In march 2015 there was a big scandal in Ukraine. It wouldn’t probably be so interesting (country lives from scandal to scandal after all), but the main role was played by the oligarch Igor Kolomoyskiy who was at that time a chairman of Dnipropetrovsk regional administration. The main point of a scandal was as following. (русский)

At the regular meeting of supervisory board of the PJSC “Ukrtransnafta” (operator of the main Ukrainian oil pipeline system, the second largest in Europe) the decision of discharge of Aleksandr Lazorko (Kolomoyskiy’s man), who fulfilled the duties of chairman of the company, was taken, Yuri Miroshnik was appointed. Aleksandr Lazorko didn’t want to leave his working place and barricaded himself in a private office. Angry Kolomoyskiy arrived a bit later accompanied with armed men in masks. They have been in the building for a long time, after that the oligarch Kolomoyskiy went out, he answered the question “What is the head of Dnipropetrovska oblast doing here at night?” with insulting in a rude manner and swearing with the foul language at the press representative. (youtube)

Several days later the President Poroshenko signed Kolomoyskiy’s request to relieve him of his post. Partially it was caused by society’s negative reaction on Kolomoyskiy’s behavior, but to a greater extent it looked like the removal of a rival.

Igor Kolomoyskiy tried to look indifferent to what was happening and even said that he was in a good relationship with the President as usual, but it was obvious that he was very angry and he would definitely revenge as soon as there appeared such opportunity.

This story faded somewhat into the background later.

The day before yesterday it turned out that the ex-president of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili had been appointed to the position of governor of the Odessa strategic region.

This occasion should be inserted into a new article (Mikhail Saakashvili is a person too important and ambiguous), but the matter concerns not him, but the new wave of opposition between Poroshenko and Kolomoyskiy.

The fact is that till yesterday the position of the head of Odessa state administration had been occupied by Igor Palitsa who is an old partner and associate of Kolomoyskiy. Since 29.05.15 Igor Palitsa has been dismissed by decree of the President.

Now it’s enough to cite some quotations of Kolomoyskiy in order to understand his reaction on what is going on:

«I’m actually surprised by Saakashvili. I think he is a temporary figure. Now he will surrender Odessa to the Russians, then we will have to reconquer it again. He will work as a governor for some time, then he will be replaced by a nonentity like Goncharenko» (Poroshenko Block Deputy) «By the way, there is a question: How many nationalities does he (Saakashvili) have? He’ll probably do better than me. American, Georgian, Dutch, now Ukrainian one also has to be taken into account. Let’s wait till Andrushko (journalist insulted by Kolomoyskiy) asks him that».

It is worth mentioning that during the tenure of office of Odessa oblast governor Igor Palitsa seven heads of regional custom-houses were changed, and scandals connected with customs clearance of mineral oils delivered by Kolomoyskiy’s companies to Odessa ports and with accusations in petrol smuggling were arising all the time.

This is still not the end!

Yesterday the meeting of supervisory board of the «Ukrnafta» (the largest oil and gas producing company in Ukraine), where the state is the main stockholder, 42% of shares belongs to the «Privat» group of Igor Kolomoyskiy. (economics.lb.ua)

One of the key issues was the dismission of current company leaders who always acted in the interests of Igor Kolomoyskiy. Certainly, Kolomoyskiy who was present there reacted angrily on these initiatives. He claimed that Abromavičius (Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine) is «incompetent» and «doesn’t understand the issue». «Ministry of Economy is incompetent». Citation: «I’m a shareholder of this company, and I don’t care where this monkey was brought from – from Lithuania or wherever». (wiki)

In the end they didn’t manage to dismiss the leaders! (Kolomoyskiy’s small victory). Nevertheless, the decision was taken that on the next common meeting of shareholders (22.07.15) this issue will be on the agenda again. (Musutafa Nayyem)

As we can see, the President Poroshenko actively attacks in the fight against Kolomoyskiy, but the latter, though he loses some positions, doesn’t intend to surrender! Without a doubt, the main fights are yet to come!

(yg)