82.3% consider Zelensky’s involvement in offshore activities unacceptable, poll shows
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BURI-UKRAINE (01.12.2021) – 82.3% consider Zelensky’s involvement in offshore activities unacceptable. The gap between the ‘Servant of the People’ & ‘Opposition Platform – For Life’ shrinking to a minimum, poll suggests.
In the event of snap parliamentary elections, five parties would be elected to a new Ukrainian parliament with “Servant of the People” and “Opposition Platform – For Life” parties counting on the largest quantity of votes. These results were presented in the research conducted by the International Research Сentre BURI-Ukraine (The Belgium-Ukraine Research Institute, Belgium) during November 27-30, 2021.
According to the survey, the respondents’ answers to the question “How would you vote if the elections to the Supreme Council (Verkhovna Rada) of Ukraine are to be held this Sunday?” were distributed as follows: “Servant of the People” – 17.6%, “Opposition Platform – For Life” – 16.9%, “The European Solidarity” – 16.3%, “Batkivshchyna” – 12.5%, and “Syla I Chest” – 5.1% (among those who will take part in the voting and have decided on their choice). The other parties do not pass the 5-percent threshold.
64.6 percent of respondents believe that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not doing a good job as the President of Ukraine. Only 9.5 percent of respondents expressed the opposite opinion.
Assessing the recent press conference of Volodymyr Zelensky devoted to the “equator” of his presidency in Ukraine, the majority of respondents noted that it was “a communication loss for Zelensky and his team” (74.3%):
As for the recent scandals involving Ukraine’s top leadership, 53.2% said that the investigation based on the Pandora Papers (involvement of Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his closest entourage in offshore companies) would have the biggest impact on their reputation in Ukraine and abroad. 17.7% of the respondents pointed out Wagnergate as such a factor, and 11.3% pointed out the circumstances of Dmytro Razumkov’s removal from the position of the head of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine:
Expressing their attitude towards the government actions to limit the broadcast of Ukrainian TV channels, including the closure of “112 Ukraine”, “ZIK” and “Newsone”, cases of censorship against “UA:Pershiy” and “DOM”, attempts to influence the editorial policy of “Ukraine” and “Ukraine 24”, the vast majority of respondents (71.6%) did not support such actions of the authorities:
The block of questions about the recent offshore scandal involving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky showed the following trends: 68.5% of the respondents answered in the affirmative to the question whether they were aware of the involvement of Zelensky and his inner circle (the current head of the Security Service of Ukraine Ivan Bakanov, first presidential aide Sergey Shefir and others) in the creation of a network of at least 10 offshore companies which were involved in shady tax minimisation and money laundering operations (the so-called Pandora Papers).
An overwhelming number of respondents (82.3%) believe that the involvement of Ukraine’s senior officials in offshore activities is unacceptable.
64.8% of the respondents were ready to believe the information about the involvement of Volodymyr Zelensky and his closest entourage in shady financial operations of tax minimisation and money laundering even without the investigation based on the Pandora Papers:
67.7% of respondents believe that the investigation based on Pandora Papers will worsen the reputation of the Ukrainian authorities abroad. Only 1.2% of the respondents expressed the opposite opinion.
52.5% of the respondents believe that the results of the investigation based on Pandora Papers will also lead to a drop in Volodymyr Zelensky and the “Sluga Narodu” party’s rating in Ukraine.
At least 65% of respondents are planning to closely monitor the situation around the offshore companies related to the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and his entourage.
The survey was conducted on the whole territory of Ukraine, except for temporarily uncontrolled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and Crimea, by the international research center BURI-Ukraine (The Belgium-Ukraine Research Institute, Belgium) during November 27-30, 2021. The survey method was telephone interviews based on random sampling of mobile numbers. Total number of respondents was 2,014persons. Probable error margin is not exceeding 2.2%.
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