In January 2021, about a year before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky celebrated his 43rd birthday at the home of his old friend and business partner Tymur Mindich. About two dozen guests showed up at Mindich’s place, inside a luxury tower known around Kyiv as the Monster, where Zelensky also owned an apartment. The party, held in violation of pandemic lockdown orders, generated embarrassing headlines. The president was forced to answer questions about why the rules imposed on ordinary citizens did not seem to apply to him and his friends.

Last week, similar questions arose after Mindich and his apartment appeared at the center of one of the biggest corruption scandals in Ukraine’s history. Investigators have accused him of using the apartment as the h

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