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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

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

6 July, 1999 - 00:00

One of last week's front-page news stories was the ban on Vadym Rabynovych,
Israeli citizen and, according to many politicians, one of Ukraine's most
influential oligarchs, from entering Ukraine for five years. In an interview
with the BBC Ukrainian service, Vadym RABYNOVYCH noted:

"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.

 

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