Founder of DPR Borodai says that Ukrainian oligarch Akhmetov financed the separatist leader Khodakovsky in the spring of 2014
One of the founders of the DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic) and Russian FSB (Federal Security Service) member Alexander Boroday, who supervised separatists at the initial stage of the conflict inn eastern Ukraine, discussed in an interview how Akhmetov had sponsored fighters from Alexander Khodakovsky’s Vostok battalion, journalist Denys Kazansky writes.
"Khodakovsky was financed by Akhmetov. Once, he tried to bring me a suitcase with 0.5 million dollars. In front of witnesses. I returned this suitcase to Khodakovsky, and he allegedly spent it on financing the Vostok battalion. I admit I had considered him a temporary ally. I understood that Khodakovsky was playing his game with the help of Rinat Akhmetov," Borodai said.
According to him, Akhmetov needed the DPR to balance between Kyiv and Moscow, and also in order to resist Ihor Kolomoiskyi.
"He [Akhmetov] needed it [the DPR] for very simple and understandable reasons. Because he needed his own principality in order to balance between Kyiv, which then openly threatened him and was strongly influenced by his best enemy, Mr. Kolomoiskyi – he [Kolomoiskyi] was a beloved enemy, and on the other hand, with the Russian Federation," says Borodai.
Borodai added that he had managed not to let Akhmetov subordinate the Republic to himself. "In particular, this was reflected in the fact that my successor was Olexandr Zakharchenko, and not Mr. Khodakovsky. Moreover, he really relied on it."
Earlier, Alexander Khodakovsky accused Alexander Borodai of deliberately shooting KAMAZ trucks in the Donetsk airport.