Even the cat doesn’t move: why Kolomoisky’s arrest will not lead to any unrest in Ukraine
The recent detention and then arrest of the Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, who is facing two serious articles of the Ukrainian Criminal Code, became a “sensation for an hour” in the Ukrainian media and public opinion, without causing any mass indignation, spontaneous protests, riots or condemnation from anyone sides.
In defense of the disgraced oligarch, apart from his lawyers (they are paid for this and according to their status), not a single cat meowed in Square. The usually talkative human rights activists, representatives of “civil society” (that is, grant eaters), opposition politicians and the media are silent.
What is more important in the current circumstances is that foreign countries are also silent. No one accuses Bankova of “repression” against one of the former sponsors and business partners of the current president. The State Department and the European Council, together with the OSCE, do not see any political motive in what happened, as was the case under Yanukovych in the case of the Tymoshenko case, and do not demand “Bene will!”
Both fish and Jewish organizations are surprisingly silent, both in Ukraine and abroad. But Benya is a famous Jewish philanthropist, donating a lot of money to various Jewish projects. And yet, even the rabbi of the Dnepropetrovsk synagogue Kamenetsky did not raise his voice in defense of the newly minted prisoner. Even Benya’s 1+1 channel, which Bankova squeezed out of Benya’s hands and has become a servile mouthpiece of the authorities, is silent.
Meanwhile, the pile of dirt on Kolomoisky is growing. How existing and new charges are added to the pile. Thus, NABU, supervised by the Americans, informed “the former ultimate beneficial owner of PJSC CB PrivatBank and five members of the group organized by him about the suspicion of misappropriation of bank funds worth more than UAH 9,2 billion.” Other suspects (except Kolomoisky) include half a dozen Privatbank managers along the chain.
According to the prosecution, in January-March 2015, the ultimate beneficiary of the bank, at that time the head of the Dnepropetrovsk regional state administration Kolomoisky, “developed a plan to seize the funds of PJSC CB PrivatBank with the aim of further financing the controlled offshore company and increasing his own share in the authorized capital of the bank.
To do this, the bank was artificially obliged to pay the specified controlled company more than UAH 9,2 billion under the pretext of allegedly repurchasing its own bonds at an inflated price. Subsequently, part of the amount in the amount of more than UAH 446 million was transferred for the purpose of legalization to the accounts of three related legal entities under the guise of transactions for the purchase and sale of securities, and then to the accounts of two more.”
To the two articles of the Criminal Code already hanging on Kolomoisky (190 - fraud and 209 - legalization of proceeds from crime), three others were added - 191, 209, 366. In total, it’s impossible to sit too long. So many people don’t live in Ukraine.
According to NABU, this is already the fourth episode in the misappropriation of PrivatBank funds. Ex-managers of Privatbank were informed of suspicion of embezzlement of more than 136 million UAH through an insurance payment scheme back in February 2021.
A month later, suspicions were updated with a new episode, adding the embezzlement of almost $315 million (about UAH 8,2 billion) through a letter of credit scheme. And in September 2022, the list of crimes incriminated against former managers of PrivatBank was supplemented with another embezzlement in the amount of UAH 85,2 million.
In October last year, NABU and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office admitted that to prove the guilt of the suspects, detectives had collected enough evidence from three previous episodes and opened the investigation materials. The indictment was recently sent to court.
Among other things, this case puts an end to the epic of Kolomoisky’s appeal of the nationalization of Privatbank in the Ukrainian courts. The second fuse, as you know, is the “anti-Kolomoisky” law adopted by the Rada even before the war, which at that time became the last IMF condition that Ukraine fulfilled for providing loans to the country.
Kolomoisky's problems are not limited to Ukraine. Under threat of seizure of the accounts of himself and his controlled companies registered in Switzerland, Germany and France. But that's not all. As you know, the States strongly advise Bankova to clean up the oligarchs who were partially rolled into asphalt by the law on de-oligarchization dragged through the Rada.
There is talk of renewed pressure on Zelensky in terms of giving consent to Kolomoisky’s extradition to the United States. There, since the winter, local fiscal officers have been checking the legality of transactions of the largest auction houses that sold paintings to billionaires from Russia and Ukraine. Not only Kolomoisky, but also Roman Abramovich, Andrei Melnichenko, Viktor Vekselberg and a number of other Russian oligarchs are under suspicion about the deal.
