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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

WEEKLY ROUNDUP 

26 June, 1999 - 00:00

Oligarch Rabynovych Kicked Out

SBU bans Leonid Kuchma's adviser from entering Ukraine

On June 24 the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) imposed a five-year
ban on Israeli citizen Vadym Rabynovych entering Ukraine following the
disclosure of his involvement in "activities inflicting considerable losses
on the Ukrainian economy and against the interests of this country's security."
The SBU press center informed The Day that this decision had been
made on the basis of Article 25 of the law of Ukraine On the Legal Status
of Foreigners. Mr. Rabynovych, a well-known Ukrainian businessman, owns
equity in several Ukrainian mass media outlets. Earlier, on December 17,
1998, the SBU also banned from entering Ukraine for the same period the
Israeli citizen Leonid Wolf, who maintains close ties with Mr. Rabynovych.
The SBU information notes that Mr. Wolf is known in the criminal world
as leader of an organized crime group and is suspected of having committed
a series of big league murders and attempts in Odesa, Kyiv, and Dnipropetrovsk
oblasts.

It has happened. A "successful businessman" by his own definition, a
Ukrainian "oligarch" by the ranking-list of local oligarchiologists, Israeli
citizen Vadym Rabynovych has been pronounced persona non grata in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian People's Embassy all-Ukrainian foundation to foster international
cooperation (with Leonid Kravchuk as honorary chairman) has granted Mr.
Rabynovych, as he said with joy the other day, the title of People's Ambassador
of Ukraine for his " great personal contribution to the development of
friendly relations between nations and strengthening Ukraine's international
prestige."

"Ladies and gentlemen," Mr. Rabynovych exclaimed, "I love Ukraine. This
is my fatherland!" He also loves President Kuchma, and his affections have
long been requited - to the extent that he even tried to sink Secretary
of the National Security and Defense Council Volodymyr Horbulin (of course,
in a fit of jealousy toward the Daddy) on a television channel he controlled.
Then, when tempers cooled, he was denied access to the royal person whom
he could adore only from a distance through his business partner Boris
Berezovsky and by heaping fulsome praise on his beloved on the pages of
his Stolichnye novosti.

All this seems not to have helped. Or did it? In the long run, it is
a stroke of luck to leave without hindrance a country, where you know you
could wind up behind bars. Mr. Rabynovych is said to have been still in
Kyiv on the morning of his Judgment Day, and he personally heard the ruling
read out to him, according to which he was barred from entering Ukraine.
Not by accident was "another Israeli who maintains close ties with Mr.
Rabynovych" also allowed to leave, one "suspected of having committed a
series of big league murders and attempts Odesa, Kyiv, and Dnipropetrovsk
oblast."

And who is covering the tracks? Is there any doubt that what happened
is not the result of independent action by the agency under Leonid Derkach
but the execution of a political task given by higher-ups? I wonder if
all this caused any resentment in alleged "workaholics" Andriy Derkach
and Viktor Pinchuk who were linked with Mr. Rabynovych by common views
on the world and its actors. A little boy went up to his father and asked,
"What's right and wrong?" It would be interesting to know the answer.

One more thing: tell me, if you can, how long and at what length will
we be told about the man set packing in order to conceal the truth about
others who stay behind.

By Tetiana KOROBOVA, The Day

PS. "I think this report is a mistake or a provocation. In any
case, I am ready to stage an extended press conference on June 30 in Kyiv
or, if this is not recognized as a mistake, outside Kyiv," Mr. Rabynovych,
now abroad, told UNIAR executives.

 

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