Jeff Powell and the Mayor of Kiev
( ) WHO ALSO HAPPENS TO BE THE GREAT VITALI KLITSCHKO
THE other night, in one of the smart new restaurants burgeoning in the ancient capital of Ukraine, the mayor who is dragging this city into the 21st century was accosted by a burly fellow countryman.
Given the identity of his target, the would-be assailant had to be inebriated.
Vitali Klitschko, former heavyweight champion of the world turned politician, towers 6ft 7in and still scales close to his fighting weight of 17st 6lb.
He smiles and says: ‘This drunk thinks he wants to fight me. He tells me he knows I have great boxing skills but says that he is the stronger, so let’s go outside.
‘I tell him sorry but I am a professional and, as a professional, I only do this for money and I am very expensive. I tell him go away and find two or three million, then yes, we can do it.’
The intruder departs, saying he is rich. He does not come back. wise fellow. It is doubtful he has ever read shakespeare but it must have dawned on him that discretion is the better part of valour.
would the gentleman who used to be known as Dr Iron Fist really have taught this bar- room brawler a painful lesson?
Mayor Klitschko grins ruefully and says: ‘Always I have the instinct to defend poor girls from hooligans in the street, but in my position I cannot do it.’
This saturday night he will watch his younger brother throw the punches. Vitali will be one of 90,000 spectators in wembley stadium as 41-year-old wladimir confronts Anthony Joshua, Britain’s young Adonis, in a bid to restore to the family Klitschko the treasure of three heavyweight belts he lost to Tyson Fury almost 18 months ago.
Vitali prepares for his visit to London saying: ‘I never miss one of wladimir’s fights. As brothers we are always doubly strong together. And our country needs his victory in this fight.’
will we detect a tinge of envy as Vitali takes his place in his sibling’s corner?
‘I spent almost 20 years in boxing,’ says this engaging giant who held the wBC heavyweight title for six years prior to retirement in 2013. ‘Boxing stays forever in my heart and my life. But I am always training because I am still fighting, in a different way.
‘As a boxer I fought once maybe every three months. Now I fight every moment of every day.
‘In the ring you have one opponent. In politics you have many opponents at the same time, some stabbing you in the back. My job now brings much more stress. The best way to deal with that is to keep training as if I am still boxing.’
He is in the gym at 6am every day. Then at his desk by 7.30, still looking every muscular inch one of the most intimidating prizefighters of all time as be begins his 14-hour working day.
To know this man is to understand why German Chancellor Angela Merkel supported Klitschko ‘to help set him up as the new strong man in Kiev to counter the Kremlin’s growing influence in Ukraine’.
Although wladimir faces a formidable foe in Joshua, this is the kind of challenge he has grown familiar with through 68 professional fights which included a decade as world champion.
Vitali, however, finds a subtle but dismissive way of referring to an infinitely more troubling opponent.
of Russian President Vladimir Putin, he says: ‘I understand that somebody on our borders wants to rebuild a big empire. we do not relish this idea. we do not want to be taken back into the soviet Union. My Ukraine sees its future as part of the European family.
‘This is the biggest challenge of my life, far greater than I faced in boxing.’
As he speaks, Crimea is back under the Kremlin’s control for the first time since the fall of the Berlin wall, while Russian-backed rebels are waging war in Eastern Ukraine.
Klitschko says: ‘ we have 70 nationalities in Ukraine and never had any problems before. Then they talk about radicals who hate Russia. It’s not true. Look at me. I have Russian blood, too. My mother is Russian. How can I hate Russians?
‘ we have a saying in this country: Lies have short legs. This is all a political game which is aggression against Ukraine.’
Klitschko gives thanks to his ring career for steeling him to play this far more dangerous game. ‘sometimes, exactly as in boxing, you feel you do not have the power,’ he says. ‘ But you know you have to find the energy to meet the task.
