For Rinat Akhmetov, the coal and steel baron who is believed to be Ukraine's richest man, the declining prospects that his long-time ally Viktor Yanukovich will become president have been hard to accept.
Dressed casually in cream-coloured jeans and a wool sweater, Mr Akhmetov spoke to the FT on Sunday in the piano bar of his new Donetsk luxury hotel, the Donbass Palace, as thousands of black-jacketed, working-class Yanukovich supporters rallied in a nearby square. Speakers at the rally threatened to secede, along with other eastern and southern regions, unless Mr Yanukovich was instated as president - a tall order given the hundreds of thousands rallying in the capital Kiev calling for the presidency to be handed to his challenger, Viktor Yushchenko.
“I'm against these calls for separatism,” Mr Akhmetov said. “But Yushchenko should realise that his actions are pushing eastern and southern Ukraine that way.”
A day earlier, more than 50 of Mr Yanukovich's supporters in parliament bowed to popular pressure and voted with pro-Yushchenko factions to urge a a re-run of the presidential elections.
Mr Yanukovich's decision to hold the congress of local councillors from eastern and southern regions to discuss regional autonomy has further reduced his support. His campaign chief, Sergey Tyhypko, resigned yesterday, saying he did not accept the congress's recommendations.
Nonetheless, Mr Akhmetov held out hope that the Supreme Court, which this week began hearing Mr Yushchenko's challenge to the election result, would uphold the Election Commission's view and declare Mr Yanukovich the winner.
“I think Yanukovich has better chances to become a legitimate president than Yushchenko,” Mr Akhmetov said.
Mr Akhmetov's decision to support Mr Yanukovich was a high-stakes gamble.
Since the mid-1990s, Mr Akhmetov has built Ukraine's largest financial-industrial group, embracing steel, pipe, machinery and coking plants. He also owns the steel plant in Yenakievo, near Donetsk, where Mr Yanukovich, a former governor of the region, held his first job.
Mr Akhmetov pointed out that he bought most of his companies on the secondary market, paying “ten times more” than privatisation prices.
During the past year, however, Mr Akhmetov has won several privatisation tenders. This summer the Industrial-Metallurgical Union, of which he owns just under half, paid $800m (€602m, £422m) for Ukraine's largest steel mill, Kryvorizhstal, after bids of up to $1.5bn were excluded. Mr Yushchenko has criticised the Kryvorizhstal sale and promised to review it.
Mr Akhmetov's media present almost solely pro Yanukovich views. Mr Akhmetov said: “These are the views of the editors, the journalists and the people of Donetsk. My policy is not to interfere with my managers' decisions.”
He said he applied the same hands-off principle to politics.
