After last week’s New York Times reported “rout” of pro-autonomy protesters in eastern Ukraine’s port city of Mariupol didn’t pan out, billionaire Rinat Akhmetov decided to take another shot at it this week.
Akhmetov sees his business interests at risk in the event of Mariupol’s secession, and continues to rail against the “economic ruin” the protesters would bring, urging his hundreds of thousands of employees to attend counter-rallies.
Yet despite continued media reports of Akhmetov’s counter-secession moving being a fait accompli, the rallies have been sparsely attended, to say the least, and don’t seem to have seriously stalled the protest movement anywhere.
Akhmetov organized a “peace rally” against secession for noon today, urging his 300,000 employees to take to the streets of Mariupol in support of Kiev’s central government. Instead of a few hundred thousand, the rally saw a few hundred turn out, as virtually no one left his factories at lunch to attend.
Though Akhmetov’s own business interests are somewhat imperiled by a potential loss of export markets in western Europe, the reality is that eastern Ukraine is an economic basketcase to begin with, so his admonitions not to rock the boat are ringing pretty hollow to the man on the street.
Wonder if the snipers targeting both sides in Kiev might have discouraged the crowds, and burning protesters alive doesn't exactly sound like family entertainment either. If Akhmetov is a typical capitalist, he probably expected his employees to take time off work, without pay, to participate.
I wonder how many of the middle managers will find themselves sans employment for not forcing the staff to attend. Embarrassing the boss is never good.
you cannot just shut down a steel mill for a week or so, even during strikes certain parts keep running fully manned.
The new republic can always renationalize his er, "property".
It looks like all his fortune will be nationalised in the south-east which will spread like a tsunami throughout Ukraine sick and tired of oligarchs.
Interesting development, stay tuned.
There are armed gangs in Mariupol. It would be surprising if many people were willing to risk retaliation. That even a few hundred turned out shows that people are starting to realise that the Russian colonists are losing the fight. Mr Ditz doesn't sem to have noticed that after being threatened by the armed gangs in Mariupol, Akhmetov held a drive-through rally in Donetsk, the heartland of the rebellion, and there, there was no opposition, which tells us that the armed gangs have gone from there and that the native Ukrainians are beginning to realise that the colonists are losing.
These are historic Russian lands tacked on to the Ukraine by the Soviet Union in 1917 as a gerrymandering exercise, Russians and Russian speakers there are not 'colonists' however many times you dishonestly claim so.
You are so full of ….. on every comment of yours. Get a life.
Ukraine is already been sold to IMF, their last offer was 11billion euros, the entail offer was 23 billion euros, then they changed the amount to 17billion euro, now the amount is 6 billion less what Kiev government wanted for Ukraine economy to be managed by Swedish, Danish bankers, Germans taking over the eastern Ukraine factories, demolishing the Ukrainian working class people pride, that's why these oligarch's are so nervous as USG and in general EU is desperate to get something out of Ukrainian people planed economic and political suffering.