A new poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found that 77.1% of Ukrainian respondents consider it unacceptable for top officials and prominent politicians to have offshore accounts.
The poll was published on Oct. 19 after being conducted on Oct. 15-18, nearly two weeks after the reveal of Pandora Papers, a giant investigation of leaked offshore data.
Pandora Papers consist of 11.9 million documents with 2.9 terabytes of data that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) started publishing on Oct. 3.
The revelations attest to the widespread use of offshore schemes, most notably by Ukrainian power brokers and businesspeople. Ukraine has the highest number of people, 38, named in the global investigation. The list includes President Volodymyr Zelensky and other top officials.
Read more: Ukraine leads with 38 politicians using offshores in global leak
According to the poll, only 61.7%, of Ukrainians are aware of Pandora Papers, while only 13.8% of them consider themselves “well-informed” about the investigation.
According to Detector Media, a Ukrainian media watchdog, most TV channels either ignored the investigation or violated journalistic standards when covering it. Most of the TV channels in Ukraine are owned by oligarchs, some of whom are on the Pandora Papers list.
Regardless, the investigation appears to have affected Zelensky’s popularity.
In mid-September, 33.3% of decided voters said they would choose Zelensky. A month later, that proportion dropped to 24.7%, with a statistical error of no more than 3.2%.
The Pandora leak showed that Zelensky and his inner circle were the beneficiaries of a network of offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands, Cyprus, and Belize, including some that owned expensive London property. According to the investigation, Zelensky transferred shares in a key offshore company to his aide close to the 2019 presidential election but arranged for his family to continue receiving money from it. It’s not clear whether any dividends have been paid.
In Pandora Papers, there’s also evidence that Zelensky’s offshore companies received payments from entities connected to oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, whose TV channel aired Zelensky’s shows and other content. Some of that money may have been stolen by Kolomoisky through PrivatBank from Ukrainians.
Read also: Self-Servant of the People: Zelensky’s offshore schemes
Still, Zelensky is currently leading the presidential race. The runner-ups are former President Petro Poroshenko with 15.6% and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko with 12.2%.
Dmytro Razumkov, who was recently dismissed as the parliament speaker after a clash with Zelensky, appears to be the 6th in the presidential race. As many as 7.1% of respondents would cast their votes for Razumkov if the vote were held today.
The poll was conducted in all regions of Ukraine, except for the Russian-occupied Crimea and Donbas. Sociologists surveyed 1,200 respondents over the age of 18 by phone interview.
