Crabs in a barrel
About the conflict between Kolomoisky and Poroshenko. NEW! The video with English subtitles was added.
Crabs in a barrel
The public feud between Poroshenko and Kolomoisky around the valuable energy assets is a reflection of the old intra-oligarchic struggle, where the "sharks of intra-Ukrainian looting" try to take a bite not only from the local population but also from their opponents. We already saw a lite-version of such arguments during the period of the Orange Revolution, where the oligarchs who supported Yuschenko received their benefits not only from the state assets but also from the property of the defeated opponents. The losers bent on their knees before Yuschenko and Tymoshenko in 2005-2006 just to preserve their positions in business, after losing their positions in power. But this was just the beginning, the worst happened after the coup of 2014. The oligarchs like the younger Yanukovich, Firtash, and Akhmetov became hostages of the political situation and, after losing the influence in power, their property was subjected to mundane plunder, where in the name of the state - which was captured by the junta - the oligarchs who stood behind the coup started to recoup their losses at the expense of the opponents.
Kolomoisky was the most active in this area. He engaged in war profiteering and seized the orphaned regions of the South-East under the disguise of the struggle against separatism. Kolomoisky became a symbol of sorts of the bloody business done on this war. The absolute cynicism and lack of principles, which distinguished Kolomoisky, highlighted him even among the current lineup of the Kiev junta bosses. Using anarchy and the collapse of the previous state, Kolomoisky ran a successful business, but by the spring of 2015 the situation has changed somewhat. Akhmetov, following the unsuccessful attempt to stay in the Ukrainian or the Novorussian politics, is gradually leaving the stage (his influence on the processes in the DPR is weakening, his property in Crimea is nationalized, in the Ukraine it is expropriated by the oligarchs who stand behind the junta - the once powerful business-empire is openly torn into pieces).
Due to the continuation of the competitive struggle, after taking care of the previous opponents, the oligarchs who stand behind the junta started to bite each other. Kolomoisky has long since undermined Poroshenko, trying to push Yarosh, whom he sponsors, into the leadership of the General Staff so that he can have at least partial control over the army. The permanent campaign against the chief of the General Staff Muzhenko is primarily a strike against Poroshenko, who covers Muzhenko despite all of the military catastrophes. He covers him because Muzhenko and Poltorak maintain the control over the army for Poroshenko. By losing this control Poroshenko will lose the most important element of his power, because it is precisely the war in Donbass that determines military, political, and economical support for the Ukraine. Whoever controls the war is also in touch with the financial flows from the West and the diplomatic support of the "free world". Kolomoisky, with his reputation of a bloody gangster turned major businessman, is in dire need of this international recognition and legitimation, because the west makes its principal bet not on him but rather on Poroshenko. And he can only attain this recognition by undermining Poroshenko and his proteges like Muzhenko. Naturally, the opponents don't just sit idly. The attempts to expropriate "his precious" from Kolomoisky are a retaliatory strike following his previous insinuations. It is even more weird that Kolomoisky didn't anticipate such an obvious move as a strike against his state-related assets.
His hysterical run in the company of armed thugs to the rescue of an asset as it is drifting away is a reflection of the essence of Kolomoisky: he is just a regular raider-bandit, just a very rich and influential one, but also the one who kept every single habit of a thug from from the 90s.
It is even funnier that he partially got what he wanted http://lifenews.ru/news/151571 (in Russian), Poroshenko didn't give in completely, but nevertheless accepted some of Kolomoisky's conditions, forming a temporary compromise with him and having satisfied himself with only a part of the loot. Nevertheless, this story left a very interesting impression: the junta is still quite heterogeneous with respect to organization and subject to internal conflicts, which are mostly restrained by the US, which are not interested in the junta getting bogged down in its internal arguments. So despite all of the antagonism between Kolomoisky and Poroshenko, Yatsenyuk and Poroshenko, Lyashko and Kolomoisky, Tymoshenko and Poroshenko - all of these strifes between crabs in a barrel do not lead to the consequences desired by many of us.
