Last fall, the leftist newspaper Guardian revealed the strange deals of the Ukrainian president, who is in principle against corruption and oligarchs, based on data leaked in the Pandora Papers offshore scandal. - writes the Mandiner.
In the campaign, Zelensky promised to clean up Ukraine's economic and social system dominated by oligarchs. He aimed his campaign against politicians like wealthy ex-president Petro Poroshenko, who in many cases hide their wealth offshore. The message worked and Zelensky won 73 percent of the vote. However, in fact, nothing has changed in Ukraine, the Guardian .
The Pandora Papers, leaked by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and shared with the Guardian as part of a global investigation, suggest that
Zelensky looks much more like his oligarch predecessors than the clean-handed history teacher he played before.
The files reveal that Zelensky was involved in an extensive network of offshore companies co-owned by his old friends and TV business partners. In many cases, he brought these business partners into the political leadership. If that wasn't enough, the paper reveals that the Zelensky Circle media company has Russian business ties.
Before becoming president, Zelensky disclosed his private wealth. These included cars, real estate and three co-owned offshore companies. One, Film Heritage, which he co-owned with his wife Olena, a former Kvartal 95 writer, was registered in Belize.
However, Pandora's papers show additional offshore assets that Zelensky does not appear to have disclosed. Film Heritage held a 25 percent stake in the Cypriot holding company Davegra. Davegra, on the other hand, is the owner of Maltex Multicapital Corp., a previously unknown organization registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) tax haven. Zelensky had a 25 percent stake in Maltex.
On March 13, 2019, two weeks before the first round of the Ukrainian elections, Zelensky handed over his stake in Maltex to Serhiy Shefir, according to the documents. It is unclear whether Shefir paid Zelensky.
In a recent op-ed for the Atlantic Council, Zelensky stated that his ultimate goal as president is to destroy the traditional oligarchic order and replace it with a more just system. But critics say Zelensky has failed to renew the state and is using the same gimmicky methods as his predecessors. EU auditors have also warned that widespread corruption and state capture remain widespread in Ukraine.
Since entering politics, Zelenskyi has also been accused of being under the influence of billionaire Igor Kolomoiskyi, whose TV channel aired Zelenskyi's program. During the campaign, Zelenskyi's opponents alleged that between 2012 and 2016, $41 million went from Kolomoiskyi's organizations to offshore companies of Zelenskyi and his circle, including Film Heritage.
By the way, Zelensky is connected to the Russian economy through Maltex, but previously Russia was also an important market for the Kvartal95 media company, the Guardian reported.
When it comes to Russian business: Ukraine is currently making good money from Russian gas transit, and this situation does not seem to want to end .
Source: Mandarin
Featured image: MTI/EPA/Serhiy Dolzhenko
