Ex-mediamagnat appointed Head of President Office

UKRAINE - In Brief 10 Jun 2014 by Dmytro Boyarchuk

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Boris Lozhkin, ex-owner of UMH media group, was appointed Head of President Office today. In fact impression about this first personnel decision of Poroshenko is quite mixed. Boris Lozhkin is a successful businessman who made his fortune by creating best journals and magazines at the country. And he is widely respected by journalists. At the same time he became a multi-millionaire by selling his media group to Sergey Kurchenko, a person who was supervising Yanukovytch family businesses and currently is under prosecution. Actually, many are saying that it was nothing wrong – just business; however, still there are many who point to that fact that Boris Lozhkin by dealing with ‘family’ showed that money for him is much more important than reputation. In any case, we know Boris Lozhkin as an excellent communicator and brilliant businessmen. But we have no idea what he might be as the Head of President Office. Most likely, Poroshenko decided to leverage Lozhkin’s communication skills and good relations with Russian businesses. But we can hardly predict his performance and priorities on his new post – similar to our new president we should watch actions rather than listen to brilliant speeches and appealing promises.