Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko Is No Longer A Billionaire

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko addresses The Future of Ukraine event in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos January 21, 2015. Credit: REUTERS/Ruben Sprich

Tatiana Serafin, Forbes: Cost of War on Ukraine's Billionaires and the Country



The last time Ukraine experienced hyperinflation was in the early 1990s when the re-issued country was figuring out what a market economy was after decades of communist suppression. Then intrepid entrepreneurs grabbed assets on the cheap and built billion dollar fortunes.


Two decades later, hyperinflation is back (the hryvnia has fallen 70 percent since the beginning of 2014) and these same entrepreneurs are suffering the reverse, losing hundreds of millions of dollars as the currency devalues. The paper losses are nothing compared to damage and loss of life in the East where Russia has annexed Crimea and nationalized assets, and Russian-back rebels have decimated whole towns.



WNU Editor: I am not going to shed a tear for any of these guys.