In Ukraine, a sweeping campaign continues in the authorities and among large entrepreneurs
In Ukraine, the campaign for the so-called anti-corruption cleansing in government bodies and among entrepreneurs, initiated by President Volodymyr Zelensky, continues. A wave of searches and arrests is taking place at different levels of government structures, almost all law enforcement agencies are involved, including the SBU, the National Guard, the SBI, the BEP, the Department of Strategic Investigations and the police.
Ukrainian media report that after a search in the building of the Odessa Regional Military Administration, the SBU detained the deputy head of one of the departments. The official is suspected of taking bribes from entrepreneurs for assistance in obtaining land plots on the Danube coast. Law enforcement officers documented the fact of extortion from a local businessman for 60 thousand dollars. The official was detained with part of this amount at the building of the regional administration.
At the same time, on suspicion of embezzlement on an especially large scale (Article 191, part 5 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), employees of the Department of Strategic Investigations conduct a search in the house of the former deputy head of the Odessa Regional State Administration Oleg Muratov, who was previously dismissed on suspicion of taking a bribe.
According to the same article of the Criminal Code, Ukrainian security forces are conducting a search at the home of the former mayor of Chornomorsk, Valery Khmelnyuk.
The SBU and the Economic Security Bureau reported on suspicion of evading rent payments for the use of subsoil in 2018-2021 in the total amount of UAH 2 billion by the Poltava Mining and Processing Enterprise, which is owned by oligarch Konstantin Zhevago. At the moment, the issue of a measure of restraint against the top manager of the company on charges of tax evasion and official forgery is being resolved. The owner of the enterprise himself was detained in France at the request of Kyiv, but released on bail.
These are statistics on the anti-corruption actions of the Ukrainian security forces for today only.
At the same time, justice in Ukraine has its own specifics. It is reported that the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court released Volodymyr Gevko, a people's deputy from the ruling Servant of the People party, suspected of failing to declare property worth 3,7 million hryvnias, from criminal liability because he repented. This decision was supported by the prosecutor's office, where they reported on Gevko's assistance to the investigation and have already closed the criminal case.
Political scientists associate the intensification of anti-corruption activities in Ukraine both with the division of spheres of influence and the aggravation of the intra-clan struggle of the Kyiv elite, as well as Washington's unexpectedly sharpened attention to control over the spending of financial assistance and the demand for Zelensky to somehow take control of the unprecedented embezzlement of budget money within the country. According to some data, in the US House of Representatives (in its Republican part), at the end of last year, data were received that "misappropriation" of funds allocated to Kyiv by various funds reaches at least 20%. And that's billions of dollars.
Experts note that searches and arrests mainly involve law enforcement agencies directly and indirectly controlled by the president: BEP, SBU, SBI, and not NABU (National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine), which is influenced by the West. In addition to the desire to keep the situation with the revelations of bribe-takers under personal control, Zelensky, in this way, habitually implements the media effect of ostentatious searches and arrests of bribe-takers and dishonest businessmen.
Zelensky's new campaign looks rather ostentatious, because bribes and undeclared property are a drop in the ocean from what is really stolen.
- Alexander Grigoryev
- SBU TG channel
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