Ukrainian fugitive oligarch Kurchenko denies knowing Saakashvili
The fugitive Ukrainian businessman, Serhiy Kurchenko,said that he “does not know and does not want to know” the ex-governor of the Odessa region, Mikheil Saakashvili, and filed a lawsuit against the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko for spreading slander, reported Komsomolskaya Pravda in Ukraine, citing as a source Kurchenko’s press service.
“On December 5, in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Prosecutor General Yury Lutsenko irresponsibly stated that Serhiy Kurchenko financed the protests of Mikheil Saakashvili, which were aimed at overthrowing the existing government,” explained the businessman’s press service.
But we are very familiar with [the president of Ukraine Peter] Poroshenko,” Kurchenko’s press service quoted him as saying. According to the businessman, they purchased from Poroshenko a media holding worth $4 billion (this was in regard to selling 98% of UMH Group. The deal was agreed upon in 2013. The group belongs, in particular, to Komsomolskaya Pravda in Ukraine). According to Kurchenko, after the sale, the president of Ukraine “did not pay any taxes to the budget.” “Poroshenko is a liar and a coward, and that’s why he tries everywhere to sic his puppy, Lutsenko, on people,” said Kurchenko.
The head of the political party Petro Poroshenko Bloc “Solidarity” in the Verkhovna Rada, Arthur Gerasimov, said on December 5 that he has information regarding the financing of the activities of Saakashvili. According to him, representatives of the former president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych – and in particular, Serhiy Kurchenko – are engaged in this. After that, Prosecutor General Lutsenko also accused the oligarch of financing the activities of the ex-governor. Saakashvili said that the information about the receipt of money from Kurchenko is “fake” and “an insolent lie.”