‘Also, as with boxing, politics demands patience, strength of character and the courage to make difficult decisions. But so far in this job I have not had to use my skills with my fists. I hope I never will.’ so, no doubt, do his opponents. what he does use is his fame as a world champion: ‘I am grateful for my sports career because Vitali Klitschko can turn his celebrity to the advantage of his city and his country. People know me and that opens doors to many contacts.’
one will swing open later this
‘Wladimir has to win this for our country’
‘I’m expecting Joshua to be knocked out’
week. A meeting with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, with whom he forged a working relationship when Johnson was Mayor of London.
‘I will talk with my old friend Boris about the support we need. Because that help from our friends is crucial for Ukraine.
‘While we are deeply thankful for what has been done, we must ask for more from the West.’ Klitschko also confesses his disappointment with Brexit: ‘I know I do not speak as a citizen of Great Britain but I have to be honest, I was upset by this decision.
‘Maybe this will be better for your country in the short term. But as a long-term strategy it is a mistake in my opinion. A mistake for the future in economy, solidarity and our security.
‘The European Union is much stronger together than any single country standing alone.’
Klitschko believes the word is mightier than the sword: ‘We don’t want to go back to the Cold War. It is extremely painful to see the plight of children in Syria but what is happening there and in North Korea sends bad signals.
‘The world is getting crazier every year and we never want nuclear war. The best way to find solutions is around the tabletable. To talk.’
Klitschko traded boxing for freedom fighting four years ago. He has won two mayoral elections, the second with an increased, 66.5 per cent share of the vote.
To gain the confidence of an electorate which was initially sceptical of his sporting background, he set about tackling corruption, modernising Kiev and improving the lives of its citizens.
‘The best answer we can give to our friends, as well as our enemies, is our success,’ he says.
‘We are doing it step by step and we have made huge progress. Last year we reported economic growth in Kiev of 1.5 per cent but achieved a 30 per cent increase in our budget. How can such a miracle be possible? Because less and less cash is disappearing into the black economy. We bought big money back to the city.’
He is busy strengthening law enforcement, a process which he outlines with an amusing personal story: ‘One day my wife remarked that I am a totally different driver when we are in Germany. I never go too fast there because I know that if I break the rules I must take the penalty. No excuses.
‘Sometimes in Ukraine I drive over the limit. I’m not saying I go racing through the streets of Kiev but sometimes it happens. We all need to know that if you break the law you will be punished. The more everyone accepts that, the easier to change the mentality of corruption.’
Might his growing popularity revive a bid for the presidency of Ukraine? ‘Listen,’ he says. ‘I don’t need that job. To be honest, this job I do now is hell!’
Russia characterises Klitschko’s modernisation of a once decaying city as ‘an attempt to move Kiev into western Europe’. He denies that. ‘We cannot move Kiev,’ he says. ‘Geographically we hold an important, central location between east and west, from which we can also communicate with the north and south of Europe.’
The dear old Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Kiev next month. The huge entry of nations does not include Russia. Klitschko says: ‘Russia wants to destabilise Ukraine. We want to impact the life of every citizen of Ukraine for the better. That is my mission.
‘I hope I can achieve that goal in time to then drift around the world sky- diving, mountain biking, kite- surfing, doing all the activities I love.’
At 45, Vitali will make a whistlestop trip to London to watch Wladimir, predicting that he will vanquish Joshua.
He says: ‘I care for my brother and I know him very well. He is very talented and in great shape.
He has great boxing technique, movement, speed, power.
‘But nobody is perfect. Sometimes he loses concentration and that was the reason he lost to Fury. If he focuses 100 per cent he will definitely beat Joshua.
‘It is a great contest between two Olympic gold medallists, two world heavyweight champions of the same size and condition. It is older generation versus younger generation, but I have learned that in boxing, as in politics and life, if the conditions are equal then experience is the key.’
The importance of Wembley to Ukraine cannot be exaggerated, nor the pressure on the brothers.
Mayor Klitschko adds: ‘ We are both fighting for our country. Everyone in Kiev is excited and expecting a good result.
‘ We need all the positive messages we can get and I expect the KO by Wladimir. What we both know for sure is that if you don’t fight, you can’t win.’