There are certain rules of the game set by the USA and implemented by the US embassy in Kiev, which the feuding junta bosses are afraid to violate, because this may lead to the loss of the "shortcut to reign". Because the US have full control over the politics and the economy of the Ukraine, anyone who runs beyond certain boundaries will be swiftly stripped of their "democratic legitimacy" and will be removed from the deck, or it may even so happen that he may shoot himself in the chest twice or jump out the window. The fact that Kolomoisky is allowed to continue doing what he does suggests that the US maintain the system of checks and balances, in which not a single puppet is allowed to become sufficiently powerful to attain the status of a political subject. In this respect the USA act intelligently, not putting all eggs in the same basket, but in the long-term this may indeed be detrimental, because the USA don't resolve these internal conflicts between their puppets, but rather sweep them under the rug. At some point all of this will blow up, but likely not now, because the next stage of military action lies ahead and so Washington doesn't need a "hot" war against Kolomoisky at this point.
But if Washington feels that Kolomoisky's arbitrariness in the questions of looting is going to impede the "US national interests", which are currently associated with the preservation of Poroshenko in power in the Ukraine (due to which Tymoshenko was written off last year), then Kolomoisky won't be able to rule the south-east for much longer. He will be removed without much hassle, even without Poroshenko's order of removing Kolomoisky from the position of the head of the Dnepropetrovsk region, by applying certain pressure on the assets of the chief jew-bandrovite in his Swiss and American banks.
There is also a scenario in which Poroshenko will become a fuhrer of the nation for a long-term hot war and then such people as Kolomoisky will be sacrificed for "higher goals". The rumors of the naziguard deployment in the Dnepropetrovsk region with the goal of securing Kolomoisky's resignation are a reflection of these far from baseless fears of Kolomoisky for his own fate. He really doesn't want to end up like a used rubber product [see the transcript for the video below].
From the point of view of our interests, weakening Poroshenko as the main puppet of the USA is more likely to be beneficial for us, because it will be associated with the intensification of the internecine struggle for power and property inside the junta. But I would more likely bet on that given the need to make a hard choice - Poroshenko or Kolomoisky - the USA will choose Poroshenko because he is more controllable and somewhat less densely smeared.
My personal wish for these remarkable characters is that they devour each other as soon as possible, because actually their feud isn't funny, if one recalls how much blood is on their hands. The present story, among other things, shows how far the major capital is from the needs of common Ukrainians who were deceived by the promises of the bright European tomorrow and "improvement already today". Ukraine and Ukrainians became expandables in the hands of the bosses of the fascist junta, which is based primarily on the Ukrainian oligarchs. The struggle against the " golden loaves" in the end brought the most radical representatives of major capital with the fascist inclinations into power. And no lace panties may explain this horrible mistake of the Ukrainian people, who now pay for this choice with their blood, while the bloodsuckers such as Kolomoisky and Poroshenko torment the dying country.
Original article: http://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/2099272.html (in Russian)
Yandex translation of the comments posted to the original Russian blog entry:
https://translate.yandex.com/translate?url=http://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/2099272.html%23comments&lang=ru-en
Note from the translator: the following video of Kolomoisky's "interview" given to the Radio Svoboda right after emerging from the building of the state oil company in question is a good illustration to this text. The English transcript, which is 18+, is given below the video. New! The video now has English subtitles.
[Transcript (18+, click to open)]
Click to view
Male Correspondent 1: Mr. Kolomoisky.
This is Radio Svoboda.
Kolomoisky: Who?!
MC1: Please tell us...
K: Yes!!!
MC1: What is the head of the regional state administration doing here, at night?
K: Oh fuck. Of course he is here because he wants to see you.
Because there is no other way to see your face, the face of Radio Svoboda.
And why don't you ask how there was a hostile takeover in UkrTransNafta (i.e., the Ukrainian Oil Transport Company)?
And how the Russian saboteurs came here? Huh? Why don't you ask me this?
Huh!? Or you are in a dire fucking need to see Kolomoisky?
