Rynat Akhmetov meets the press and the public

by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Deciding that he could no longer remain tucked away in the shadows of the Donbas, Ukraine's wealthiest man has stepped onto Ukraine's political stage, quickly emerging as one of the most popular leaders of the Party of the Regions.

In the past three months, Rynat Akhmetov made two rare public appearances in the first of what will be many more as the billionaire industrial magnate prepares to work in Ukraine's Parliament.

Up until this year's elections, the 40-year-old Mr. Akhmetov has remained largely an enigma to most Ukrainians, rarely speaking in public and preferring to work backstage in Ukrainian politics.

Little was known about him, and a dense fog continues to hang over his life and background.

Though he has never admitted it, Mr. Akhmetov is widely believed to be the key financial contributor to the Party of the Regions ever since the party emerged as a Donbas political force in early 2001.

Following the Orange Revolution, Viktor Yanukovych's failed presidential candidacy and the subsequent arrest of his close business associate, Borys Kolesnykov, Mr. Akhmetov rolled up his sleeves and got involved hands-on in the political arena.

Immediately, he noticed Russian political technologists and consultants were no longer reliable for providing the knowledge and techniques necessary to win Ukrainian elections.

Instead, he hired Davis Manafort, a leading Washington political public relations firm.

Paul Manafort managed the campaigns of Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr., while Richard Davis led John McCain's 2000 presidential campaign.

Davis Manafort helped perform an image makeover not only for Mr. Akhmetov, but for the Party of the Regions as well, and the businessman's decision proved an astonishing success.

Once associated with crime and corruption, the Party of the Regions is now the leading political force in Ukraine, and Mr. Yanukovych is widely viewed as a strong, competent leader despite his academic and ethical shortcomings.

The catalyst for Mr. Akhmetov's political maneuvering was his realization that, if he didn't become active in politics, he would become its victim.

Former Procurator General Sviatoslav Piskun, now a Party of the Regions national deputy, charged Mr. Kolesnykov with extortion for allegedly threatening to kill Donetsk department store owner Borys Penchuk in order to force him to sell his shares at a discount.

He sat for four months in jail before his release, upon which he returned to his post as chair of the Donetsk Oblast Council.

Mr. Kolesnykov was never prosecuted for his alleged crime, though his arrest caused enough concern with Mr. Akhmetov to lead him to believe that he could be next.

Politics was the next logical step.

Becoming a public figure with wide popularity and support beyond the Donbas region could shield him from criminal prosecutions.

By joining the Parliament, Mr. Akhmetov would also gain immunity from any possible prosecution attempts.

To present himself to the electorate, Mr. Akhmetov's first public appearance was a carefully staged public relations event held at the Donetsk Drama Theater on February 19.

During the live broadcast, Mr. Akhmetov discussed his political positions, the Shakhtar Donetsk soccer team that he owns, and even his personal life and history - or at least those portions that made him appear appealing.

In fact, Mr. Akhmetov said he knows the struggles of Ukrainians because he grew up poor himself.

His family lived in a 215-square-foot home in Donetsk, where they slept on folding beds. The home had no plumbing, so they went outside to wash from a cup and go to the bathroom. His father was a coal miner.

"Only the warmth of my parents and my activity in sports helped me become who I am," Mr. Akhmetov told the Donetsk audience.

"My parents gave me life, taught me how to make friends, to love and to respect. Sports made me purposeful, sports taught me how to overcome difficult obstacles. The main things sports taught me was to set the most ambitious goals and to achieve success," he related.

What Mr. Akhmetov didn't discuss at the Donetsk appearance, and what he avoided discussing during his first meeting with Kyiv reporters on March 30, were the years of his young adulthood.

Roman Kupchinsky of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that Mr. Akhmetov graduated from Donetsk State University with a degree in economics, but the Korrespondent news magazine was not able to confirm that he ever graduated.

In fact, Mr. Akhmetov was among the top card sharks in the Donbas, Vasyl Nerus, leader of the region's Nova Syla party, told Korrespondent, a Russian-language weekly in Ukraine published by KP Publications.

He played throughout Crimea, in Moscow and other Soviet cities, Mr. Nerus said, and Mr. Akhmetov's gambling was well-known among local police and criminals.

When asked by a reporter at the Kyiv press conference just how he made his first million dollars, Mr. Akhmetov took a humorous approach. "I feel the shells exploding closer and closer!," he shouted, then returning to a calm voice.

"You want me to tell you how I made my first million? It's easier to tell you how I earned my first billion. And the second billion too," he said.

Sometime between 1992 and 1995, which he called the years of Ukraine's "informal economy," Mr. Akhmetov said he started a company called ARS that traded coal and coke, the residue of coal after distillation used for fuel.

He had no inheritance or start-up capital, Mr. Akhmetov said, just "great desire and energy." It is this energy, and the ambition that he so often refers to, that drove Mr. Akhmetov to acquire businesses in the anarchic Ukrainian society in the 1990s.

Mr. Akhmetov's baby-face looks and new polished image belie the alleged violent and even murderous methods he used to build his business empire, his critics claim.

He first appeared in government records in 1994 as a vice-president of the Shakhtar soccer organization, Korrespondent magazine reported.

A year later, the club's owner and distant relative of Mr. Akhmetov's, Akhat Bragin, was killed at the stadium, according to Korrespondent.

Mr. Akhmetov took over as the soccer club's president and created System Capital Management that year, the holding company for his $5.2 billion asset empire, as recently reported by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

"When there's a Shakhtar press conference, you can see the names of the club's sponsoring companies on the back wall," Mr. Penchuk told Korrespondent magazine. "The prior owners of those companies were killed, and their properties fell into the ownership of Shakhtar's owner."

