Media: The Kyiv Post Has Closed

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Kyiv Post’s closure leaves a vacuum of accountability in Ukraine

KYIV POST

Regular readers of this newsletter will know I often talk about Ukraine. Partly, this is because it’s such a great country, but also it’s because it was working in Kyiv that helped me understand how corruption works, and what kleptocracy is (this is why Ukrainians feature so much in my book, “Moneyland”). 

I speak Russian, too, so, when working in Kyiv, I have always been able to take advantage of its remarkable bilingualism, which means people happily flip over and chat in Russian when I explain I can’t speak Ukrainian. That means I can understand what’s going on in a way I can’t in most countries. However, for obvious reasons, official documents and many media outlets are in Ukrainian, and there’s only so much Google translate can do.

That’s why many journalists, diplomats, aid workers, businesspeople and others loved the Kyiv Post. Not many of us spoke enough Ukrainian to read local media, but, fortunately, there was a reliable, independent and gutsy local newspaper to help us understand what was happening in the country. This is what I wrote about it back in 2014. Sadly, that story is no longer true, and the Kyiv Post is no more.

• “We’ve gone after presidents, prime ministers, general prosecutors, CEOs, oligarchs. We gave them tough coverage — we believe fair, but they often didn’t — and they would complain. But in Ukraine, because there’s such a custom that owners control, or should control everything their journalists do, they often go to the owner,” Editor Brian Bonner told the Columbia Journalism Review. “I think he got tired of it.”

The Syrian-born businessman Adnan Kivan closed the paper two weeks ago, after a dispute with journalists over the launch of a Ukrainian-language version, with a totally different editorial set-up. He has promised that the Kyiv Post will be back, but its journalists say they have all been fired, and are furious....

....MUCH MORE, including Dubai, private jets, shell companies, the usual oligarch stuff.