We have been liberating the building of UkrTransNafta from the Russian saboteurs.
Who captured it.
And you along with your Svoboda is fucking sitting here on some fucking watch.
Like a fucking matron looking out for her cheating hubby.
[0:47]
K: So what, shut your fucking mouth now, did you?
Or perhaps you want to ask me about the passports?
Or you want to ask some other questions? Huh?
Well, why don't you ask me about the Russian saboteurs? Why didn't you catch any?
Radio Svoboda, my ass.
You are the same kind of fucking Svoboda like the one that didn't make it into the parliament.
Tyagnybok's whore, you bitch.
[1:08]
Female Correspondent 1: So you checked the documents now, and what did you learn?
K: From the documents we learned that there was no task for a vote from the cabinet of ministers.
There was no task for a vote from the NAK Neftegaz (the oil and gas state company).
There are no documents whatsoever. Under the disguise of ahh....m this things, whatever it's called...
Police or whatever there was some sort of weird private security organization.
They broke in, they broke the windows, they injured the people, they broke somebody's arm. That's it.
Now all of them are gone.
So, a typical attempt of some pitiful hostile takeover of a state enterprise.
And as for what I'm doing here, I'll tell you later in the Prosecutor General's office.
Did you get it, you, Svobodahole?
[1:51]
K (to the MC1): Why did you shut up? Huh?!
FC1: (nervously) those claims that you...
K (to the MC1): Why are you silent? Speak, go ahead, do you have questions?
Or is your tongue stuck up your ass?
Well, speak, you are from Svoboda. Radio Svoboda. Famous stuff.
Broke the Soviet Union. Overthrew the Bolsheviks.
Always stood up for OUN/UPA. Are you on the lookout for passports or what are you looking here for?
[2:14]
Or are you looking for used condoms? Is that what you're looking for?
Where is this Leshchenko, this ass bandit of yours? [see also Leshchenko's butthurt tweet (in Russian)].
Yeah, so are you going to show this on your televisions or your internets?
[2:25]
Hello?! Anyone there?
Male Correspondent 2 (speaks very fast): Please tell us...
K: I'm taking these scribbles and pieces of paper and going with them to the President.
And with his 'security organization' that allegedly broke in here.
Because everyone's quoting this. Demchishyn came in and says "I have an order from above."
And I say "above from who?". I say "who let you raiders capture a state firm in violation of the procedure?"
The prime minister left for Brussels? Kobolev left? Nobody's home.
So you decided to go in, good & slow, decided to take over the organization?
You haven't looted every enterprise yet so you decided to plunder this one?
[2:58]
K (to MC1): So why are you silent?
MC2 (nervously): Who did you see inside?
K: Who did I see? Nobody. When I came in there was nobody there anymore.
Later came Demchishyn, Savchenko came, this new lardass, former SBU.
So I ask him, where did you work before?
He says "In the SBU of the Lugansk region."
I say "So you were a smuggler? Go liberate the Lugansk region."
Why the fuck did you come here, to TransNafta?
Everything's OK here. And he is from the SBU of the Lugansk region.
He doesn't want to liberate Crimea. He doesn't want to liberate the Lugansk region.
He came to make a living here. This 'Miroshnyk' dude.
[3:40]
He appointed himself. He appointed himself, see: "I appoint myself... temporarily start to perform the duty of..."
Did you see that?
Look at this.
Male Correspondent 3: And who do you think is behind this?
K: Well, I don't know. They told me it is Kononenko. The leader... one of the leaders of the fraction "Block of Petro Poroshenko" in the Rada.
So now I'm going to the president's administration and we'll be figuring out what these papers are.
Who is behind this.
And here is another video of the same incident that is a bit longer and gives a bit of context in the beginning and illustrates the 'armed thugs' mentioned in the article.
Amazingly, the correspondent of Radio Svoboda from the above interview didn't get enough K and tried to ask more questions (towards the end of the second video). Perhaps, some of the K's 'criticism' of Radio Svoboda (the who*e and bit*h parts) wasn't all that far off the mark.