US imposes sanctions on oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyy, big political reshuffle is on agenda

UKRAINE - In Brief 05 Mar 2021 by Dmytro Boyarchuk

---

Today, on March 5th the Secretary of state Antony J. Blinken announced “the public designation of oligarch and former Ukrainian public official Ihor Kolomoyskyy due to his involvement in significant corruption”. Sanctions were also imposed on members of Ihor Kolomoyskyy’s immediate family. Mr. Blinken also expressed “concern about Kolomoyskyy’s current and ongoing efforts to undermine Ukraine’s democratic processes and institutions, which pose a serious threat to its future”. The President's Office reacted promptly on Facebook claiming full readiness to fight oligarchs. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is not usually so fast to respond to any challenges. But this time, as we see, the reaction was lightning fast. As we know, Zelenskiy is looking for sympathy from the new U.S. President Joe Biden. Possibly Zelenskiy has concerns that the new leadership of the United States might have multiple reservations about him. Recent actions against pro-Russian forces in Ukraine and intensified activities on investigations on Privatbank are seen as efforts to build good relations with Washington. Fast readiness to support the crusade against oligarchs is another signal that relations with the U.S. are a painful point for the Ukrainian president. Still, declarations will not be enough in this story, we believe. Initially, the U.S. and IFIs took a very cautious position on the $5.5 billion Ukrainian taxpayers spent to bail-out Privatbank. After winning the presidential election Zelenskiy had good relations with Kolomoyskyy. Pushing Zelenskiy to return the money from his ally was totally unrealistic at that point. That seemingly dovish approach encouraged Kolomoyskyy, in turn, to unfold ...