Ukraine’s Hopes Riding on a Chocolatier
Baku, March 31 (AZERTAC). After a leading contender dropped out of Ukraine’s presidential race on Saturday, the hopes of many Ukrainians and their Western supporters are now riding on a man known as the Willy Wonka of Ukraine, the billionaire owner of a chocolate candy company.
Petro Olekseyevich Poroshenko, 48, was the highest-profile Ukrainian industrialist to support the street protests that ousted President Viktor F. Yanukovych last month, and has for several weeks led in polls for the May 25 presidential election.
Known as a centrist who had previously worked for both pro-Western and pro-Russian governments, he became a strong advocate of integration with Europe after Russia banned imports of his chocolate.
On Saturday, the candidate who had been running second in polls, the former heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, withdrew from the race, throwing his support behind Mr. Poroshenko and solidifying his lead.
The shuffle leaves Yulia V. Tymoshenko, a former prime minister and prisoner under the ousted government, as the remaining credible competitor to Mr. Poroshenko. She had been in third place according to a survey by four Ukrainian polling agencies last week.
The former pro-government party, whose association with Mr. Yanukovych makes it a long shot, nominated Mikhail Dobkin, an oligarch with close ties to the former president, on Saturday.
Mr. Poroshenko, also known as “the chocolate king” for his ownership of Roshen, the Ukrainian chocolate manufacturer, won notice during the antigovernment protests last month for climbing onto a backhoe to prevent an angry demonstrator from driving it into police lines.
Until then, the man with the beefy face and mop of salt and pepper hair was hardly known for drama.
In a country where politicians tend to be flamboyant and boisterous, Mr. Poroshenko carefully weighs his words and speaks in measured, sometimes monotonous technicalities.
In fact, political analysts say, his staid manner may be part of his appeal in a country leery of further dramatic change.
Mr. Poroshenko might have remained merely a chocolatier with a modest political career if not for Russian actions that started last summer as part of an effort to apply economic pressure on pro-European businessmen to discourage the country from signing a trade deal with the European Union.
Russia banned his chocolate, ostensibly on the grounds that it posed health risks beyond the usual ones associated with candy, costing him millions in lost sales. Mr. Poroshenko reacted angrily. Rather than buckle, he financially supported the pro-European Union opposition, and won wide support for it.
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