Rumor has it

Did Zelensky strip Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky of his citizenship?

Last week, Ukrainian lawmaker Serhiy Vlasenko published what appeared to be a scan of a presidential decree depriving ten people of citizenship. The fact that billionaire oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky was included on the list caused a sensation. The Ukrainian authorities have yet to provide clear confirmation as to whether the document is real. Regardless, journalist Konstantin Skorkin, a contributor for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, believes that the document speaks to a behind-the-scenes struggle in the highest echelons of power in Kyiv. Indeed, when he was elected in 2019, Zelensky’s critics dubbed him “Kolomoisky’s puppet.” But in the years since, he has been working consistently to rid Ukrainian politics of oligarchic influence — all while strengthening his personal power.

The document opposition lawmaker Serhiy Vlasenko published on July 21 contained three names that attracted attention.

The first was Vadym Rabinovich — a Ukrainian lawmaker and co-founder of the pro-Kremlin party Opposition Platform – For Life, which was banned by a court order on June 20. Rabinovich is also a close ally of former Ukrainian lawmaker Viktor Medvedchuk, who is known for his close ties to Vladimir Putin. Rabinovich left Ukraine for Israel before the start of the February Invasion. Revoking his citizenship can be seen as “finishing off” the pro-Russian opposition.

The second was Hennady Korban — an influential businessman from Dnipro, who is currently leading the territorial defense force of the Dnipropetrovsk region. Korban has found himself at odds with the president’s office, which suspects him of orchestrating “information attacks” against Zelensky’s Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak.

And the third was Ihor Kolomoisky — a powerful Ukrainian oligarch and the most notable figure on the list (Korban is Kolomoisky’s former ally). One gets the sense that this entire story was orchestrated just for his sake.

Kolomoisky’s retreat

After Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ihor Kolomoisky retreated into the shadows. In 2014, the oligarch led the Dnipropetrovsk region at a time of crisis and sponsored Ukrainian volunteer battalions fighting in the Donbas. But Kolomoisky hasn’t made a single public statement since the start of the ongoing invasion. Kolomoisky’s former allies, such as Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov, have been highly critical of his approach. And Forbes Ukraine did not list Kolomoisky among the major businesspeople who have made donations to support the country’s defense.

One can only speculate as to whether Kolomoisky was influenced by the fact that the active role he played in 2014 (and Volodymyr Zelensky being elected president in 2019) didn’t help him take up a dominant role in Ukrainian politics.

At the same time, according to Ukrayinska Pravda, Kolomoisky has remained in Ukraine throughout the war; in any case, none of the planes belonging to his conglomerate Privat Group have left the country. This is not, however, due to patriotic sentiment — Kolomoisky has long been under investigation by the FBI on money laundering charges and leaving Ukraine would put him at risk of arrest. In 2021, the U.S. sanctioned Kolomoisky due his involvement in corruption.

Kolomoisky is also a wanted man in Russia. Back in 2014, Russian investigators launched criminal proceedings against Kolomoisky for funding Ukrainian volunteer battalions, and a Moscow court ordered his arrest in absentia. Then, in 2021, Russia opened another case against Kolomoisky on charges of economic crimes. Vladimir Putin once called Kolomoisky a “scoundrel.”

In other words, Kolomoisky has found himself trapped. What’s more, his business empire has suffered significant losses during the past five months of war — mainly due to a Russian missile strike forcing the Kremenchuk Oil Refinery to shut down. Forbes Ukraine estimates that Kolomoisky’s Privat Group has suffered $225 million in damage from the war. The oligarch’s personal fortune has reportedly shrunk from $1.8 billion to $1 billion in the past year.

And in light of the “anti-oligarch” law coming into force, Kolomoisky is also at risk of ending up on Ukraine’s official list of oligarchs, and having his political and media influence curtailed. (Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, recently opted to relinquish his media empire to avoid the official oligarch label.)

