Zelensky’s biggest critics will point out that one of his top backers, billionaire Igor Kolomoisky, under U.S. sanctions, has enjoyed support from Parliament to avoid higher taxes on his mining operations.
The State Department has alleged that Kolomoisky, long believed to be a key supporter to Zelensky’s campaign in 2019, laundered money from a Ukrainian bank into dollar accounts here and elsewhere, The Washington Post reported in March.
Zelensky’s relationship with Kolomoisky media company 1+1 was the subject of the Panama Papers investigations of the offshore accounts of the rich and powerful.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/ ... 24dd967d68
The US State Department announced the public designation of Kolomoisky due to his involvement in “significant corruption” in his official capacity as governor of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk Oblast from 2014 to 2015. A statement accompanying the news claimed the designation “reaffirms the US commitment to supporting political, economic, and justice sector reforms that are key to Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic path. The United States continues to stand with all Ukrainians whose work drives reforms forward. The Department will continue to use authorities like this to promote accountability for corrupt actors in this region and globally.”
While the State Department decision does not involve any financial sanctions, it does mean Kolomoisky and his immediate family members are now unable to enter the United States.
The Office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared to welcome the news, releasing a statement declaring “Ukraine must overcome a system dominated by oligarchs” and acknowledging that “Ukraine is grateful to each partner for its support along the way.”
Many observers interpreted the sanctions measures as a signal from the US that it now expects Zelenskyy to take his own steps against Kolomoisky. Zelenskyy won election in 2019 as an anti-establishment candidate promising to end decades of oligarch dominance, but he has so far struggled to deliver on his campaign promises of a new era. Instead, he has faced lingering accusations of being too close to Kolomoisky, whose media empire helped establish Zelenskyy as one of Ukraine’s most popular celebrities. Meanwhile, since 2019, Kolomoisky has become increasingly closely associated with efforts to derail crucial anti-corruption reforms and undermine Ukraine’s ties with the country’s Western partners.
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/u ... olomoisky/
As of 2019, Kolomoyskyi owned 70% of the 1+1 Media Group whose TV channel 1+1 aired "Servant of the People", the comedy series in which Volodymyr Zelenskyy played the role of president of Ukraine. On 31 March 2019 Zelenskyy won the most votes in the first round of Ukraine's real presidential elections,[98] resulting in Yulia Tymoshenko being eliminated from the next round.[99]
Zelenskyy was viewed by some as Kolomoyskyi's candidate. Zelenskyy appointed Kolomoyskyi's personal lawyer as a key campaign advisor, travelled to Geneva and Tel Aviv to confer with the then-exiled Kolomoyskyi on multiple occasions, and benefited from the endorsement of Kolomoyskyi's media empire. Once in office, Zelenskyy appeared to remove officials deemed a threat to Kolomoyskyi's interests, among them the Prosecutor General, Ruslan Ryaboshapka and the Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), Yakiv Smolii, and Zelenskyy's first prime minister, Oleksiy Honcharuk, who tried to loosen Kolomoyskyi's control of a state-owned electricity company.[100][101]
Following his backlisting by the United States in April 2021, Kolomoyskyi appears to have lost influence with Zelenskyy.[102][103] Kolomoyskyi had began to call for a new partnership between Ukraine and Russia; proposing that when it happens, "NATO will be soiling its pants and buying Pampers."[103] The President, meanwhile, was striking "a more assertive tone", pushing for membership of the European Union and the NATO alliance".[104] In response to the announced of US sanctions against Kolomoyskyi, the Office of Ukrainian President released a statement declaring “Ukraine must overcome a system dominated by oligarchs” and acknowledging that “Ukraine is grateful to each partner for its support along the way”.[105]
A week before the invasion, Kolomoysky reported that he no longer communicated with Zelenskyy[106] (in November 2021, Zelenskyy assured reporters that it had been two years since they had had talks). Kolomoyskyi explained that Zelenskyy "has chosen his path, he is the president of the country, he has his own vision, program, plans" and as he, as a businessman, no longer wants anything from the state, they have nothing to talk about.[106]
Kolomoyskyi had the reputation for being able to dictate the votes of deputies within Zelenskyy's parliamentary faction by phone, but appeared suddenly to have "disappeared", staying deliberately away from politics--no longer the oligarch. Despite this, Zelenskyy's Justice Minister Denis Malyuska suggested that Kolomoyskyi's was an "obvious" name to be entered on the register of a new anti-oligarchic law that was to come into effect in May 2022.[102] Investigative journalists, nonetheless believed that channels of communication between Kolomoyskyi and the president remained open.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ihor_Kolomoyskyi
It would make a good Hollywood script.
Joe Hillshoist » Sat Mar 19, 2022 3:00 am wrote:Volodymyr Zelensky was groomed by covert CIA operatives in Ukraine since his student life while he was studying law at the Kryvyi Rih National University.
Instead of pursuing a legal career, he chose acting as a profession at the behest of his influential patrons to gain nationwide publicity, particularly through comedy television series “Servant of the People” in which Zelensky “prophetically played” the role of the Ukrainian president.
In fact, his production company Kvartal 95, which produces films, cartoons and television shows, was generously funded by deep pockets of Western security agencies. Comically exposing corruption and sleazy dealings of Ukraine’s politician and oligarch, the series “Servant of the People” aired from 2015 to 2019 and struck a chord with Ukrainian masses.
Western security agencies not only lavishly funded his obscure media organization but also introduced him to a clandestine cabal of illustrious Hollywood producers and directors adept in psychological warfare and public relationing. The media success of “Servant of the People” is attributed as much to the efforts of the employees of Kvartal 95 as to the skill of international media organizations specializing in global opinion-making.
Any actual evidence for this?
Any names, dates, places .... anything other than the author's assertion its true?