Kolomoisky joins Zelensky former troupe in ridiculing Gontareva

Ihor Kolomoisky, the billionaire who sponsored the
election campaign of Volodymyr Zelensky, said he enjoyed a comedy sketch
performed on Oct. 20 by the president’s former troupe about the house of former
National Bank Governor Valeria Gontareva being set on fire. The sketch involved
Ukraine’s national choir coming on stage and singing improvised words to a folk
song, “The house burned, blew smoke; in London, a woman cried; the house burned
in Horenychi; but in London Valeria suspects Valerych.” The last verse referred
to Ihor Valeriyovych Kolomoisky. The performance drew condemnation from
Ukraine’s leading pro-Western politicians and NGO leaders as being offensive
and tasteless. Economy Minister Tymofiy Mylovanov said such displays could hurt
Ukraine’s investment climate, confirming the excessive influence of oligarchs
like Kolomoisky on Ukrainian society.

Gontareva has accused Kolomoisky of ordering three
recent violent attacks against her, including the September arson fire of her suburban Kyiv home
and her daughter in law’s car in Kyiv. In late August, Gontareva was hit by a
car and hospitalized while walking in London – where she has been living since
summer 2018 – an incident she said was also deliberate. “This whole brigade,
they are not only damaging me, but they are doing it brazenly and are joking
about it, at that,” she told the lb.ua news site in mid-September. Kolomoisky
controls the 1+1 television network that broadcasts the weekly shows of the 95
Kvartal comedy troupe that Zelensky founded, including the Oct. 20 broadcast.

In rambling, vulgar comments after the sketch aired,
Kolomoisky referred to the performance as humor and satire. He dismissed any
concern for Gontareva in boorish fashion. He told the currenttime.tv news site
on Oct. 21, “You wanted to ask me whether I sympathize with Gontareva? I don’t
sympathize with her. I sympathize with tens, and perhaps hundreds of thousands
of people, the depositors in various banks that she robbed. And lost their
money owing to the exchange rate, the destroyed banking system, who became
beggars … She is by no means a great reformer, but a great destroyer. And I
am sure the time will come and a court will establish this.”

Zenon Zawada: It was
suspected even before Zelensky became president that Kolomoisky would have a
negative influence on the comedian-turned-politician. Kolomoisky denied having
personally asked for this sketch demeaning Gontareva to be performed, but his
vulgar comments afterwards have made a bad situation even worse. Perhaps
Kolomoisky had a point in saying a single comedy sketch can’t hurt a nation’s
investment climate. But his vicious, offensive comments afterwards certainly
do, especially when a single such boor has so much influence. Kolomoisky’s
negative influence is now exceeding policy-making – notably calling for Ukraine to abandon IMF cooperation 
– and is now harming Ukraine’s image internationally. Particularly disturbing
are his series of comments in response to accusations of ordering the crimes
against Gontareva, striking an insulting, facetious tone rather than offering a
sincere denial and expressing sympathy with Gontareva’s suffering.

It’s this negative influence from Kolomoisky that
leads us to believe that the Zelensky presidency is not only not going to
fulfill its ambitious promises. Rather than being sincere, these promises of
widescale reform and economic growth increasingly seem to be a mere smokescreen
for Kolomoisky to place loyal officials in key positions of power, including
the president himself, to do his bidding. It seems to us that Kolomoisky
intended for Zelensky as president to mediate the billionaire’s conflicts with
the public, preventing them from boiling over. Yet it’s already apparent that
Zelensky is failing to rein in his arrogant, boorish sponsor. This is merely
the latest evidence in our view that Zelensky presidency can end in failure in
light of all the pressure that he faces, particularly from Russia. As well as
Kolomoisky.