for those thieves to go.”
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