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Joe Biden demanded Porosheno sack Kolomoisky


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By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

A telephone call from US vice president Joe Biden may have led to Ukrainian president Piotr Poroshenko sacking Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, according to Russian language press reports.

In a news report posted on regnum.ru, member of the Verkhovna Rada Sergei Leshchenko wrote in his blog Sunday that Biden telephoned Ukrainian prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk sometime before March 25th and suggested that Poroshenko receive help to "tame" Kolomoisky.

According to data supplied by regnum.ru, Leshchenko wrote: "Biden called Yatsenyuk and his political force [presumably Blok Poroshenko political party] to demonstrate the unity with President Poroshenko in questions of curbs on Kolomoiskiy."

Following the call, Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov took a hard line with respect to Kolomoisky, which eventually led to Poroshenko demanding Kolomoisky resign his post as governor of Dnepropetrovsk March 25th.

Much of the saga leading up to Kolomoisky's resignation involved Kolomoisky's involvement with privately funded military battalions fighting against Russian backed rebels in Lugansk and Donetsk.

According to Russian language news reports, March 25th was around the date a three truck convoy carrying illegal alcohol and tobacco bound for rebel held parts of Donetsk was intercepted. That incident, said to involve the Kolomoisky funded Dnepr-1 Regiment, led to the death of a Ukrainian Security Service officer, Victor Manzika, in a shootout near Volnovakha in a Ukrainian held part of Donetsk.

A subsequent interior ministry raid eventually rounded up a total of 30 suspects and the discovery of more than 100 weapons from armories operated by Dnepr-1 members.

Kolomoisky's resignation ties in to some degree with the current February 12th Ceasefire, colloquially known as Minsk II, because of the requirement that all illegal military formations to disarmed and disbanded. Originally, that requirement was intended for the rebels, but apparently it became a requirement for private formations such as Depr-1, as well as others.

Since last year the private battallions funded by Kolomoisky also received some official funds, but they were never fully integrated into the Ukrainian military command structure.

According to other news accounts, private battalions such as the Azov Battalion now operating in Mariupol in southern Donetsk on the coast of the Sea of Azov were told to begin integrating with the Ukrainian military or leave the defense zone.

The demand hasn't set well with those units who have claimed publicly that Ukrainian military communications have been hopelessly compromised.

Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com. You can read past articles about the 2014 war in southeastern Ukraina by clicking here.
Posted by: badanov 2015-03-29
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=413945