Igor Kolomoisky, Zelensky and Azov Battalion

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad: The “Zionist Jew” Zelensky supports Nazi collaborators – this proves that the West has no real values

…says the man who uses chemical weapons against his own people.

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— Emily Schrader – ????? ?????? (@emilykschrader) March 21, 2022

As I said earlier tonight, we just don’t know half of what has been going on in Ukraine.

TAC:

“Ukrainian politics is full of what can euphemistically be called “colorful characters,” and Kolomoisky is one of them. The 1+1 channel was the same that originally aired Volodymyr Zelensky’s comedy show Servant of the People, in which he played a Ukrainian President. Kolomoisky was Zelensky’s chief backer during his presidential campaign, when the latter ran as the anti-war and anti-corruption candidate.

In 2010, the European Jewish Congress accused Kolomoisky of hostile takeover when the mobster crowned himself its president. To their enormous credit, the organization found a way to push him out in 2011. Three years later, following the Euromaidan overthrow of President Victor Yanukovich, Kolomoisky sided with Ukrainian nationalists against Russia. I can see it from his point of view: In Russia, the oligarchs are subordinate to Putin, but Ukrainian politics are more chaotic and regionalized. There he can be in charge.

Calling himself jidobandera (‘jid’is a pejorative for Jew, and Bandera is the name of the World War II-era Ukrainian fascist whose followers slaughtered Jews and Poles, sometimes colluding with the Wehrmacht and sometimes on their own), the oligarch, appointed the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk Region, organized a nationalist militia into the Dnipro Battalion. Amnesty International accused the group of blocking humanitarian aid at one point, and the U.N. implicated them in numerous war crimes. Kolomoisky also assisted in the creation of several other armed factions, including the notorious neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, which has been incorporated into the Ukrainian National Guard. …”

So, this is the guy who launched Zelensky’s career and who was the patron of Azov Battalion, and he is banned from even entering the United States by none other than Antony Blinken for corruption.

Wikipedia:

“Kolomoyskyi is rated as the second or third richest person in Ukraine (after Rinat Akhmetov and/or Viktor Pinchuk) since 2006. and 1941st richest person in the world according to the Forbes magazine list of billionaires (as of 2019). In March 2015 The Economist listed his net worth as $1.36 billion. Kolomoyskyi is the leading partner of the Privat Group and a de facto chairman of the FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk.^[

In 2019, Kolomoyskyi was included in the list of the 100 most influential Ukrainians by the Ukrainian magazine Focus, taking the 3rd place.^[

In 2021 the US banned him and his family from entering the country due to “significant corruption“, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken claiming that he was “involved in corrupt acts that undermined rule of law and the Ukrainian public’s faith in their government’s democratic institutions and public processes, including using his political influence and official power for his personal benefit” and that he “poses a serious threat to the future of Ukraine.”

U.S. State Department:

“Today, I am announcing the public designation of oligarch and former Ukrainian public official Ihor Kolomoyskyy due to his involvement in significant corruption. In his official capacity as a Governor of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk Oblast from 2014 to 2015, Kolomoyskyy was involved in corrupt acts that undermined rule of law and the Ukrainian public’s faith in their government’s democratic institutions and public processes, including using his political influence and official power for his personal benefit. While this designation is based on acts during his time in office, I also want to express concern about Kolomoyskyy’s current and ongoing efforts to undermine Ukraine’s democratic processes and institutions, which pose a serious threat to its future. …”

OCCRP:

The court’s decision referenced a report on Chertok’s relationship to Kolomoisky written by Switzerland’s Federal Intelligence Service (FIS). The FIS report was extensively based on OCCRP’s reporting on Kolomoisky, his sister and their luxury Swiss assets, the court said.

Like OCCRP, the Swiss FIS found that Kolomoisky had “strong connections to Russian-Ukrainian organized crime and Chertok had “access to illegal money and criminal circles.”

“There is no dividing line between Kolomoisky’s activities and those of his sister,” the FIS found, as quoted in the court decision. Chertok had supported Kolomoisky with her own money of unclear origins, when his assets were frozen, according to the FIS.

Chertok disputed that Kolomoisky had openly admitted paying millions of dollars in bribes, as reported by OCCRP, but the court found the reporting to be correct and said that “[t]here is no reason to doubt the independence of the OCCRP journalist collective.”

As a result of Chertok’s connection to Kolomoisky, her naturalization would “imperil Switzerland’s internal or external security,” the court found.”

OCCRP:

“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rode to power on pledges to clean up the Eastern European country, but the Pandora Papers reveal he and his close circle were the beneficiaries of a network of offshore companies, including some that owned expensive London property. …”

Naked Capitalism:

“I realize that in the current climate of fevered hysteria, anything less than wide-eyed hero worship of Zelensky will be seen by the more delusional engaged as somewhere between kicking a sad-eyed puppy and an act of high treason. And I freely admit that I haven’t tried to work out causalities, or disentangle feuds between fascists, or battles against corruption, let alone geopolitics, or anything like that. I have only looked at transactions: billionaire Kolomoyskyi funded Banderite fascists; billionaire Kolomoyskyi funded Zelensky. Doesn’t that seem odd to you?[6]”