Ukrainian tycoon’s calls for rallies against separatists go largely unheeded
Ukrainian tycoon’s call for rally against separatists goes largely unheeded
(about 9 hours later)
MARIUPOL, Ukraine — Calls by eastern Ukraine’s richest man for demonstrations against Russian-backed separatists met with a mixed response Tuesday as many workers stayed on their jobs.
MARIUPOL, Ukraine — A plea by Ukraine’s richest man for demonstrations against Russian-backed separatists met with a mixed response Tuesday as many of his own workers stayed on their jobs.
Billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, whose coal mines, steel plants and other factories are the industrial might of the Donets Basin in eastern Ukraine, had called on all of his 300,000 employees to take part in the rallies against a separatist movement that the tycoon warns is endangering the region’s economy.
But many Ukrainians still saw the gesture by billionaire Rinat Akhmetov as a welcome, if symbolic, attempt to end the country’s fraternal strife while European leaders searched for diplomatic solutions to the crisis before Sunday’s presidential election.
At the entrance to Akhemtov’s Iliych steel plant in Mariupol, an industrial port city in southeastern Ukraine, bystanders and workers said nobody emerged when the factory sirens wailed at noon, the time for the demonstration.
Akhmetov, whose coal, steel and other holdings are the industrial might of the Donets Basin in eastern Ukraine, asked his 300,000 employees to join a noon peace rally against the separatist movement that, he said, could wreck the region’s economy. The call followed Akhmetov’s decision last week to form worker patrols to help police restore order on the streets of Mariupol, an industrial port city in southeastern Ukraine.
“You see for yourself,” said a bus driver in a red and gray uniform of Akhmetov’s Metinvest company as he took a break minutes after the siren sounded. The entrance had only the usual traffic of people and vehicles. “The main thing is, nobody’s shooting.” Akhmetov said he suspended a similar rally Monday after he learned that unidentified gunmen had planned to shoot anyone who took part.
In Donetsk, several hundred pro-Ukrainian residents rallied just before noon at Donbas Arena. Organizers played the noise of a deafening factory whistle and urged the crowd to download a version of it that they could sound at noon every day as a show of unity.
The 53-year-old driver, who said he has been working for the steel maker for 30 years and identified himself only as Nikolai for fear of losing his job and his pension, is one of many in the region who feel caught in the middle of a sometimes violent struggle between the three-month-old pro-Western government in Kiev and separatists who want to make eastern Ukraine part of neighboring Russia. Nikolai said he did not support Akhmetov or the steel magnate’s call for protests because he blames Akhmetov and other oligarchs for dividing Ukraine no less than the separatists.
But at the entrance to Akhmetov’s Ilyich steel plant in this city on the Sea of Azov, nobody stepped outside the factory gate when the plant whistle sounded at noon.
He said he has no interest in seeing Donbas, as the Donets Basin is known, split off to join Russia. He said he declined to vote in a chaotic May 11 referendum called by the separatists to endorse self-rule. He said he also supports many of the separatists’ grievances against the interim government in Kiev.
“You see for yourself,” said a bus driver in a red and gray uniform of Akhmetov’s Metinvest company, pointing to routine traffic at the factory gate. “The main thing is nobody’s shooting.”
Alexei Primenko, 63, who works as a locksmith in the steel plant’s main office, shrugged off the demonstration.
Minutes after the sirens sounded, Denis Pushilin, a leader of the separatists’ self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, sent out a tweet saying rebels would begin nationalizing the properties of “regional oligarchs” for their refusal to pay taxes to the Donetsk People’s Republic.
“What’s the demonstration going to give me?” Primenko asked. He said he and most workers would treat Akhmetov’s calls for pro-Ukrainian support with polite applause, as they feel it necessary to pay lip service to a cause backed by the man who pays their salaries. But he said their hearts are not in it.
Denis Pushilin, a leader of the separatists’ self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, tweeted that they would begin nationalizing the properties of “regional oligarchs.” He did not mention Akhmetov by name, but in a followup tweet, Pushilin made it clear he was talking about the tycoon.
“Akhmetov made his choice,” the rebel leader said. “Unfortunately, it is a choice against the people of Donbas.”
“Akhmetov made his choice,” the rebel leader said. “Unfortunately, it is a choice against the people of Donbas.”
At the burned-out city council building that pro-Russian separatists had previously seized and later relinquished, a dozen supporters of the Donetsk People’s Republic expressed contempt for Akhmetov’s call for demonstrations. As they stood near a bulletin board, some, including a few former employees at Akhmetov’s plants, said his workforce was a captive audience who had no choice but to participate in the demonstrations.
Meanwhile, with the first round of the presidential election fast approaching, Ukraine’s leaders arranged another session of roundtable talks, this time in the southern part of the country. The meeting, which would be the third in two weeks, will be held Wednesday in the city of Mykolaiv on the Black Sea.
“They don’t support Akhmetov, but they’re afraid,” said Igor Grydin, 51, a businessman who helped to organize the self-rule referendum.
Ukraine’s acting foreign minister, Andrii Deshchytsia, said the locale outside Kiev demonstrated the interim government’s interest in building better relationships with regional representatives on their home turf.
Vyacheslav Kartavych, 51, who used to work at Ilych Steel, said he has friends there who say the management is also leaning on them to support wealthy businessman Petro Poroshenko in the upcoming presidential election, scheduled for Sunday.
Ukraine’s parliament passed a “memorandum of mutual understanding and peace” that gave assurances about the status of the Russian language and lent support to a decentralization of power in the country, two key demands from eastern Ukrainians.
Both men said they support the rebels’ call to nationalize the holdings of Akhmetov and other “oligarchs” because of their refusal to pay taxes to the Donetsk republic.