When asked by reporters about his past business dealings, Mr. Akhmetov offered no specifics, only repeating over and over that his business is transparent, and that he wants to see the same kind of transparency in Ukrainian politics.

He also points out that he's been investigated numerous times by police, particularly by the Yushchenko government, with no charges ever filed. "Imagine if there was something - the whole world would know about it," Mr. Akhmetov said at the Kyiv press conference.

"As for my 'criminal circle,' I have absolutely legal business dealings with an absolutely transparent property structure. But if I met with somebody, talked, had a cup of tea, it doesn't mean that we have a common business and common interests. With such talk, we can get to absurdity," he continued.

He even said he would vote for a measure stripping national deputies of their immunity from prosecution.

Mr. Akhmetov's political strategy is to project an image of himself as a leader who can bring the type of economic prosperity to Ukraine that he brought for himself and his more than 160,000 employees in the Donbas, "who earn stable and the highest salaries in industry," he said in Donetsk.

"I am not an oligarch," Mr. Akhmetov said. "Oligarchs are destructive. Oligarchs never found themselves in business and never will. They are like cows on ice. But I became a businessman a long time ago and began working long ago."

While others hid their money in foreign banks, and while Western investors avoided Ukraine, it was businessmen like himself who had faith in Ukraine and kept its industries running, Mr. Akhmetov told the Donetsk audience.

"We made bold decisions," he said. "We invested assets, knowledge and most importantly - a part of our hearts. Why a part of [our] hearts? Yes, because this is a native Ukrainian enterprise. It may be immodest on my part, but this is patriotism. And how life revealed itself, courage and patriotism is foresight."

At his 50-minute press conference in Kyiv, Mr. Akhmetov uttered the phrase "economic growth" no less than 21 times.

He also demonstrated the remake in rhetoric, ideas and image that he had invested in when hiring Davis Manafort. His speech included the political rhetoric most Americans are familiar with in their own politicians.

Much of what the Party of the Regions leaders said during this year's campaign was an attempt to reverse their angry tirades during the 2004 presidential campaign.

They called for a united Ukraine and equal treatment of all Ukrainian citizens, a slogan repeated frequently by Mr. Akhmetov.

For example, Mr. Yanukovych gives all his interviews in Ukrainian now, and the Party of the Regions Kyiv staff communicates in Ukrainian.

At the March 30 press conference, Mr. Akhmetov admitted that his lack of Ukrainian is a "gap in education" and vowed to learn the language.

However, both leaders support official status for the Russian language "because government is supposed to serve society, half of which speaks Russian," Mr. Akhmetov said.

In talking with reporters, Mr. Akhmetov delivered phrases that sounded as if they came straight from an American politician's mouth.

"Our main task is economic growth," Mr. Akhmetov told the assembled Kyiv reporters. "Economic growth is impossible without transparency, the rule of law, individual freedom, respect of private property rights, free mass media - and that means you. Friends, I greatly respect you, your work, and I understand the role of the press in building a democratic society."

While Mr. Akhmetov espoused Western values, he wasn't ready to exclude Ukraine's membership from the Single Economic Space led by the Russian Federation.

He criticized the European Union for delaying Ukraine's membership, reminding his Donetsk audience that the government must take care of its citizens now - and not 10, 15 or 20 years down the road.

Some might not make it on a hungry stomach, he said.

"Without a doubt, I am for the European choice," he said. "Without a doubt, I am for European values. But today, if we approached Europe and knocked, would they open the door? I think not," he stated.

Ukrainians must earn a European-level salary, Mr. Akhmetov argued. "Then we won't be poor relatives of Europe, but equal partners," he said. "I've said many times that we deserve respect."

Mr. Akhmetov is an ethnic Tatar with a wife and two sons, 17-year-old Damir and 8-year-old Almir. His mother is still alive, as is his brother Ihor. It isn't known whether he speaks Tatar.

Some media have reported that Mr. Akhmetov is a practicing Muslim, but that would imply that he finds the time to pray five times a day. It would also imply that he doesn't engage in violent or criminal acts.

Furthermore, Crimean Tatars declined to support the Party of the Regions despite Mr. Akhmetov's request that the Ukrainian Muslim Party do so, a Symferopol newspaper, Holos Kryma, reported in December.

Tatars complained that the Party of the Regions Crimean branch was led by Russian nationalists who conducted anti-Tatar and anti-Muslim campaigns in the past. Tatars have traditionally been among the strongest supporters of the Our Ukraine bloc.

As for the make-up of Ukraine's next parliamentary coalition, Mr. Akhmetov fiercely criticized Yulia Tymoshenko and her re-privatization campaign, "which was a great blow to our economy."

Instead, he left the door open for an Our Ukraine-Party of the Regions union.

"There are marriages based on love and there are marriages for money," Mr. Akhmetov said. "A marriage for love is closer and more understandable for me. But in business and politics, marriages for money are more common. Considering that there is no love between us, only a marriage for money is possible. Our intention is economic growth and unity of Ukraine."

Though he evaded tough questions and repeated carefully-tailored political slogans, Mr. Akhmetov managed to establish a positive rapport with the Kyiv press corps.

When a reporter with the daily newspaper Den attempted to get under his skin by asking whether he would block the tribune or beat people up in Parliament, Mr. Akhmetov produced the perfect response.

"I will chair the committee to fight organized crime!" he said, to a roar of laughter.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, April 16, 2006, No. 16, Vol. LXXIV

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