We want President Volodymyr Zelensky to succeed, for Ukraine’s sake. But four months into his presidency, we see worrying signs.
The most worrying is Ihor Kolomoisky, but there are others. The notorious oligarch whose exploitation of Ukraine is hard to overestimate is showing off again, with nothing to fear and new schemes to keep Ukrainians impoverished while adding to his fortune in monopolistic ways.
Zelensky seems almost afraid of him.
It is unfortunate that Zelensky goes way back with Kolomoisky, who for many years has been contracting Zelensky’s comedy company to produce shows for his TV channel, 1+1. It is also unfortunate that Zelensky appears to be indebted to Kolomoisky and 1+1 for the media support that helped his presidential campaign, even though Kolomoisky’s TV channel actually owed Zelensky’s company millions in unpaid fees as of 2018.
The past is one thing, but Zelensky shows no signs of cutting ties to the controversial oligarch in the present, too. He held his first meeting that the public knows about with him on Sept. 10 — and we don’t know how many other meetings preceded it that the public doesn’t know about.
Soon, Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk told the Financial Times that both he and Zelensky want to reach a compromise with Kolomoisky over PrivatBank. That’s like a victim reaching a compromise with his assailant. Kolomoisky, who owned PrivatBank, is suspected of stealing $5.5 billion from the bank through insider loans before giving the bank’s empty shell to the state and sticking taxpayers with the bill. Now Kolomoisky says the bank was stolen from him and demands compensation.
Zelensky promised to end the oligarchs’ influence on Ukraine. What we really see happening is a rotation of oligarchs in power.
Zelensky can stop it. The main source of the oligarchs’ influence on top politicians is their control of the media — with it, they can build and trash reputations in the blink of an eye. If anyone can risk confronting them, it’s Zelensky, who boasts the unprecedented support of more than 70 percent of the population.
So far, he’s not doing it. If he wavers for too long, he’ll watch his support evaporate more quickly than two of his one-term predecessors, Viktor Yushchenko and Petro Poroshenko.
Zelensky needs to make a choice. Is he the servant of all the people, or just the richest and most rapacious five of them?
