Kolomoisky’s Arrest – Justice Or Just Another Power Grab By Zelensky?

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Written by Drago Bosnic, independent geopolitical and military analyst

On September 3, several media outlets reported that Igor Kholomoisky, the infamous oligarch and once one of the most important backers of the Kiev regime, was arrested on charges of corruption and embezzlement in excess of $130 million in the 2013-2020 time period. He was also given the option of posting a 500 million hryvnia (₴) bail, which is approximately $13.5 million. Obviously, we certainly won’t shed a tear for a corrupt oligarch and one of the main financial backers of the infamous “Azov Battalion”. However, the very fact that such an important figure in the Neo-Nazi junta’s power structure was arrested is a rather interesting development. Needless to say, it certainly doesn’t have anything to do with justice, unless one believes that the Kiev regime had a sudden “anti-corruption catharsis”.

Kolomoisky is one of the richest people in Ukraine, with an estimated fortune of well over $1.6 billion. According to a statement by the SBU (Security Service of Ukraine), he tried to launder over ₴500 million by “transferring it abroad, while using the infrastructure of banking institutions controlled by him”. Kolomoisky was one of Zelensky’s main backers when he ran for president in 2019, a fact that even the New York Times admitted in their recent coverage of the arrest. According to the NYT, Kolomoisky’s shady dealings “have included oil and banking, and he was once considered a patron of Mr. Zelensky, a former comedian whose popular shows were broadcast on Mr. Kolomoisky’s television channel before he successfully ran for the presidency”. The NYT is usually very careful not to disrupt Zelensky’s image of “Ukrainian Churchill”, making this admission all the more peculiar.

“Suspicions of corruption and embezzlement have dogged Mr. Kolomoisky for years. In 2017, he left Ukraine for Switzerland and Israel after the government of then-President Petro Poroshenko seized a bank he co-owned and accused him of a large-scale fraud that threatened to destabilize Ukraine’s economy, ” the NYT report further states, adding: “He returned in 2019 after Mr. Zelensky’s defeat of Mr. Poroshenko, raising fears that his ties to the new president would help him regain his economic and political clout.”

However, this part of the report by the infamous neoliberal propaganda mouthpiece indicates that it’s still trying to present Zelensky as some “anti-corruption hero”. And yet, the actual reasoning might have more to do with Zelensky’s desire to eliminate all and any possible opposition to his “free and democratic” rule, as Kolomoisky himself has tried his hand at politics. Back in 2014, in the immediate aftermath of the NATO-backed Maidan coup, he became the governor of the Dnepropetrovsk oblast (region). Approximately a year into his mandate, he was fired by the then-Kiev regime frontman Petro Poroshenko. Various sources report that the reason was a clash for control of several state enterprises, including the Ukrnafta, the largest producer of oil and gas in the country, as well as the oil pipeline operator Ukrtransnafta.

Obviously, Kolomoisky’s sole motivation to enter Ukrainian politics was money and power. However, as being in the political spotlight was too much of a hurdle for him, he switched to being the “man in the shadows”, a somewhat more subtle way of acquiring both. As the NYT already admitted, that’s exactly how the current Neo-Nazi junta frontman Volodymyr Zelensky came to power, as his shows were all hosted by media under the direct control of Kolomoisky. Interestingly, the United States itself doesn’t seem to like the oligarch’s power in Ukraine, as he’s simply too difficult to control. Back in 2021, Washington DC even imposed sanctions on Kolomoisky, also under the pretense that it was supposedly aimed “against corruption”, as the US claimed that “he was engaged in corrupt acts that undermined rule of law and the Ukrainian public’s faith in their government’s democratic institutions”.

The reasoning behind Washington DC’s enmity towards Kolomoisky is that he’s an absolute opportunist, meaning that he wasn’t exactly ready to follow the belligerent thalassocracy’s orders to the letter, as Zelensky does. What’s more, he even tried to appease Russia on several occasions, including in an interview for the NYT back in late 2019, when he openly stated that “Ukraine should give up on the West and go back into Russia’s fold”. However, Moscow was having none of it, as the Eurasian giant is perfectly aware that dealing with people like Kolomoisky simply can’t bring anything good. Namely, although he himself is Jewish, this didn’t stop him from becoming one of the main backers of the infamous “Azov Battalion”, a unit that built itself on the traditions of WW2-era Nazi collaborators who participated in the slaughter of Russians, Jews, Poles, Ukrainians or anyone else not loyal to their cause.

In that regard, Kolomoisky is indeed the “Ukrainian Soros”, as the American oligarch himself also openly admitted that he worked with the Nazis during the Second World War and despite also being a Jew, he had no qualms about betraying his own people. Thus, Kolomoisky’s arrest is indeed justice, albeit an inadvertent one, as the ones who are prosecuting him are the very monsters he helped create for his own personal interest. To a certain degree, this also makes it a sort of poetic justice, although an incomplete one.