After Zelensky came to power in 2019, his critics considered the new Ukrainian leader “Kolomoisky’s puppet,” pointing to their long-standing professional relationship and the massive amount of support the oligarch’s 1+1 Media Group provided the former comedian. (The TV series that kick-started Zelensky’s political career, Servant of the People, aired on the television channel 1+1).

Today, however, the tables have turned — Kolomoisky is now completely dependent on the goodwill of the Ukrainian president.

Parsing the rumors

Against the backdrop of Kolomoisky’s problems, rumors about the possibility of his Ukrainian citizenship being revoked don’t seem that far-fetched. In Ukraine, people can be deprived of their citizenship by presidential decree. And there are already some precedents. For example, during his presidency, Petro Poroshenko stripped ex-Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili of his Ukrainian passport. Zelensky was highly critical of this move while running for office, and, in one of his first presidential decrees, annulled his predecessor’s decision.

Kolomoisky holds Israeli and Cypriot citizenship. Though Ukraine does not permit dual citizenship, this is difficult to enforce, so some people simply skirt the ban. Kolomoisky admitted to holding a second citizenship back in 2008, saying:

“Ukrainian legislation and the Constitution, in this case, are contradictory, and you’d have to be an idiot not to take advantage of it.”

Kolomoisky can be stripped of his Ukrainian passport on the grounds that he is a dual citizen. (As it happens, Kolomoisky may also be under scrutiny by Israeli law enforcement.)

The Ukrainian authorities have yet to definitively confirm or deny the authenticity of the scanned document. Representatives of Zelensky’s office have, however, evasively spoken about the fact that presidential decrees concerning deprivation of citizenship are classified, because they contain sensitive personal information. This means that if Zelensky really did issue such a decree, it would not be officially made public.

At the same time, those listed in the purported decree have already run into problems. Hennady Korban’s passport was seized when he tried to return to Ukraine after a trip abroad. And according to Ukrainian media reports, the State Migration Service has already invalidated Ihor Kolomoisky’s passport, as well as the passport of his Privat Group partner Hennady Boholyubov.

Update: President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that businessman Hennady Korban had been stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship during a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday, July 28. “We regularly grant state citizenship or take it away. This is a continuous process, and all this happens all the time within the framework of the current legislation,” Zelensky said, as quoted by BBC News Russian.

These radical measures have already made waves in the Ukrainian political space. Characteristically, the document was first shared by lawmaker Serhiy Vlasenko, who belongs to former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna party. Given the longstanding ties between Tymoshenko and Kolomoisky, this may have been a strategic leak.

Cutting ties

According to one explanation, Zelensky wants to finally rid himself of a partner who has become toxic and put an end to the trail of past cooperation that has hung over his head since 2019. Moreover, “finishing” Kolomoisky may be in response to a request from American partners: if he’s no longer a citizen, Kyiv can easily extradite Kolomoisky to the United States.

The second explanation is the inverse of the first: allegedly, Zelensky is saving Kolomoisky from the “anti-oligarch” law and allowing him to finally retreat into the shadows (unlike oligarchs, foreign nationals are not prohibited from owning media assets in Ukraine). That said, Justice Minister Denys Maliuska has refuted these rumors, underscoring that foreigners can be designated as oligarchs, as well.

Even before the full-scale war, Zelensky was making significant efforts to limit oligarchic influence in Ukrainian politics. Back then, the president's team was bracing itself for protracted conflict with the richest people in Ukraine, the outcome of which was difficult to predict, given their opponents’ financial and media powers. However, the emergency conditions of war have made it easier for Zelensky to defeat groups of disloyal elites and allowed him to completely reshape the political scene.

In this context, is it any surprise that someone who was once one of the most powerful people in Ukraine might lose their citizenship? At the same time, there’s also a dark side to “de-oligarchization.” Yes, the oligarchs corrupted the state, exploiting its resources for the sake of private interests. But, paradoxically, competition between large financial and industrial groups prevented the country from sliding into authoritarianism.

Essay by Konstantin Skorkin

Abridged translation by Eilish Hart