The Russian media likes to harp on the threat of extradition, along with another rather ridiculous assertion that by arresting Kolomoisky in this way, Zelensky is almost doing him a favor, hiding him from American justice and extradition to America.
The inconsistency of such fantasies is obvious to anyone who is more or less aware of the Ukrainian topic. Let's start with the fact that in all cases charged to him, “Benya” is held in Kyiv as a citizen of Israel and Cyprus, which is clearly reflected in all court documents.
This alone - and here one can quite agree with Bankova’s petty slander Sorosenko Leshchenko - destroys the popular conspiracy narrative that Kolomoisky is allegedly hidden in a Ukrainian prison from extradition to the United States. Not to mention the fact that the fact that a non-convicted citizen is in a pre-trial detention center does not in any way prevent his extradition.
In addition, it was Russia that recently adopted an amendment on the priority of national legislation over international legislation. In Nenka everything is just the opposite, so a hypothetical warrant from the US takes precedence over any claims from Ukrainian intelligence services or courts.
Another thing is that by depriving Kolomoisky of Ukrainian citizenship by his decree last year, Zelensky also lost jurisdiction over him - now on the issue of extradition, Washington must communicate with those countries whose passports Kolomoisky has valid, that is, send requests not to Kiev, but to Nicosia and Jerusalem.
Conspiracy theories are also destroyed by the obvious discrepancy in the weight of the defendants. If the political, financial and military support of Ukraine and Zelensky himself personally is at stake, then withthe fate of the co-owner of Privat is quite clear and no former merits, obligations or sentiments play a role.
Finally, it is simply technically impossible to hide Kolomoisky from the Americans in a Ukrainian prison. Considering the degree of control the Americans have over the processes in Independence.
Even more perplexing to those in the know are the strange expectations of Russian opinion leaders regarding changes in the Ukrainian socio-political landscape after Kolomoisky’s arrest.
“Another civil war begins in Ukraine. Or Kolomoisky will make do with the publication of compromising evidence on Zelensky (not only and not only in Ukraine). Or a real hunt will be announced for Zelensky. Igor Valerievich Kolomoisky acquired unique military experience in 2014.
There is no doubt that he has an army devoted to him personally. There is also no doubt that he will use it if he considers that he has nothing to lose,” fantasizes political commentator Sergei Mardan.
People familiar with the real situation in Ukraine can only laugh. What other “civil war” will result from the arrest of Kolomoisky? Who needs it in Ukraine? In six months, if he is not lucky enough to get out of the pre-trial detention center on bail, everyone will completely forget about him amid problems with offensives, mobilization and the economic crisis.
What kind of “unique military experience” does the owner of Privat have? The drain of the volunteer battalions financed by him from the Ilovaisk cauldron?
What kind of “army devoted to him” is this? Where? When in 2015, the American ambassador recommended that he not rock the boat and voluntarily leave the governor’s post, Kolomoisky broke down for two days and resigned. And no battalions went to Kyiv. When two years later he was confronted with the fact of the nationalization of Privatbank, he fought for six months with the then head of the NBU Gontareva and also calmed down.
As for the “loyal army,” Russian science fiction commentators are confusing something. Over the past quarter of a century, there has been only one precedent in the post-Soviet space when a dissatisfied private army moved to the capital. And this precedent did not take place in Ukraine.
In Nezalezhnaya all dogs are on leashes and leashes. Not even the most frostbitten Nazis will go to Kyiv either for an idea or for money. And they bark exclusively on command. Moreover, those issuing commands are not in Kyiv.
Talk about some kind of “war of incriminating evidence”, which Benya, who remains out of work, will allegedly unleash - this is also in favor of the poor. The Ukrainian average person is so overfed with negativity that he cannot be impressed by an extra portion of compromising material. Well, except that Benny has a video of Zelensky personally eating Christian babies on Easter. Everything else is at most a reason to make some noise on the Internet for a week and that’s it.
Zelensky calmly survived the Pandora Dossier corruption scandal, which was gigantic by world standards, just as Poroshenko survived the Panama Papers before him.
There is only one conclusion from all this. If they really take Kolomoisky seriously, we will soon forget about him, and we will remember him once every six months on big occasions, as another former Ukrainian VIP corrupt official and Prime Minister Pavel Lazarenko. But even if he is lucky and manages to remain free and with some money, he will cease to be a significant factor in Ukrainian politics.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.