In Moscow, the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday that its military forces near Ukraine’s border were returning to their bases in line with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order Monday. But NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance has seen no signs of any withdrawal.
“Akhmetov is worse than a capitalist,” Kartavych said.
But it was Akhmetov’s decision to use his clout to intervene that attracted the most attention Tuesday, even if support for it seemed thin.
A few blocks away, separatists were building fortifications around a school building that their leader said was given to them to use as their new headquarters in a deal with elected city officials, now that the city council building was gutted.
Alexei Primenko, 63, a locksmith in the steel plant’s main office, was one of those who shrugged off the demonstration. He said workers pay lip service to Akhmetov’s calls for pro-Ukrainian support because they owe their salaries to him. But Primenko said their hearts are not in it.
As armed men in camouflage fatigues kept watch, Aleksandr Kyselev, a member of the city’s separatists, oversaw the placement of sandbags in the street as a crane lowered heavy concrete blocks around the building. Kyselev said he was not sure what to make of Akhmetov’s stance after the morning’s demonstration.
“What’s the demonstration going to give me?” he said.
Kyselev said Akhmetov signed an agreement with the separatists, the elected mayor and the municipal police to restore order, possibly indicating that the tycoon might be willing to recognize and do business with the Donetsk People’s Republic. But the situation remains fluid, he said, and Akhmetov’s recent shifts have made it hard to see where the magnate stands.
Some said they did not heed the steel magnate’s call for a demonstration Tuesday because they blame him and other oligarchs as much as the separatists for dividing Ukraine.
“This man is trying to do something,” Kyselev said. “He’s trying to solve the situation peacefully, but everything’s unclear. But we would not be against Mr. Akhmetov if he will pay taxes to the Donetsk People’s Republic. Our leaders will find a common language with him.”
Yet they have no interest in seeing Donbas, as the Donets Basin is known, split off to join Russia, even if they also agree with separatist grievances against Kiev.
Last week, Akhmetov called his workers out to help police keep order, conveying a sense that he would use any available asset in his vast empire to oppose the separatist movement.
At the burned-out city council building that pro-Russian separatists had previously seized, a dozen supporters of the Donetsk People’s Republic expressed contempt for Akhmetov’s demonstrations. Milling in the square, they said that Akhmetov’s workforce was a captive audience that had no choice but to participate in the demonstrations.
In Moscow, the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday that its units in the western regions bordering Ukraine were preparing to return to their home bases — dismantling tents, loading equipment — in line with President Vladimir Putin’s order Monday. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance has seen no signs of any withdrawal yet.
“They don’t support Akhmetov, but they’re afraid,” said Igor Grydin, 51, a businessman who helped to organize a self-rule referendum this month.
“We have not seen any significant change to Russian troops along the border with Ukraine,” a NATO spokesman said Tuesday. “NATO would welcome such a move, and we hope that Russia will follow through with its declarations.”
A few blocks away, where separatists were building fortifications around a school building, Aleksandr Kyselev said he was not sure what to make of Akhmetov’s call to demonstrate. Kyselev said Akhmetov signed an agreement with the separatists, the elected mayor and the municipal police to restore order, possibly indicating that the tycoon might be willing to recognize and do business with the Donetsk People’s Republic. But the situation remains fluid, he said, and Akhmetov’s recent shifts have made it hard to see where the magnate stands.
Putin said earlier this month that the estimated 40,000 Russian troops massed on the Ukrainian border were withdrawing, with no apparent sign of it.
“This man is trying to do something,” Kyselev said. “He’s trying to solve the situation peacefully, but everything’s unclear.”
The Russians are calling their alleged troop withdrawal a “completion” of “routine” training exercises. Russia’s Defense Ministry defines the end of the winter combat training season as May 31. Summer training starts on June 1, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.
Birnbaum reported from Kiev and Hauslohner from Moscow. Daniela Deane in London and Stephanie Kirchner in Berlin contributed to this report.
A Defense Ministry spokesman said he “could not comment” on whether Russia will simply replace the redeployed troops with new troops along the Ukrainian border when the training season changes.
In an interview Monday, Pavlo Sheremeta, Ukraine’s economy minister, welcomed Putin’s announcement, saying it appeared to go further than the Russian leader’s earlier declarations about withdrawing troops. Sheremeta said he sensed what could be a shift in tone and possibly in substance.
“Is this credible? We shall see, but at even up until 10 days ago, all his declarations were much more hawkish,” he said.
Putin, meanwhile, went on a highly-publicized two-day visit to China as Russia moved closer to its powerful Asian neighbor in yet another sign that Moscow is distancing itself from the West amid the Ukrainian crisis.
“We have agreed to coordinate our foreign policy steps more closely,” including within the United Nations, the grouping known as BRICS (for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, Putin said, according to Interfax.
Putin on Tuesday said China was Russia’s “main trade partner.”
Last year, bilateral trade approached $90 billion. “We will try to reach $100 billion next year,” Putin said in a statement released by the Kremlin.
Reviving a shared history of national greatness and power also permeated the Kremlin’s rhetoric on Tuesday.
“Russia and China see eye-to-eye on most international issues,” Putin said.
The two countries also announced that they would jointly commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II — when the Soviet Union came to China’s aid in the fight against Japan.
But the Kremlin has dismissed allegations that it is looking east for political reasons. “Each country or group of countries, including the European Union, has the right to diversify their supply sources,” Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told Bloomberg television over the weekend, referring to the possibility of an imminent long-term energy deal with China.
Russia is being pulled into a new Cold War with the United States and its Western allies, Medvedev also told Bloomberg.
Russia and China also issued a joint statement condemning sanctions.
Birnbaum reported from Kiev and Hauslohner from Moscow. Daniela Deane in London contributed to this report.
