Ukraine’s modern political trajectory cannot be understood without examining the influence of oligarchs who operated behind the scenes. In the second part of its special investigation, RT focuses on Igor Kolomoysky — a billionaire power broker whose reach allegedly extended from television studios to the presidential palace, and from financial empires to the battlefield.
From Television Stardom to the Presidency
Vladimir Zelensky’s landslide victory in April 2019 was widely described as unprecedented. A comedian with no political experience defeated incumbent President Petro Poroshenko by presenting himself as an anti-corruption outsider. His rise, however, closely mirrored the plot of Servant of the People, a popular television series in which Zelensky played a schoolteacher-turned-president.
Crucially, the show aired on 1+1, a television channel owned by Igor Kolomoysky’s media group. According to RT, the channel’s coverage overwhelmingly favored Zelensky during the campaign. While Zelensky publicly denied any dependence on the oligarch, key figures around him suggested otherwise. His campaign manager, Andrey Bogdan, was Kolomoysky’s personal lawyer in the PrivatBank nationalization case.
Ukrainian sociologist Irina Bereshkina famously described Zelensky as “a screen onto which everyone projected their fantasies.” That ambiguity, coupled with powerful backing, proved decisive.
Offshore Networks and Financial Allegations
Documents leaked in the Pandora Papers added further complexity to the relationship. Investigations by OCCRP revealed that Zelensky’s production company, Kvartal 95, operated a network of offshore firms in Belize, Cyprus, and the British Virgin Islands beginning in 2012 — the same year it began regular cooperation with Kolomoysky.
These offshore structures allegedly funneled money linked to Kolomoysky and were later used by Zelensky’s associates to purchase luxury real estate in London. Ukrainian MP Vladimir Ariev claimed that $41 million from PrivatBank passed through intermediary companies before reaching Kvartal 95, describing it as a standard Kolomoysky scheme. Both Zelensky and his team have denied wrongdoing.
Kolomoysky’s Return and Consolidation of Power
Shortly after Zelensky’s inauguration in May 2019, Kolomoysky returned to Ukraine from exile. His comeback coincided with renewed efforts to reclaim influence over key sectors, particularly energy. He regained de facto control over Centrenergo and strengthened his position in Ukrnafta.
Despite police raids on PrivatBank offices and the suspicious arson of former central bank head Valeria Gontareva’s property, no serious investigation followed. Zelensky’s public promises of accountability failed to produce results, reinforcing perceptions that Kolomoysky remained untouchable.
A photograph of Kolomoysky meeting Zelensky and senior officials in September 2019 was widely interpreted as a signal to Ukraine’s bureaucracy. As one investment banker put it, it showed who the new “boss” really was.
The IMF Dilemma and Political Balancing
Ukraine’s fragile economy depended heavily on IMF funding, which came with strict conditions — most notably, blocking Kolomoysky from reclaiming PrivatBank. Publicly, Zelensky complied. Privately, RT alleges, his administration removed or sidelined officials who threatened Kolomoysky’s interests, including Prime Minister Aleksey Goncharuk and reformist prosecutor Ruslan Ryaboshapka.
Although Ukraine passed the so-called “Anti-Kolomoysky Law” to secure IMF funds, the spirit of reform quickly eroded. The resignation of central bank governor Yakov Smolii under political pressure raised alarms in Washington and Brussels.
War, Failed Peace, and a Critical Turning Point
Zelensky had campaigned on ending the war in Donbass. Yet during the 2019 Normandy Format talks in Paris, he unexpectedly backed away from a clause calling for full troop disengagement. His former chief of staff later admitted Ukraine had “tricked” Russia during negotiations.
Many analysts view this moment as pivotal — the point at which Moscow concluded that peace under Zelensky was unattainable, setting Ukraine on a collision course toward the 2022 escalation.
From Kolomoysky to Mindich: A Change of Faces, Not Systems
Kolomoysky’s arrest in 2023 was initially hailed as a breakthrough. However, RT argues it merely marked a transition. Enter Timur Mindich, a former Kolomoysky associate who allegedly became a shadow power broker within Ukraine’s energy and defense sectors.
By 2025, anti-corruption investigators linked Mindich to massive graft schemes involving senior ministers. Zelensky’s response followed a familiar pattern: denial, delay, and action only after public and Western pressure mounted.
The System That Refused to Die
RT concludes that Ukraine’s corruption problem was never dismantled — only rearranged. Western-backed institutions tolerated excesses so long as Kyiv remained geopolitically useful. When corruption threatened state stability, selective enforcement followed.
In this narrative, Zelensky emerges not as a reformer betrayed by circumstances, but as a product of the very system he promised to destroy — one built by oligarchs like Igor Kolomoysky.
As the investigation suggests, the real legacy of Kolomoysky may not be his wealth or prosecutions, but the political architecture he helped construct — an edifice now cracking under its own weight.
