© © AP Photo/ Anastasia Sirotkina, PoolOleksandr Turchynov, just another politician doing what politician's do best.
Ukrainian Security and Defense Council chief Oleksandr Turchynov used Ukraine's latest sanctions to benefit an associate of his family, Ukrainian media outlet Insider found.
Among the sanctioned Russian organizations, mostly banks and airlines, are two companies incorporated in Ukraine that are engaged in Ukraine's national lottery business. A total of three companies operate lottery businesses in Ukraine, with the two Russian-owned organizations controlling 95 percent of the market in 2013.
The publication followed a trail which links the Hungarian-registered corporation, whose records show it is headed by one Serhiy Pindych, to Turchynov's mother and wife who are listed as beneficiaries of another company owned by Pindych.
According to Insider, Ukraine's government has fought the lottery business owned by Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, allowing the Turchynov-linked businesses to own nearly half of the market.
The new sanctions provide UNL Holding with a monopoly on the lottery market as the only other company licensed to operate lotteries, Ukraine's state-owned savings bank, has not used its license to operate the lottery. Despite all four companies' lottery licenses lapsing in 2014, they continued operating in Ukraine.
Comment: The Maidan "revolution" in Ukraine was initiated ostensibly to root out the perceived corruption of the Kiev government in 2014. But as it has become ever clearer, those behind the most blatant coup in history were looking towards accruing more wealth and power for themselves, at the expense of others.