Ukraine oligarch claims US extradition request is political interference

Source: The Guardian (UK)

Last year’s Maidan revolution in Ukraine was meant to usher in a new kind of politics and end official corruption and behind-the-scenes oligarchic influence. But an Austrian court last week heard claims that President Petro Poroshenko had his path to the presidency cleared for him only after a summit in Vienna with controversial oligarch Dmytro Firtash.

#

Firtash is one of the most powerful and most elusive of Ukraine’s oligarch class, a small group of individuals who have controlled much of the business in post-Soviet Ukraine and have often had huge influence over the political system. He has been linked to the Kremlin as well as figures in the Russian underworld – claims he has denied.

Usually, oligarchs like to remain in the shadows, but to make his case that the US charges were politically motivated, Firtash made a rare boast about his political influence inside Ukraine.

Firtash told the court he arranged a summit in Vienna after the Maidan revolution between former boxer Vitali Klitschko and Poroshenko, who went on to become Ukraine’s president following the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych. After the meeting, Firtash said, Klitschko agreed to run for mayor of Kiev rather than the presidency. For a nation sick of big decisions being taken in shadowy closed-doors meetings, the claims have hit a nerve.



Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/05/ukraine-oligarch-brokered-deal-petro-poroshenko-president-dmytro-firtash