A powerful oligarch hands over his media empire to the Ukrainian state | War in Ukraine

Rinat Akhmetov, photographed during a training session for his Ukrainian soccer club, February 12, 2013.

L& #x27;Ukraine's richest man Rinat Akhmetov announced on Monday that he was handing over his entire media empire to the state, as part of a law aimed at undo the “excessive influence of the oligarchs” on the economy.

This week, Media Group Ukraine will hand over to the state all Ukrainian licenses of our television channels and print media. We will also cease the activities of our online media, he announced in a press release published on the website of his holding company SCM.

The 55-year-old businessman clarified that this decision was dictated by the entry into force of a law aimed at preventing national security risks linked to the influence excessive oligarchs, adopted in September 2021.

In his statement, he regretted that the six-month deadline provided by law for the sale of media assets, associated with Russian military aggression against Ukraine, makes it impossible for SCM to sell its media business on market terms.

Media Group Ukraine is made up of ten television channels including several news channels, a video-on-demand platform and an information website.

< p class="e-p">Mykhaïlo Podoliak, an adviser to Volodymyr Zelensky, welcomed this decision on Twitter, saying that the law of "desoligarchization" is the start of a new page in state-business relations.

It comes as the leaders of the Twenty-Seven granted Ukraine the status of candidate for the European Union on June 23, accompanied by a long roadmap.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called in particular for the law aimed at undoing the excessive influence of the oligarchs on the economy to be implemented in a legally sound manner.

With a fortune estimated by Forbes at 4.2 billion dollars, Rinat Akhmetov is the president of the football club Shakhtar Donetsk. SCM Holdings is mainly active in the steel industry, energy, but also the coal industry and metallurgy.

Originally from the east of the country and long labeled pro-Russian, he denounced the invasion of Ukraine by troops from Moscow and his fortunes have dropped significantly in recent months, including the destruction or occupation of several of his factories in the east of the country, such as that of Azovstal in Mariupol.

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