BY
Following yesterday’s
entry relating
to the coincidences – or not – of current wriggling within the Opposition
Block, a question has been asked by a reader about the importance of Vadim
Novinsky in the Ukrainian arena.
There has been a lot
written about him in Ukrainian and Russian, but little in English, so a brief
glossary follows. (He is perhaps best known to the English speaking
reader for his recent Guardian piece – or at least a piece that was published naming him as the author
even though he wasn’t)
Before doing so however,
as stated in the link above to yesterday’s entry, Mr Novinsky did indeed leave
Ukraine today for Greece for a visit to Mount Athos, apparently spending time
in the company of some senior Orthodox clergy.
Also, the request by the
Prosecutor General to lift the parliamentary immunity of Mr Novinsky has indeed
arrived at the Verkhovna Rada and has been passed to the Procedural Committee
of the Verkhovna Rada by Speaker Paruby.
The relevant committee
will mull the Prosecutor General’s request next week.
So to the question of how important is Vadim Novinsky
within the Ukrainian arena? (Aside from being a leading and very wealthy
Opposition Block parliamentary personality and extremely conservative member of
the Russian Orthodoxy.)
Vadim Novinsky is a
Russian “businessman” who was granted Ukrainian citizenship in 2012 by
former-President Yanukovych. Despite calls for that citizenship to be
revoked due to Mr Novinsky’s very pro-Russian stance (and alleged pro-Kremlin
actions), thus far President Poroshenko has refused to do so. It remains
to be seen whether that position will change in the future.
Mr Novinsky is perhaps
best known in Ukraine as a junior partner of Rinat Akhmetov via shares in Mr
Akhmetov’s MetInvest. The deal in 2006/7 involved Mr Akhmetov assuming
control of a plethora of Mr Novinsky’s mining and metallurgical companies held
under the umbrella of Mr Novinsky’s infamous Smart Group (and latterly Smart
Holdings), in exchange for a junior share in MetInvest. (To be blunt
neither Smart Group nor Smart Holdings have anything approaching a good
business reputation – consistently in the orbit of numerous scandals.)
The outcome of the
MetInvest 2006/7 deal was that this gave Mr Novinsky “access all areas” within
the Ukrainian political elite – which he clearly wanted. (The benefits
for Mr Akhmetov will not be dealt with in this entry.)
It is necessary however
to briefly describe how Mr Novinsky first managed to acquire the ability to own
numerous mining and metallurgy assets in both Russia and Ukraine, why he came
to Ukraine buying such assets during the 1990s/2000s when all assets worth
holding were subject to bloody wars between the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk
clans.
Ukraine at this time was
not a place for the faint hearted making acquisitions without a significant
influential “roof” (guarantor) that could insure property rights in the absence
of a predictable rule of law.
Without going into the
minutiae of his early business career in Russia, it is sufficient to note that
very early on he managed to secure the patronage of Russian oligarch Alisher
Usmanov, influential Russian politician Viktor Chernomyrdin, and alleged
Tambov mafia gang associate Andrei Klyamko. The later Mr Klyamko for
several decades has been a consistent business partner of Mr Novinsky – a
formal business divorce occurring in March 2014 in the immediate aftermath of
“The Revolution of Dignity”.
A reader would probably
understand that official business divorce to be little more than a facade
dictated by circumstances at the time to mitigate volatile public perception.
(Indeed it is rumoured by reliable sources that Mr Novinsky’s name
originally appeared in the Spanish Tambov mafia investigations – until Kremlin
intervention managed to have his name removed before reports were published.)
Quite how such planets
aligned for an engineering management systems graduate from Leningrad who came
to Ukraine with Lukoil a reader is left to ponder.
Considering the
extremely volatile and bloody warfare between the political and business clans
of Donetsk and Dnepropetrovsk during the 1990’s/2000s, it is perhaps fair to
speculate that Mr Novinsky’s entry into Ukrainian assets at that time (and many
were physically within the Dnepro/Donbas geography) occurred via the
friendship/association of then President Kuchma with Viktor Chernomyrdin.
That is not to infer that President Kuchma had any special relationship
with Mr Novinsky other than by extension to that from Mr Chernomyrdin.
President Yushenko who
followed however, perhaps can be viewed as far more accessible following Mr
Novinsky’s arrival as a junior partner at MetInvest – and this access was
further enabled by Mr Novinsky funding a few “pet projects” of President
Yushenko. (Disclosure – it was at about this time Mr Novinsky started
rubbing shoulders with acquaintances of this blog – both Ukrainian and
foreign.)
The rise to power of
President Yanukovych naturally suited Mr Novinsky’s ideology far more than did
President Yushenko’s. Mr Novinsky already close to “The Family” due to
business arrangements with Mr Akhmetov quickly went into business with
Alexander Yanukovych with several ventures. It is during this period that
the alleged offences of unlawful imprisonment of a member of the Orthodox
clergy occurred for which he is now under investigation. It is also
stated that aside from the alleged crime, the goal was to change the leadership
of the Orthodoxy in Ukraine and in this he (apparently) played a robust role.
Since then Mr Novinsky
has continued his support of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian
Moscow Patriarchy zealously whilst allegedly simultaneously continuing to exert
pressure (and it is also alleged threats) toward the Kyiv Patriarchy.
Indeed, it is no secret that Mr Novinsky was significant in the
organisation and financing of what was widely
perceived as a Kremlin influence operation during a “peace march” by the Moscow Patriarchy for
the celebrations for the baptism of Vladymyr in July.
More locally for Odessa,
he is also supposed to be part/”supportive” of the “Odessa Network” of
politicians (and a few businessmen) with what are for many constituents
particularly questionable definitions of patriotism.
Considering his
nationality of birth, circumstances surrounding the evolution of his business
career and the 3 wise men that nurtured it from the Russian oligarchy,
political and mafia classes, Mr Novinsky is unquestionably trusted far more by
The Kremlin, and the wider Russian political, business, religious and organsied
criminal classes than the usual suspects such as Messrs Medvedchuk and Firtash
– despite their robust connections.
A cynical reader, as
well as a few counterintelligence bods, will by now perhaps be questioning the
true role of Mr Novinsky, and whether Mr Novinsky is an independent actor with
agency – or something else operating for “others”?
Was he in fact
propelled into Ukraine quite deliberately so swiftly after it became
independent with the long game task of getting access to the body of whomever
is president of the day, whilst simultaneously gaining control of GDP and
employment percentages within the Ukrainian economy – or has he (willingly or
otherwise) simply been co-opted by The Kremlin along the way due to his access
to whomever is president and his personal control over Ukrainian GDP and
employment percentages – or has he simply volunteered those services, acting as
an asset for The Kremlin, considering his ideological alignment?
Although it is possible
to continue, the question relating to the importance of Mr Novinsky in the
Ukrainian arena has probably been answered sufficiently well for a reader to
draw their own conclusions.
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