According to Kolomoisky, he met the future president at some party in 2008 or 2009, where Zelensky was a guest, not performing in his usual role as a variety show comedian. A few years later, their acquaintance evolved into a business relationship. Starting in 2012, the variety show “Evening Kvartal” began to air in prime time on Saturday on Kolomoisky’s channel. In return, Zelensky received a portion of the advertising revenue from the channel.
It is not known for certain what level of relationship they maintained with each other until 2015. It was unlikely to be a friendship because they were people of different statuses. However, in all interviews, Kolomoisky always spoke of Zelensky with the utmost affection.
In 2021, following the leak of the Pandora Papers, it was revealed that several of Zelensky’s companies received almost $40 million from Kolomoisky as payment for television content. To minimize taxes, the money was routed through offshore companies.
Some journalists speculated that Zelensky’s offshore accounts could have been used by Kolomoisky to siphon money from PrivatBank. As is known, in 2016, the bank was nationalized by the state due to capitalization issues. But before that, Kolomoisky had extracted almost all of its liquid capital by issuing unsecured loans to shell companies.
The idea that Zelensky could have been involved in this scheme seems unlikely. The sum of $40 million fits well into the scale of the years-long collaboration between “Kvartal 95” and the “1+1” channel. It’s important to remember that the “Evening Kvartal” show aired on Saturday evening when advertising time is most expensive.