Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky just sicced his secret police (Ukraine’s SBU) on Igor Kolomoisky, a billionaire oligarch who was once wholly responsible for financing the Ukrainian president’s rise to power. The significance of the story — regarding Zelensky turning on his longtime patron and Kolomoisky’s other significant ties — was entirely buried by foreign and state media, with most merely referring to the situation as another in a series of “anti-corruption” actions.
The case concerns the alleged embezzlement of oil products worth UAH 40 billion ($1.09 billion) and customs duty evasion “of astronomical amounts.”https://t.co/MUXBUNjPuB
— The New Voice of Ukraine (@NewVoiceUkraine) February 1, 2023
Sbu and State Investigation Bureau are searching oligarch Kolomoisky’s mansion in the Ukrnafta and Ukrtatnafta embezzlement case. What an interior. pic.twitter.com/OT0gdqAWT5
— Nika Melkozerova (@NikaMelkozerova) February 1, 2023
A quick rundown on why Mr. Kolomoisky is significant:
He owned Burisma when it employed Hunter Biden.
He financed Zelensky’s entire television, business, and political career, including his rise to the presidency.
He once funded Ukrainian militias, but later argued that Kiev should engage in a detente with Russia. This part is critical, as Kolomoisky’s good standing with the West shifted dramatically after this decision.
Since then, he became the subject of an FBI probe and US sanctions.
He has since had his assets seized and nationalized by the Ukrainian government, and he has been stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship, despite being born in Ukraine and living his entire life in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s secret police is seizing not only Kolomoisky’s assets, but the property of several high-profile figures as part of Zelensky’s highly-publicized anti-corruption tour, through which the Ukrainian president has received endless praise in the western media. All of these raids and seizures are happening entirely outside of the bounds of any semblance of the rule of law. They are simply being ordered by Zelensky’s office, and justified under martial law rules.
The truth is that these are anything but anti-corruption raids.
Zelensky is running a blitzkrieg operation that is dissolving and disbanding all checks on the president’s authority, concentrating power into the hands of an increasingly authoritarian regime in Kiev, which has now embraced ethnic cleansing and punishes thought crimes.
A couple weeks ago, Zelensky’s three highest ranking Interior Ministry officials were killed in a “helicopter crash” over Kiev, which is hundreds of miles removed from the current battlefield.
Latest on deadly helicopter crash in Ukraine:
-18 dead, including interior minister, senior officials and 3 children
-cause unknown
-chopper was AS332 Super Puma given by FrancePresident Zelensky: “The pain is unspeakable… true patriots of Ukraine.”https://t.co/oLJJrvk1ZI pic.twitter.com/KzTNPt5MmH
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) January 18, 2023
Countless regional governors and deputy ministers have been stripped of authority, again, without any due process. Zelensky’s deputy minister of defense, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, and the deputy prosecutor general are but many of the high-ranking individuals who were recently removed due to “corruption” allegations.
Top Zelensky aide, 9 others resign as Ukraine cracks down on corruption https://t.co/mVIYlBooLn pic.twitter.com/xMHbLeakdL
— New York Post (@nypost) January 24, 2023
This is not so much an anti-corruption maneuver as it is a Stalinesque Great Purge, the difference being that the USSR-born Zelensky seems not to be the top dog in his own country.
It could not get more obvious than this.
Shame on every US leader lying to the American people about Ukraine & sending billions of hard-earned tax dollars over there while those who did the work go without.
Zelensky announces alliance with BlackRock https://t.co/VOMihRPUSr
— Lara Logan (@laralogan) December 30, 2022
The Kolomoisky raid highlights a Ukraine whose sovereignty has been sold to foreign actors, with the new regime in charge having tasked an actor, Volodomyr Zelensky, with the role of managing the day to day operations in Kiev. In the meantime, Ukraine continues devolving into a failed state, as its leadership remains committed to the abuse of realpolitik and maintaining its maximalist war-footing against a much more powerful neighbor. It all comes to the delight of the western defense industry, which continues to use Ukraine as a munitions laundering opportunity.
Reprinted with permission from The Dossier.
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