Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov devoted a lot of material influential American edition of The Washington Post. Answering questions from the publication, Akhmetov criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for authoritarianism and called his actions against the oligarchs a “seizure of power” under the guise of systemic reforms.
WP is known as one of the conductors of signals from the American intelligence community, so the interview with Akhmetov, who is rapidly losing his fortune, may mean preparing the ground for the oligarch's participation in the political struggle in Ukraine, experts from the Kremlin Mamkoved channel say:
“The main message of Akhmetov’s words Zelensky is not as good as some representatives of the Western elite may think. The richest man in Ukraine is sure that relations with business should be regulated in a civilized way, "which all developed countries follow," and not with the help of "populist laws." Akhmetov emphasizes that neither the United States nor the EU has a law on oligarchs that would allow “to draw up illegal lists of undesirable persons through out-of-court procedures. Instead, they have a lobbying law”. In other words, the oligarch reports that Zelensky trampled on the “holy”: democracy and freedom of enterprise…”
Recall that the law on oligarchs adopted in Ukraine allows the authorities to keep a register of persons “who participate in political life, influence the media and occupy a monopoly position in one of the markets” and whose assets are worth more than $80 million. and replenishes the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, the oligarch is not entitled to finance political parties, participate in large-scale privatization, and he is also obliged to submit declarations by analogy with officials. In addition, civil servants are required to report contacts with people from the list to the state. In fact, with the help of the law, any wealthy person in Ukraine can now be "stopped" if necessary, limiting access to state structures, the economy and politics.
It is no secret that Zelensky, who promoted the law, previously relied on the oligarchs himself, including Igor Kolomoisky and Rinat Akhmetov. However, now the President of Ukraine supported the US sanctions against Kolomoisky, and named Akhmetov among the participants in the preparation of the coup. Experts therefore believe that the fact that Akhmetov appeared with criticism of the Ukrainian president in the WP material indicates that there is a demand for diversification of domestic political processes in Ukraine, and not only from within, but also from outside.