Billionaire governor of Dnepropetrovsk Igor Kolomoysky has been ordered by the Ukrainian government to have his private army lay down its arms during a stand off at the national oil company, as reported by RT.com.
On Sunday, dozens of men barricaded themselves at Ukrnafta, a majority state-owned oil company. Kolomoysky was building a barrier around the company without permission, and the Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, said, “We won’t have armed personal security forces of businessmen and politicians on the streets of our cities. It applies to each and every single one of them. All security forces have 24 hours to comply with the letter of the law.”
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The controversy flared up when a law was changed to allow the state to control the company with just a majority stake, lowering the minimum from 60%. Kolomoysky owns 43% of Ukrnafta, and the government is worried about his having too much authority, especially given past accusations that he has engaged in “prohibited methods of warfare, ” something he denies as propaganda against him because of his strong support of the Ukrainian against Russia.
Kolomoysky, who is Jewish and has Israeli and Cypriot citizenship, was depicted in a cartoon with a yarmulke on his head in an arm to arm struggle with President Petro Poroshenko on a Twitter update by Sergey Armeyskov with the caption, “oligarchs engage in open conflict and feudalism returns to the Ukraine.”
