MARIUPOL, Ukraine — He’s a baby-faced billionaire — the son of a coal miner and Ukraine’s richest man. Now, Rinat Akhmetov may also hold the balance of power in the region’s tensest standoff since the Cold War.
Two days after Akhmetov deployed workers from his steel plant to restore order in a region torn by separatist violence, calm appeared to return Friday to the center of this eastern city. A few steps from a recent deadly clash, people lunched on sushi as a song by Katy Perry played. Near the scorched city council building that had been held by pro-Russian militants, a group of Akhmetov’s unarmed steelworkers lounged and smoked cigarettes as they kept watch.
A few blocks away, at the ruins of the city police building where at least seven people died last week, retired steelworker Oleg Krivolapov welcomed Akhmetov’s intervention.
“He has his factories, his industries, a lot of money — he could do a lot,” said Krivolapov, who trusts that his former colleagues at Akhmetov’s Ilych Factory can keep the peace. “Of course, he should have done something sooner.”
The steelworkers’ patrols seem to mark a turn in the conflict, but Akhmetov’s decision to use his clout may be more significant. Since the fall of his longtime ally, former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, Akhmetov has restrained himself from pulling out all the stops to try to restore order. But with his decision to put his workers on the street, he may be saying enough is enough with the separatist movement in eastern Ukraine.
A king among men here, his empire of steel plants, factories and coal mines spreads across Donbas — as many Ukrainians refer to their nation’s industrial heartland. Akhmetov is its largest private employer and is known as the “shadow governor” for his links to local and regional politicians. His businesses also maintain their own private, well-trained security force of more than 3,000, including former elite Ukrainian commandos.
Should he go all-out — a level of commitment that still remains unclear — observers believe he has the power and influence to turn the tide.
“He controls everything in that region,” said Alexander Paraschiy, head of research at Concorde Capital, a Kiev-based brokerage and analytical firm. “If Akhmetov decides to stop this separatist show, he would be able to do it in a couple of minutes.”
Ukraine’s troubled east erupted into separatist violence months ago, and tension built in this is port city for weeks before an intense battle last week between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian militants. That raises an important question: Why is Akhmetov choosing to act now?
There are myriad theories. Some critics, for instance, have accused him of privately backing the separatists to force concessions from the pro-Western government in Kiev. At least one separatist leader, Pavlo Gubarev, told a state-owned Russian media outlet that Akhmetov helped finance the uprisings. Although he is a longtime supporter of Yanukovych and his Party of Regions, Akhmetov has denied those charges.
“I tell you with confidence that I didn’t and won’t give one cent” to the separatists, Akhmetov told Ukraine’s Interfax news agency this week.
Yet the chaos has led the pro-Western interim government in Kiev to begin seriously considering one of Akhmetov’s key demands: that Ukraine become a more decentralized state, giving more power to the regions. Such a deal could help protect Akhmetov’s businesses and political interests in the country’s east.
Critics who charge Akhmetov with tactically supporting the separatists’ uprisings say he may have become caught in his own web, his authority and businesses suddenly threatened by the spreading might of pro-Russian activists in the region.
“If he is acting now, it is not because he cares about Ukraine, but because his own interests are at stake,” said Igor Lutsenko, a prominent Kiev-based activist who was kidnapped and tortured by the Yanukovych regime in January.
Faiola reported from Kiev. Stephanie Kirchner in Berlin contributed to this report.
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