BarcelonaFour days before the start of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, a private jet left Kyiv for London. Inside was Rinat Akhmetov, the richest businessman in Ukraine and the owner of Shakhtar Donetsk, the club that has won 13 of the last 20 Ukrainian leagues. Akhmetov, the son of Donbass miners, left the mansion that had been built on the outskirts of Kyiv, imitating 18th-century royal palaces, to take refuge in his luxurious Hyde Park apartment.
For many years, Akhmetov gave financial support to the Party of Regions, which got along well with Moscow. But after 2014 he changed sides, caught in the middle of a conflict that has been dramatically affecting Ukrainian football for years. Shakhtar, the best team of the decade, has been playing in exile for 8 years, far from its city and its beautiful stadium, one of the most modern in Europe, built to host the Euro 2012. The Donbass Arena It has been deserted for 8 years, with much of the roof shattered due to the mortar fire that has hit the site. A ghost stadium. The story of Akhmetov, Shakhtar and this stage partly explains the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. And the story of those who have been caught between two sides, switching from one to the other, between doubts and economic interests. “Akhmetov symbolizes those Russian-speaking Ukrainians who were not comfortable with some Ukrainian nationalist policies but did not want to break up Ukraine,” said Oleksandr Holiga, a Ukrainian journalist.
A few dark first years
Akhmetov’s story could begin on October 15, 1995, when he was caught in a traffic jam and arrived late for the Ukrainian league match between Shakhtar and Tavriya. Arriving late saved his life as a bomb exploded in the box office of the old Shakhtar stadium and ended the life of President Akhat Bragin. Akhmetov, the vice president, would take his place and hire a prestigious American law firm to denounce anyone who claims to have had business with Bragin, a mobster known as “Akhat the Greek.” Akhmetov has denounced more than one journalist who has published information about links to organized crime in the 1990s, when everything was possible in the former USSR.
Akhmetov was smarter than Bragin in taking advantage of privatizations after the fall of the Soviet Union to get rich. In 10 years he went from selling bottles of Coca-Cola on the street to being the richest man in the country. He bought companies, buildings, televisions, and became the great tycoon in the energy sector, controlling companies that manage electricity and gas. He also bought all the coal mines in the Donbass, despite losing money, only to be able to keep hundreds of miners employed and thus become a beloved figure in a region where everyone spoke Russian. One of the most important mining regions in Europe, on the border between Russia and Ukraine, was experiencing a severe economic crisis as coal ran out. And where the rise to power in Kyiv of a Ukrainian nationalism with little root in the area was looked upon with some anxiety.
The two souls, face to face
Founded in Donetsk in 1997 to defend the interests of the Russians in Ukraine, the Party of Regions was the answer to foster pro-Russian desires. A party that depended economically on Akhmetov, who controlled the fate of more than 300,000 workers across the country. The rise of this party to power coincided with the sporting growth of Shakhtar. It was no coincidence. Akhmetov began signing Brazilians to defeat the historic Dynamo Kyiv. A graphic way to make it clear who was in charge. For many years, the Kiev-Shakhtar Dynamo parties clashed over two country ideas. Dinamo was the club of Ukrainian nationalism and Shakhtar was the club of pro-Russians. Both, with oligarchs behind them defending their interests. The Surkis brothers in Dynamo and Akhmetov in Shakhtar.
When in 2004 a first wave of pro-European demonstrations led the so-called “orange revolution”, Akhmetov ordered that for a few months the Shakhtar be dressed in white, when its historical color is orange, to make it clear that its club had nothing to do with those ideas. They supported the Party of Regions, which would rise to power in 2010 with Viktor Yanukovych, a skewer who had been arrested as a young man for beating. In 2010, 30% of state-run public tenders were won by Akhmetov’s companies. But Yanukovych was overthrown by the popular protests of 2014, the Euromaidan, when hundreds of people lost their lives demanding the signing of the Free Trade Agreement with the European Union that Yanukovych did not want, as he was looking to Russia. Ukraine broke up. In the pro-Russian areas, the new government was not recognized. Crimea ended up in Russian hands and war broke out in the Donbass when the Lugansk and Donetsk regions declared independence with the support of Moscow. In the middle, Akhmetov was trapped. His offices in Kyiv were in fact attacked by Ukrainian nationalists during the Euromaidan days, when Yanukovych, accused of corruption, fled to Russia. Akhmetov, on the other hand, stayed.
The owner of Shakhtar had always been pro-Russian, but he was not interested in the new scenario, as he had businesses all over Ukraine. If I went to Russia, I would lose everything. In addition, he had a football team that could not stop playing in the Ukrainian league, as he had to reach the Champions League. Donetsk was now part of an independent republic not recognized by anyone. If he supported these pro-Russian militias, Shakhtar could not play in the Ukrainian league. So he chose to play on both sides and organized an event at the Shakhtar Stadium in support of the unity of Ukraine. In response, local militias, some with former company workers, looted their offices. In an exercise of diplomatic balance, Akhmetov decided that his Shakhtar should continue playing and took the club to Kyiv, where he has been in exile for 8 years. He rented a sports city which he eventually bought, modernized and played as a venue in stadiums in Lviv or Kharkiv. The team that did not want to wear orange in 2004 had now become a great supporter of Ukrainian unity, putting messages on the networks and with a group of ultras who always carried Ukrainian nationalist flags.
Economic analyst Taras Berezovets told the magazine Forbes these days as “on February 23 the great tycoons met with President Zelensky and promised to support him. In those days Akhmetov went to the city of Mariupol, one of Russia’s military targets now, to promise his workers who would continue to be paid. ” That day, Akhmetov shouted that “we believe in a strong, peaceful, independent and united Ukraine within internationally recognized borders.” In addition, he gave the state a large sum of money to support an economic crisis that was already suffering. After seeing how much of his business, as well as his magnificent football stadium, became lost property, unused, because of the war that began in 2014, Akhmetov sees how he can now continue to lose property, already that many of its energy companies are based in Mariupol, a Russian military target.
Akhmetov, a pro-Russian businessman who met with Putin 10 years ago, is now working with the pro-NATO government and the European Union. He has changed sides. In the Kyiv government, which initially did not like this man who had supported Yanukovych, they were also interested in being close to Akhmetov’s companies, especially those in the energy sector. During these years, the government could have a very visual image to remind the world that they claim that the Donbass belongs to them: one of the symbols of the region, Shakhtar, continues to play the Ukrainian league despite Kyiv losing control of it. region years ago. Akhmetov, who had offered to negotiate between Russia and Ukraine, ended up fleeing the country, like all oligarchs, and hid in London, where he invested much of his money. And now he waits from a distance, waiting for what will happen. Far away, in Donetsk, one of the most modern stadiums in Europe is still falling apart. A ghost stadium, without goals. No football matches that for years have been another propaganda weapon in Ukraine.
