Warnings in the Ukraine story for countries captured by oligarchs

While the oligarchs have played fast and loose, Ukraine remains by far the poorest of the ex-Soviet economies of Europe, writes T N Ninan

“Follow the money,” Deep Throat famously advised two reporters on the Watergate story. As it happens, that is one way to understand Ukraine’s politics, and the twists and turns in its history since the break-up of the Soviet Union. Because if any country has been run by its oligarchs (businessmen who also straddle politics and policy), it is this schizophrenic one that is mostly ethnic Ukrainian but also part Russian (among other identities), and caught in a perennial tug of war between East and West.

The story should perhaps begin with a meeting in 2006 that Ukraine’s then president, Viktor