Vadym RABYNOVYCH:"Ukrainian oligarchs are the same as Russian, only without money"

"I was told I would not be allowed to enter Ukraine if I had really committed unlawful economic actions. But I think it would be better to bring some accusations against me and ask me to come to Ukraine to testify. This is what I suggest. Otherwise, it is very funny."

"Vadym Rabynovych is often called as one of Ukraine's oligarchs, i.e., a narrow circle of people who wield major political, financial, and media clout. On the other hand, experts are not unanimous in whether the current Ukrainian political system is a system of oligarchic groups or, as the opposition press often writes, of political and financial clans. Whatever it is, Vadym Rabynovych is often compared, in terms of clout in Ukraine with Boris Berezovsky, a very influential figure in Russia. What is Mr. Rabynovych's personal attitude to the Rabynovych-Berezovsky parallel?"

"I don't like being compared to Berezovsky. Honestly, I really don't like it. You see, by a well-known system of Ukrainian-Russian comparisons, I more resemble Gusinsky, but to a much lesser extent. For our oligarchs are the same as in Russia, only without money. In general, I do not understand the word oligarch. I do not in fact have serious businesses in Ukraine. I lose ten times as much as I make there. I invest in Ukraine. But every morning I wake up and tell everybody I am not a camel. It takes me half a day to tell somebody that I don't deal in something, don't sell something, and am not connected with somebody."

"By a version, very popular among the Ukrainian political elite, Vadym Rabynovych has fallen out of grace with a certain part of the Ukrainian regime because he, talking at different times to foreign diplomats accredited in Ukraine, allegedly credited himself with the suspension of the Ukrainian-Iranian contract to supply turbines to the Bushehr nuclear power station, stopping arms shipments to Iran, and quite recently the supply of a consignment of Ukrainian heavy weapons to Yugoslavia during the military tension and hostilities in the Balkans. Is this true?"

"You know, I have read much about myself in this respect. I talk to hundreds of people on various topics, but I could not possibly ascribe such things to myself, although, frankly speaking, I would be proud to shorten a war even one hour. But, unfortunately, nobody has ever granted me such happiness. This is some kind of paranoia, I don't understand at all what it deals with."

"Recently, Zynovy Kulyk, the former president of the National Television Company of Ukraine, was appointed one more deputy chairman of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. Many Ukrainian mass media characterized Mr. Kulyk as a person and politician close to Mr. Rabynovych. There was also a comment - after Mr. Kulyk was appointed to the Security and Defense Council - that this appointment will weaken to a certain extent the influence of the Council Secretary Volodymyr Horbulin and that Mr. Rabynovych has intensified his influence via Mr. Kulyk. To what extent does Mr. Rabynovych influence the Security Council and is Mr. Kulyk, so to speak, his man?"

"You know, there are none of my people in the Security Council. Mr. Horbulin has three deputies there, and I maintain a rather good relationship with all of them. At least because one of them is in overall charge of interethnic relations. I know personally Mr. Kulyk, for he works in the media, and I've been working in them for many years also. I think it is too straightforward to link all this together. But I do not rule out that such ideas may be born in the minds of people who are more experienced than I in bureaucratic games."

"Does Mr. Rabynovych, an influential Ukrainian businessman and media mogul, link the ban on his entering Ukraine for five years with the Ukrainian presidential campaign and elections to be held in the fall? If so, what is, if at all, the role of President Leonid Kuchma, about the good relations with whom Mr. Rabynovych repeatedly mentioned earlier, in the ban on entry to Ukraine? Who will Mr. Rabynovych support in the elections in terms of finances and the media? What is Mr. Rabynovych's attitude toward President Kuchma?"

"I don't think Mr. Kuchma needs my support or lack of it. I am an Israeli citizen. I was expected to join the ranks of those who, after leaving Ukraine for a day or a month - I don't know yet! - will sling mud at this country. It won't happen! This is my fatherland and a wonderful country. It does have temporary difficulties, but it is sure to overcome them. And if I had an opportunity to cast my vote at the polls, I would do so in favor of Mr. Kuchma for the simple reason that other options would lead to a catastrophe."

INCIDENTALLY

While Mr. Rabynovych, according to Volodymyr Katzman, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Stolichnye novosti, thinks the main reason for banning him from entering Ukraine is a "misunderstanding" with the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) Volodymyr Horbulin, the latter, on the contrary, denies the existence of any enmity.

"I can't imagine a situation whereby the NSDC secretary may be in personal conflict with a foreign national," Mr. Horbulin told Interfax-Ukraine. He declined to comment on the accusations brought against him by Mr. Rabynovych: the desire to monopolize financial flows, to influence the media, and control the Jewish movement in Ukraine by hounding Rabynovych out of it.