Comedian and actor Vladimir Zelensky, and now the main contender for the post of President of Ukraine, predstava a new generation of politicians promised to fight corruption and the oligarchs. But the hacked emails show that the newly created policy can be a powerful patron — the Kremlin.
On Tuesday, April 16, the security Service of Ukraine reported that they are investigating whether received campaign funding from Zelensky of employees of the Russian security services that support the management of the DNR group.
First information about the connection Zelensky and the Kremlin, came after the Ukrainian hacker group associated with the center «Peacemaker», published a few hacked emails in which said that Russian security officer tried to exchange cryptocurrency for cash to send them Zelensky. In one of the emails the employee of the Russian special services said that they «approve the budget for the action comedian».
The emails also show that part of the funding came from the Kremlin aide Vladislav Surkov and Russian billionaire Konstantin Malofeyev.
Euromaidan Press — Ukrainian web site, launched after the revolution of dignity in 2014 — check the documents and determined that «burglary is probably true but impossible to verify for yourself incriminating messages».
Other independent researchers have come to similar conclusions, but some experts believe that one should not trust information spread by hackers Peacemaker.
«The reputation they have is not the best. This is one of indiscriminate, politically-motivated leaks that put people, especially journalists, under threat,» said Newsweek Nina janković, an employee of the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute.
Public opinion polls published Tuesday showed that Zelensky will probably win in the runoff election on Sunday, April 21, with just over 70% of the vote.
Preparing for winning the election, employees Zelensky establish communication with American officials, including members of Congress and representatives of think-tanks. Wednesday, April 17, according to the Law on the registration of foreign agents (FARA), party Zelensky «servant of the people», named after his popular TV show, hired lobbying firm D.C. Signal Group for 60 million dollars. In the FARA filings it is noted that the Signal Group will work to «increase reputation» policy.
