I've heard that the Russians are pretty much buying up as much of Crimea as they can. Akhmetov, Taruta and other oligarchs do own a lot of business interests in the East. the former is very much associated with the Party of Regions, but they play many sides.

Taruta, for example, was a key player in an award winning public private partnership with USAID in the city of Alchevsk and his Alchevsk Iron and Steel Works was awarded a loan from the EBRD for something like $190 million for upgrading the iron works for energy efficiency. On the other side, Russia's Gazmetall and Taruta's Industrial Union of Donbass (IUD) have concluded a landmark merger deal to create quite possibly the largest steel-making company in the CIS, with an annual output of around 20 million tonnes.

All's fair in business and war and everybody is in bed with each other.