While Ukraine has been watching with bated breath for two months now, the latest drama surrounding the parliamentary coalition and the future of the reformed government, the powers that be continue to address far more local, but in fact no less significant, issues. And while everyone is talking about what's happening in the Verkhovna Rada and around the Cabinet of Ministers these days, and news feeds are almost completely overloaded with big politics, issues of influence in Kyiv are being resolved behind the scenes, reminiscent of a classic bulldog fight under the carpet.
The capital and Kyiv residents find themselves, as they say, caught between two fires. Kyiv's leadership has changed for two years now, but the elites remain essentially the same, which, quite naturally, has given rise to a business conflict.
The example of the public joint-stock company Kyivgaz is classic in this case and perfectly illustrates the current situation in the capital.
As is well known, before Euromaidan, one of the most influential people in Kyiv was the current Opposition Bloc MP and then-head of the presidential administration, Serhiy Lyovochkin, who controlled the capital not only through the head of the Kyiv City State Administration, Oleksandr Popov, but also by influencing the then-formal opposition, represented by Vitali Klitschko and UDAR.
However, after the victory of the Revolution of Dignity in Kyiv, a new major player emerged, for whom Kyivgaz represented the ultimate prize, a battle for which has been ongoing for almost two years and is now in the final stretch. This is the tandem of Serhiy Berezenko, one of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc's chief parliamentary negotiators, and Ihor Kononenko, the faction's power broker. It is this odious friend of the head of state who is now the leading contender to wrest control of Kyivgaz from Serhiy Levochkin.
The former Party of Regions member currently controls Kyivgaz through Serhiy Gorovoy, the chairman of the PAT board and son-in-law of Opposition Bloc leader Yuriy Boyko. Ihor Kononenko intends to oust him at the upcoming shareholders' meeting in mid-May.
It's worth noting that the shareholders' meeting was scheduled to take place at the end of March. Rumor has it that the fateful meeting was postponed thanks to Vitali Klitschko, thanks to the help of the Kyiv City State Administration. The Kyiv mayor, currently forced to balance between two centers of gravity—Serhiy Lyovochkin and the Presidential Administration—played the side of his old partner, demonstrating once again that in the long term, he will only distance himself from the Ukrainian president.
But will such a delay achieve anything? Today, Igor Kononenko has all the resources to gain control of Kyivgaz, albeit with some delay.
The largest shareholders of PJSC are currently KyivEnergoHolding (60%) and the Kyiv municipality (28,4%). A friend of the Ukrainian president has influence in both.
Thus, the CEO of KyivEnergoHolding is Igor Kononenko's protégé, Vitaliy Naidyuk, and 61% of the company's shares are owned by Kyiv, effectively the city council. His secretary, Volodymyr Prokopiv, is also considered a member of the Igor Kononenko/Serhiy Berezenko tandem, which paved the way for the young manager to enter Kyiv politics.
As for Serhiy Lyovochkin, after Vitali Klitschko was further marginalized from the city's actual leadership, and the main business flows are now controlled by Bankova through the Ihor Kononenko/Serhiy Berezenko tandem, the former head of Viktor Yanukovych's presidential administration has effectively lost any chance of surviving the upcoming battle for Kyivgaz in May. Through offshore companies, Lyovochkin controls less than 40% of Kyivenergoholding's shares, which, given his lost influence in the City Council, is not enough to keep Serhiy Gorovoy at the helm of the company.
Kyivgaz, in the face of a massive increase in the price of natural gas for Kyiv residents, is no longer just a monopolist in the capital's market, but a veritable gold mine, which the entire population of Kyiv will drink from their own pockets.
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