Servant of the People

A Ukrainian Version of Greek Tragedy

Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelensky was born of Russian-speaking Jewish parents on January 25, 1978, in Kryvyi Rih (Russian, Krivoy Rog), a city of over 600,000 in the  Dnipropetrovsk Oblast of Ukraine, which is one of nine predominantly Russian-speaking oblasts in eastern and southern Ukraine. His parents had science and engineering educational and vocational backgrounds.  He grandfather, Simon Zelensky, served in the Red Army during World War II, rising in rank from private to colonel. Many of his relatives were killed by the German Army during the Holocaust. By age 17, however, Volodymyr Zelensky was actively participating in comedy routines. After receiving a degree in law from Kyiv National Economic University, he began a career as an actor and comedian.  

By 1997, Zelensky had created a traveling comedy team called Kvartal 95. By 2002, Kvartal 95 was creating TV shows for Ukrainian television stations. By 2008, Zelensky was staring in romantic comedy TV series and feature films.

Following the February 2014 Maidan Revolution and coup that ousted President Viktor Yanukovych and replaced him in May with Petro Poroshenko, Ukrainian banker Igor Kolomoysky became the second richest oligarch in Ukraine and began investing in media  companies. He became a major financial supporter of Zelensky and Studio Kvartal 95. He had also been a major supporter of the Ukrainian extreme right-wing and anti-Russian parties and organizations that had backed the Maidan Revolution and coup.

In November 2015, Zelensky and Kvartal 95 initiated a weekly TV comedy series that became a huge hit in Ukraine with tremendous future political consequences. It was called, “Servant of the People,” starring Zelensky as 30ish Ukrainian high school history teacher, Vasily Petrovych Goloborodko. One of the popular teacher’s rants against corruption is videoed by one of his students and winds up going viral on the internet.  Before he fully realizes what is happening, he is elected President of Ukraine. This gave Zelensky, through his character, Vasily Goloborodko,  an invaluable political platform through the series just before the presidential primary began in March 2019.  The fictional TV series became real when Zelensky faced off with incumbent Petro Poroshenko on April 21 and won with an astonishing 73.2 percent of the vote. 

Kolomoysky has been accused of stealing as much as $5 billion from his own PrivatBank. According to Poroshenko, Kolomoysky laundered $41 million to Zelensky for helping him launder $2 billion out of Ukraine to foreign deposits.  Poroshenko, who also backed the Maidan Revolution and coup, was also extremely anti-Russian to the point of cultural genocide against the third of the Ukrainian people who are culturally Russian.. Poroshenko made this charge against Zelensky, however, as he was running against Zelensky for President of Ukraine, a political campaign which he lost decisively. There was another reason, however, that Poroshenko lost big. He was hated by Russian-speaking populations of eastern and southern Ukraine for his cultural genocide against Russian culture that had turned into ethnic genocide during his anti-terrorist tactics against Russian-speakers from 2014 up to and beyond the 2019 election.

Zelensky had run on a “Peace” platform that promised to reconcile the Russian-Ukrainian ethnic conflict and grant Russian-speakers full citizenship without discrimination. He also promised to implement the Minsk II agreements that would accomplish this.

However, once elected, Zelensky completely flipped and continued the anti-Russian policies of Poroshenko. and on February 18, 2022, formally rejected the Minsk II agreement. Even Ukrainian Army shelling of Russian ethnic civilians in the Donbass regions was escalated. This may have been the last straw for Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation, who felt a heavy obligation to relieve the suffering of Russian ethnics in Ukraine and were also exasperated by German, French, Ukrainian, British, and American betrayal of the Minsk II agreement. Why did Zelensky flip?  It was probably because of U.S. and British pressure to inflict a major strategic defeat on the Russian Federation to maintain and advance American global dominance. The real foundation of Ukrainian government and military strength was American support and finance. Addiction to American financial infusions was making Ukraine an American puppet state. Much of American control over Zelensky, however,  has been through British MI6 Intelligence connections.

The situation was made clearer in April 2022, when a negotiated peace based on Minsk II by Ukrainian and Russian negotiators in Istanbul was scuttled after a visit by former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to Zelensky. The Americans and British were essentially vetoing peace to achieve more aggressive political objectives meant to permanently damage the Russian Federation.

Zelensky may have thought he could actually become the heroic high school history teacher and valiant servant of the people, Vasily Goloborodko, that he had invented. But American and British power-politics players pushed their agenda against Russia over any idealism left in Zelensky and over the good of the Ukrainian people and nation with both warnings and promises. Zelensky also has to worry about the extremists who supported the murderous Maidan Revolution and coup. Any leaning toward peace, compromise, or retreat might drive these ruthless revolutionaries to target him.

Zelensky may have severed his ties with Kolomoysky, who is also Jewish, but there could be money laundering and corruption skeletons left in the closet.

The “Pandora Papers” released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in October 2021, included possible money laundering by Zelensky and Kvartal 95, along with 336 other politicians in 90 countries.

“Zelensky, a former comedian, was elected Ukraine's president in April 2019 to help fight corruption and the influence of oligarchs on the ex-Soviet country. He rode into the presidency on a wave of public anger over the corruption of the country's political class, including some who used shell companies to hide their wealth overseas.”—Jack Dutton, Newsweek, January 23, 2023.

According to Al-Jazeera, Ukraine was first in corruption with 38 names. Russia was second with 19. The UK with 9 was third in Europe, and many of these were connected to Ukrainian and deported Russian oligarchs. The BBC has also covered this extensively.

According to several sources besides ICIJ, Zelensky allegedly owns a $34 million home in Miami. Perhaps “investment property” is a more appropriate term than “home.”

Zelensky allegedly purchased an $8 million dollar home for his parents in Israel. A large part of Israel’s population, by the way, are Jewish immigrants from Ukraine and Russia.

He allegedly owns resort property in the Tuscany region of Italy valued at $3.8 million, which was acquired in 2017.

He allegedly owns a three-bedroom flat in London almost across the street from the Sherlock Holmes address of 221b Baker Street, valued at $2.28 million and other expensive properties near Westminster in London.  

He allegedly owns resort property in the Caucasus nation of Georgia.

He allegedly owns a large part of a huge mansion in Crimea, which was acquired in 2012 or before.

His own residence in Kyiv may be worth $1.38 million.

According to the ICIJ  experts, a large number of complicated business addresses and bank accounts are a strong signal of money laundering for illegal purposes. However, the widespread political and business corruption in Ukraine is in itself a powerful incentive to move wealth out of the country.

Zelensky now seems dangerously confused. In contrast to his 2019 campaign peace promises, he has lost all perspective and seems willing to draw NATO into a nuclear World War III to save Ukraine. His statements are filled with outrageous propaganda, no more believable than the ravings of Joe Biden. It also appears  NATO may be strongly considering throwing Zelensky under the bus.

The greatest tragedy, however, is that lives of anywhere from 250,000 to over 400,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been sacrificed to advance ill-conceived NATO objectives.