The war against the oligarchs. How the rich and powerful are losing their superpowers

For decades, the political influence of oligarchs was based not only on their wealth. They also controlled the country’s key TV channels and individual politicians or even entire political forces, through which they “pulled through” the necessary political decisions in parliament.

These superpowers have been completely or partially levelled by war and martial law.

“There is currently no influence on public political processes (by the oligarchs – Ed.) because there are no political processes since there can be no elections during martial law,” adds Dmytro Goriunov, senior economist at the Centre for Economic Strategy (CES).

Dmytro Goriunov suggests that big business may try to regain influence but doubts that it will be possible to return everything to the pre-war level.

“Due to the loss of assets, there will be less incentive to influence public policy,” he says. “The law on oligarchs will still be in effect – someone will proactively withdraw from politics and media, somebody will be listed and thus have problems working with external contractors.

Comment for BBC Ukraine.