Stormy start of October: Pandora Papers and the dismissal of the Parliament Speaker

UKRAINE - In Brief 07 Oct 2021 by Dmytro Boyarchuk
The start of October appeared to be rather stormy for Ukrainian elites. The Pandora Papers as well as the removal of Parliament Speaker Dmytro Razumkov from his post have changed a lot on the Ukrainian political landscape. I do not expect immediate consequences from both events. However, in the medium term, multiple implications are inevitable. In Western media the image of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been seriously damaged by the Pandora Papers, I believe. Both the US and the EU are now facing a challenging task on how to position themselves on this story. Possible tax evasion and very likely support for the oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskiy with money laundering are not issues the western leaders can close their eyes to. At the same time, Ukrainian voters treated the news about money offshore quite smoothly. Volodymyr Zelenskiy is a multimillionaire, he made his fortune openly as an actor and producer, and hiding his money in tax havens is not a big crime for lay Ukrainians. Political opponents are trying to build on this scandal but my impression is that the Pandora Papers will not hit Zelenskiy's ratings too hard. But relations with the West will become strained, in my opinion. Today parliament dismissed Speaker Dmytro Razumkov from his post. The decision had been discussed in media already for several weeks and was quite expected. Razumkov tried to keep his own views on a variety of issues, and that was extremely irritating to Zelenskiy, who does not tolerate alternative opinions and demands absolute loyalty from his team. This view of the president (loyalty comes first) showed up a long time ago but the decision to remove his comrade, who helped him take ...

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