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[Interview] Ukraine’s ex-PM hopes to get off EU list this week

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“They’re doing their utmost to deprive me of political activity.”

Allegations by the Ukrainian prosecutor – that Azarov is responsible, in the EU’s words, of “misappropriation of state fund” – saw member states put him on an asset-freeze list shortly after the 2014 Maidan revolution.

The US, last year, followed suit, adding a visa ban, including on grounds of “misappropriation of … assets.”

Interpol, the international police body, in January, briefly put him on its wanted list for “embezzlement.” Then it took him off again.

The Ukraine prosecutors say the “familia,” the former nomenklatura, stole billions of euros.

Azarov’s boss, former president Viktor Yanukovych, for instance, built himself a luxury mansion, called Mezhygirya, in which the main structure alone, the Honka building, is worth €160 million.

But Azarov says he isn’t aware of any wrongdoing.

“Of course, I knew that Yanukovych lived at Mezhygirya … But I’ve never been at his personal home and therefore I can’t comment on this,” he said.

Fourteen of the people on the EU blacklist have filed lawsuits at the EU court in Luxembourg.

One of them, Andriy Portnov, a former Yanukovych aide, already won his case because, judges said, the EU failed to show evidence.

EU officials have told Azarov’s Austrian law firm, Lansky, Ganzger und Partner (LGP), to expect a verdict on Thursday (28 January). Officials say the other verdicts, including on Yanukovych, are due soon.

If Azarov wins, he would be the highest-ranking ex-familia member to beat the rap.

He says he has “some savings … due to my almost 50 years of work as a scientist, academic, minister.” But he says none of his assets are in the EU.

There is also no link between the EU asset-freeze and the US and Interpol restrictions. But Azarov believes that if the EU clears him, he will have more room for manoeuvre.

“Because I cannot travel to the EU. I canot meet and talk to politicians in Europe. This dramatically limits my work as an opposition leader,” he said.

“The only way I can get rehabilitation is to solve this issue under EU law in the EU court.”

The committee

Azarov’s new project is the Committee for the Rescue of Ukraine.

Its objective is to prompt snap elections in Ukraine, unseat its pro-EU government, and put Russia back in place as Ukraine’s primary political and economic partner.

The ex-PM, while in office, prepared the EU free-trade accord, which anchors Ukraine’s future in the single market. Yanukovych didn’t sign it, prompting the first Maidan protests.

But now, Azarov says: “For our economy, deeper cooperation with the EU only makes sense while having Russia as our main partner … Russia, as a neighbour of Ukraine, is a priority partner. One should not implement a politics which is hostile to Russia.”

Asked if Ukraine’s pro-Western path is irreversible, he said it should be called the “wrong path,” adding: “I believe that the wrong path is definitely not irreversible.”

The committee works in secret in Ukraine, where it is outlawed, and is, Azarov said, “in contact” with the leaders of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), two Russia puppet-entities in east Ukraine.

He said Yanukovych, who, like Azarov, fled to Russia after the Maidan events, doesn’t want to take part.

He also said the Kremlin has nothing to do with the committee, which gets its “not big amount” of money from donations from its members, who are “politicians and business people.”

Virtual reality

EU and US diplomats like to say that Russia’s version of events on the Ukraine conflict is “virtual reality.”

It is a reality which Azarov fully espouses and which absolves him of any guilt.

The first Maidan activists were shot by snipers on 22 January 2014. But he says he had nothing to do with Maidan violence because he resigned as prime minister on 28 January and because there was, never, an “order or approval to use live ammunition.”

The Maidan was a popular uprising of more than 1 million people, but he calls it a “coup d’etat” by “Western geopolitical interests.”

The UN says Crimea’s referendum on joining Russia was a farce, but he says it joined Russia by the “free will of its people.”

The presence of Russian forces and weapons systems, such as the Buk missile which shot down flight MH17, in east Ukraine is extensively documented. But he says the war’s 9,000 deaths are “not at all through the fault of Russia.”

It is a reality which sometimes gets muddled.

Russia says it gives no support to DPR and LPR. But Azarov said “Russia had no other choice than to support Donbass,” using another name for DPR and LPR.

The telling of it also gets muddled.

Azarov’s law firm, LGP, which also does his public relations, says the EU put him under a travel ban, which it didn’t. Alber Geiger, a German law firm, also lobbies EU press and institutions in his name. But Azarov says he never hired it.

EU fumbles

It remains to be seen if LGP wins its case, or if Joseph Hage Aaronson, the London and New York-based firm which represents Yanukovych, also wins.

But EU states are losing them ever-more frequently.

They often blacklist people on the say-so of opposition NGOs. If they have hard intelligence, they don’t like to share it with EU judges.

The Ukraine situation is even more tricky because the Ukrainian prosecutor, EU sources say, has failed to collect evidence over the past 18 months.

One reason is because money-laundering structures are so complex. Another one is because the prosecutor’s office is a mess.

Kalman Mizsei, an EU diplomat tasked with reforming Ukrainian institutions, previously told EUobserver: “The prosecution is the backbone of the old system. It’s vital to clean it up.”

Roman Sohn, a former Maidan activist and a columnist for the Ukrainska Pravda investigative website, said: “The familia crimes are so complex, so well covered up by strings of offshore entities, that it would be hard, even for any super-honest and professional investigator to build a solid case.”

So what?

The Azarov verdict comes amid EU and US hopes that Russia is planning to freeze the conflict.

There was a flare-up in fighting last week. But when Victoria Nuland, a senior US diplomat, met Vladislav Surkov, a Russian counterpart, in Kaliningrad, in Russia, on 15 January, he went into so much detail on Ukraine ceasefire compliance the US saw it as a good sign.

“Putin appears ready to give up Donbass in exchange for sanctions relief. Could be biggest news of 2016,” Michael McFaul, the former US ambassador in Moscow, tweeted on Monday (25 January).

One EU diplomat said it’s not so important if Azarov and the rest win their EU cases, because the listing was designed, primarily, to stop outflow of state funds back in 2014.

But if they do, it might complicate talks on whether to roll over the asset-freeze list, in March, for one more year.

It will feed Russia’s “virtual reality” propaganda machine.

It will also free the hands of Azarov’s committee, or similar structures, to open a political front against Ukraine’s “wrong path” if the Donbass battlefields go quiet.