Petro Poroshenko, known locally as the ‘chocolate king’ (due to his extensive holdings which include the Roshen chocolate brand), has been in almost every major party in Ukrainian politics. He is currently the sixth-wealthiest person in the country, with much of his moolah in offshore accounts. In a land renowned for endemic corruption, Poroshenko has kept his head above water by being ‘corrupt but not too corrupt’. He presides over Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian Parliament), where it was estimated by anti-corruption campaigner Svitlana Zalishchuk that only 10 per cent of the elected members can’t be bought.
Whatever his own blemishes, Poroshenko’s big career move has worked brilliantly. At the key moment he was able to get behind the anti-oligarchic Euromaidan movement with both funds and rhetoric, and position himself to win the 2014 presidential elections under the banner of democracy and honesty. His predecessor, the corrupt Viktor Yanukovych (a former comrade from the Party of the Regions) scampered across the border to gain the protection of his patron Vladimir Putin.
