The regime in Kiev, which seized power in a February putsch and ousted the sitting President, recently held a new election which was boycotted by the breakaway regions in the east. The billionaire oligarch Petro Poroshenko, former governor of the Ukraine central bank and prime sponsor of the coup, won the election. Here is a brief profile of Mr. Poroshenko, without the usual western media filter:

"[Poroshenko] has never been an entrepreneur to start a business of his own... He made a head start thanks to the criminal connections of his father (Oleksii Poroshenko, aka Alexsei Valtsman) sentenced for large-scale theft in 1986. Having served the sentence, Poroshenko Sr. launched his own business making his son involved in the activities. The business was dirty, it all started with plundering state property by armed gangs... Tatyana Mikoyan, a well-known Kiev-based lawyer, remembers what the family did in Transnistria, "It was horrible back in the 1990s: illegal arms, prostitutes, drugs – all bringing profits to father and son". Poroshenko Sr. was awarded for his merits – in 2009 he received the Hero of Ukraine decoration bought for him by his son, who paid to former President Yushchenko, the godfather to Petro Poroshenko’s children. The would-be President-elect...has the reputation of someone who knows how to make money out of thin air."

-- Strategic Culture

"He’s no saint — none of them are,” said Svetlana Golnik, who volunteers with the Poroshenko headquarters twice a week in downtown Kiev. “But he is cleaner than most other oligarchs and he delivers on his promises. Anyway, right now he’s what we have to work with.”

-- Jewish Daily Forward

Shortly after the coup, another member of the Jewish oligarchs club, Igor Kolomoisky, was appointed governor of the Ukranian province where his metal refining operation is based.

The foundations of Kolomoisky’s business empire were laid in the wild days following the disintegration of the Soviet Union, when the soon-to-be oligarchs scrambled to snap up dilapidated state factories and entire industrial, mining and energy sectors at bargain-basement prices... His opponents have accused him of using violence, intimidation and coercion, similar methods to those he has been accused previously of using in some of his business dealings."

-- Haaretz article, "Is This Man the Most Powerful Jew in the World?"

Here is an equally disturbing profile of Mr. Kolomoisky, his private army, and their role in the recent massacre of anti-fascist protestors in Odessa:

"[Igor Kolomoisky], an Israeli-Ukrainian oligarch living in Switzerland... is regarded as the main leader of the Ukrainian mafia [and] ranks as the second or third wealthiest man in the country... [He] chairs the United Jewish Community of Ukraine and founded the European Jewish Union... [He] was appointed governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast by the junta authorities in Kiev [and] played an active role in the organization of the Odessa massacre of 2 May 2014 together with his private army, the "Dnieper-1" Battalion..."

-- Voltaire Net

"Kolomoisky temporarily delivered his private “Dnieper-1” Battalion under the command of law-enforcement officials in Odessa and also authorized a cash payment of $5,000 for “each pro-Russian separatist” killed during the special operation... Roadblocks were set up outside of Odessa, secured by militants under the personal command of Kolomoisky’s “Dnieper-1” Battalion, as well as Right Sector’s thugs from Dnepropetrovsk and the western regions of Ukraine... [The] train from Kharkov arrived in Odessa on May 2 at 8.00 am carrying fans of the Metallist soccer club, including some “ultras” who were taking part in the operation. In addition, militants from the “Dnieper-1” Battalion and Right Sector simultaneously entered the city in small groups...

While the confrontations were underway on Greek Square, a group of Right Sector thugs were readying the main part of the operation, code-named “Ha’ola” – from the phrase “Mizbeach Ha’ola”, which in Hebrew means “the altar of burnt offering”. They slipped into the House of Trade Unions through the back entrance and fortified their positions in the basement and the attic... Led by the provocateurs, many activists entered the House of Trade Unions instead of scattering throughout the city... a massacre with a large number of fatalities was needed in order to terrorize the entire country."

-- Oriental Review

Mr. Kolomoisky, founder of the European Jewish Parliament who refers to Ukraine as the "second homeland of the Jews", recently rewarded his "liberal" supporters in America, including Vice President Joe Biden who was in Ukraine to meet with the coup leaders shortly before the Odessa massacre took place:

"Burisma Holdings, Ukraine’s largest private gas producer [owned by Igor Kolomoisky], has expanded its Board of Directors by bringing on Mr. R Hunter Biden [son of V.P. Joe Biden] as a new director... The other new board member, Devon Archer, works with Hunter Biden at Rosemont Seneca partners, which is half owned by Rosemont Capital, a private equity firm founded by Archer and Christopher Heinz... John Kerry’s stepson."

-- Naked Capitalism

For background, Odessa was an early center of the Zionist movement and the hometown of revolutionary leader Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky. During World War II, the strategic port was captured by the Nazis.

"From the 1880s until the 1920s the Jewish community of Odessa was the second largest in the whole of Russia... [By] the 1840s most of the bankers and moneychangers were Jews, and at the beginning of the 20th century, 70% of the banks of Odessa were administered by them... From the inception of the Hibbat Zion movement, Odessa served as its chief center... The Benei Moshe society (1889), which attempted to organize the intellectuals and activists of the movement, was established in Odessa... Jewish emigration from Russia to Eretz Israel (Palestine) also passed through Odessa, which became the "Gateway to Zion"...

-- Jewish Virtual Library, "Odessa"

"Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky was a Zionist activist, orator, and writer who founded the Betar Movement... Jabotinsky was born as Vladimir into a middle-class Jewish family in the Russian city of Odessa (1880). At the age of 18, he left Odessa to study law in Italy and Switzerland, where he also served as a foreign correspondent for several well­ known Russian newspapers... [He] returned to Odessa in 1901 where he worked on the editorial staff of Odesskiya Novosti, but the pogrom against the Jews of Kishinev in 1903 spurred Jabotinsky to undertake Zionist activity."

-- Jewish Virtual Library, "Ze'ev Jabotinsky"

UPDATE: See this article by Wayne Madsen on Kolomoisky's efforts to re-establish the "Jewish homeland" in Ukraine:

"One of the main reasons why Ukrainian Jewish billionaire tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky -- the governor of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk province and citizen of Ukraine, Israel, and Cyprus -- is spending tens of millions of dollars on the recruitment of right-wing Ukrainian nationalists and neo-Nazis from other parts of Europe to fight against the Russian-speaking majority in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, is a fear that plans to turn Ukraine into a 'second Israel' will be derailed."

-- Wayne Madsen, "Israel's Secret Plan for a 'Second Israel' in Ukraine", Dec 2014