The National Bank of Ukraine headquarters in Kyiv
Ukraine’s central bank has issued an unprecedented statement accusing local oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, the former owner of nationalized lender PrivatBank, of orchestrating a campaign of intimidation against the institution and its staff.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has been targeted by protesters accusing the bank’s management of corruption and demanding the resignation of governor Yakiv Smoliy and deputy governor Kateryna Rozhkova.
On Monday, a group of protesters broke into the bank’s premises.
“We believe that this pressure on the NBU comes from Ihor Kolomoisky,” the NBU said on Wednesday.
|
Yakiv Smoliy, |
The central bank believes Kolomoisky and fellow former PrivatBank owner Gennadiy Bogolyubov siphoned off $5.5 billion from the lender before nationalization, an allegation that received backing from a 2018 report by US investigators Kroll.
In this week’s statement, the NBU said the protesters included employees of the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant and other companies controlled by Kolomoisky, Ukraine’s most powerful oligarch.
It also named Ukrainian MP Oleksandr Dubinsky as the “main driver” of the protests and of a barrage of “negative statements and slander” in the local media.
