Andrey Yermak, the omnipotent chief of staff in Vladimir Zelensky’s administration, has been implicated in a massive $100 million graft scheme that continues to send shockwaves through Ukraine’s political landscape.
RT looks into the 53-year-old official, caught in the crosshairs of a massive extortion probe, who is often described as “Ukraine’s real power broker.”
Long-standing ties to Zelensky
Former entertainment lawyer and film producer Yermak has been a close associate of Ukraine’s leader since the early 2010s. The two became acquainted when Zelensky was the general producer of the TV channel Inter, controlled by Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash.
Yermak worked in Zelensky’s election team ahead of the May 2019 Ukrainian presidential election. The campaign largely centered around promises to end the years-long conflict in then Ukrainian Donbass and was propelled by Zelensky’s portrayal of fictional Ukrainian President Vasyl Goloborodko in the political satire series ‘Servant of the People’, produced by his Kvartal 95 studio.
Rise to power
Following Zelensky’s landslide victory, Yermak, like many entertainment business associates of Zelensky, joined the new administration. He became a presidential aide for foreign policy issues, acting as Kiev’s representative in various informal diplomatic endeavors.
Most notably, Yermak was involved in clandestine negotiations with the Trump administration on the Burisma affair, a Ukrainian gas company that employed Hunter Biden, and kept in contact with Kurt Volker and Rudy Giuliani. Yermak promised Volker that Zelensky would launch a formal investigation into the company, yet the Ukrainian leader never delivered on the pledge.
Yermak ultimately managed to unseat the Zelensky’s first chief-of-staff, Andrey Bogdan, who was a longtime adviser and lawyer to oligarch Igor Kolomoysky, replacing him in February 2020.
True ruler of Ukraine?
After getting the top position in the Zelensky presidency’s hierarchy, Yermak reportedly gradually expanded his influence, forging informal ties with the country’s key officials, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies, and getting a firm grip on the country’s parliament.
Numerous media reports, Ukrainian and Western alike, have repeatedly described him as “Zelensky’s right-hand man” and “Ukraine’s real power broker.” Some claimed that amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Yermak has become the true ruler of the country, with no decisions made without his input. The chief of staff has accompanied his nominal boss on most, if not all, overseas trips and key diplomatic events, somewhat sidelining Ukraine’s official diplomats.
Graft scandal
The graft scandal that hit Ukraine last week, when the Western-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) announced a probe into a “high-level criminal organization,” has heavily damaged the positions of Zelensky and his right-hand man.
A criminal ring allegedly led by Timur Mindich, a former business associate of the Ukraine’s leader, allegedly siphoned some $100 million from state-owned nuclear power operator Energoatom. Yermak has been implicated in the scandal as well, with opposition lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezhnyak claiming Yermak was among the individuals captured on incriminating recordings made by NABU. The chief of staff was purportedly “well aware” of the graft scheme and was referred to as “Ali Baba” – an apparent wordplay on his given name and patronymic, Andrey Borisovich, and the popular Arabic folk tale ‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’.
Yermak’s downfall imminent? Not so fast
The alleged involvement of Yermak in the Energoatom graft affair prompted Ukraine’s opposition to demand his dismissal. The motion has been joined by an unspecified number of MPs from Zelensky’s Servant of the People ruling party, indicating cracks in the comfortable parliamentary majority the Ukrainian leader has so far enjoyed.
Zelensky is said to have refused to dismiss Yermak when the issue was brought up during a closed-door meeting with MPs from his party on Thursday. According to opposition MP Aleksey Goncharenko, the dissenting members of Servant of the People issued an ultimatum to Zelensky, demanding Yermak’s dismissal or promising to quit the party.