9/20/19
All will be forgiven and forgotten if President Volodymyr Zelensky creates an economic boom, brings an end to Russia’s bloody war, and recovers Crimea and Kremlin-controlled parts of the Donbas. But I don’t see how Zelensky is going to do that given the company he keeps and the people he courts. Here’s some of what I find disturbing about Zelensky’s first four months in office:
Secret meetings
Zelensky is disrespecting the people of Ukraine by not making all of his meetings known to the public. His press secretary, Iuliia Mendel, says it’s for security reasons. But what about disclosing who the president met with after the fact? They don’t do that either, unless it’s a meeting that the president wants the public to know about. If it’s a meeting with, say, notorious Odesa Mayor Gennady Trukhanov, good luck. Investigative journalists are going to have to discover this on their own, because this president has shown he will not be transparent in this regard. I used to think Zelensky talking into the camera and posting videos on YouTube was cool and clever. But now I think it’s just the sign of a thin-skinned president who doesn’t want to take any tough questions and who can’t stand criticism. And I detect a shift in public opinion moving against him, even if not yet registered by polling. My guess? He’ll get away with this arrogance and unresponsiveness as long as his public approval rating stays above 50 percent.
Ihor Kolomoisky
How to treat a person suspected of stealing $5.5 billion from Ukrainians through the largest bank fraud in national history and locked in legal battles with the state to get the bank returned to him with compensation? Well, for starters, Zelensky, don’t invite him to friendly meetings in the President’s Office with your prime minister, chief of staff, and energy minister. It sends absolutely the wrong signal to the people you represent and foreigners (like myself, an American and permanent resident of Ukraine) who care deeply about the nation. And it runs counter to your claim that the oligarchy will be broken up in this nation. Based on overwhelming evidence, including an independent forensic audit, there is a strong case to be made that Kolomoisky should be sitting in prison, not the president’s office, for the money looted from PrivatBank. It would be legalized bank robbery if the state stopped trying to recover the $5.5 billion allegedly looted through insider loans and returned the bank to Kolomoisky. The developments seem to support what Zelensky’s critics warned during the election campaign: that he is indebted to Kolomoisky, whose 1+1 television channel helped the showman get elected president.
Ripping off Ukrainians
According to the document, which some economy experts looked at for the Kyiv Post and found credible, Kolomoisky has gone back to ripping off Ukrainians again since July, if he ever stopped. The document says he is accomplishing this by selling coal from his entity, Nafta Force, to state-owned Centrenergo at an inflated price — 40 percent higher than coal under the Rotterdam+ formula of Hr 1,700 ($69) per ton, according to the information shared with me. He is also, in turn, buying electricity from Centrenergo at below-market prices. Kolomoisky properties are energy guzzlers — including the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant, Zaporizhzhia Ferroalloy Plant, DniproAzot, Pokrovsky and Marganetsky mining and processing plants. Since July alone, the losses on sales to Kolomoisky enterprises has been Hr 555 million, or $22 million. If true, it is typical Kolomoisky: scheming for profits at both ends of the transactions — purchase and sale.
Ukrnafta
See the Article at the link
Monopoly on refineries
See the Article at the link
It gets worse
See the Article at the link
Arsen Avakov
See the Article at the link
Dmytro Firtash
See the Article at the link
Sept. 10 meeting
See the Article at the link
