The politics of corruption in Kyiv

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Lara 7:27 pm on November 19, 2015
Tags: Kyiv ( 34,223 )
The politics of corruption in Kyiv
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KYIV — The former head of Ukraine’s state security service, Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, arrived in Washington D.C. Thursday to deliver his scathing assessment of the country’s post-revolutionary law-enforcement to the U.S. Congress.

Sources close to Nalyvaichenko say the visit is part of a bid to win American backing for a challenge to President Petro Poroshenko at Ukraine’s next elections.

“There’s still a lot of time until the elections,” the silver-haired former spymaster said with a smile when asked about contesting the presidency in an interview before his trip to the U.S. He chose his words carefully, a reminder that he left a career in diplomacy to join the SBU, Ukraine’s KGB successor. “Before I run for any office I want to win the trust of Ukrainians.”

* * *

Prior to his first stint with the security service under former President Viktor Yushchenko’s Western-friendly “Orange” government, Nalyvaichenko was Ukraine’s ambassador to Belarus. When the Kremlin-backed Viktor Yanukovych came to power in 2010, he moved into the opposition. In 2012 he was elected to Parliament as a member of heavyweight boxer and current Kyiv mayor Vitaly Klitschko’s party, then returned to head the SBU for 16 months in the immediate aftermath of Yanukovych’s February 2014 departure.

“Now I’m running an NGO, communicating with ordinary people, activists, volunteers, trying to better understand their problems,” Nalyvaichenko said. “If I go back to politics, I will do this based only on their mandate and support.”

But it’s not just the support of the Ukrainian people he’s after. While in the U.S., his team plans to meet with House Speaker Paul Ryan, Ambassador Daniel Fried, the U.S. State Department’s coordinator for sanctions policy, and senior staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Ukraine’s next presidential vote isn’t due until 2019, but two years after the massive protests that led to the ousting of Yanukovych, widespread discontent is simmering once more. Frustration at the slow pace of change is threatening the present government’s stability. Its approval ratings have plummeted, allowing oligarchs to dominate at local elections held last month.

Nalyvaichenko said he shares that frustration. Voted chief of the SBU by Parliament before Poroshenko’s presidency began, he was tasked with combatting corruption — while simultaneously fighting a bloody Moscow-sponsored insurgency in eastern Ukraine.

“I remember our first conversation after [President Poroshenko] was elected. He told me ‘Valentyn, I would like to stop corruption in the Parliament — no dirty money, no shell companies used by MPs,” Nalyvaichenko said.

“Unfortunately there was no will to go to the end, to prosecute really corrupt officials at the top.”

The security chief privately accused the president’s choice of prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin, of stifling investigations, triggering a protracted feud between the two lawmen.

According to Nalyvaichenko, government lawyers continue to sit on evidence of a plot between Ukrainian and Russian security services to slaughter protesters during the final days of the “Maidan” revolution against Yanukovych’s rule.

“An official letter from me, signed and sent to the general prosecutor, clearly established that three groups of Russian FSB generals arrived in Kyiv during Maidan times — that means December, January and February [2013-2014],” he said, going on to suggest that Vladimir Putin’s personal aide, Vladislav Surkov, masterminded the crackdown.

“They have witnesses, casings or boxes from the snipers’ rifles, evidence of Surkov’s arrival — he spent several nights at a special SBU facility with the former head of SBU. They’ve talked to one ex-SBU general arrested by us in November last year.”

Nearly two years later, no Ukrainian officers have been jailed for their role in the deaths of more than 100 protesters. Nalyvaichenko blames both prosecutor and president for dragging their feet when it comes to investigating government officials.

“I was blocked at the top. Not only by the prosecutor general himself but I regularly reported to the President with evidence of dirty shell companies and other crimes, constitutional court members involved in corruption, high-ranking officials from ministries, government officials. I got no response from the president or the prosecutor general.”
The private feud between the head prosecutor and SBU boss finally boiled over into a public spat this summer. On June 9, an enormous oil depot erupted in flames outside Kyiv, killing four people. In the wake of the blaze, Nalyvaichenko announced that although the depot had been run illegally, the prosecutor’s office had actively prevented police intervention.

“One of the deputy prosecutor generals actually provided a ‘roof’ — illegal protection for this business — for several years with no questions, no limitations from law enforcement,” he explained. Two weeks after his announcement, Nalyvaichenko was pushed out the door. President Poroshenko forced a vote for his resignation through Parliament.

In September, Nalyvaichenko’s allegations against the prosecutor general were echoed by U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt in a cutting address that illustrated the extent of Washington’s frustration with Ukraine’s lack of corruption convictions. Ambassador Pyatt’s statement added to a growing clamour for Shokin’s resignation.

Then, just as the chief prosecutor’s popularity had reached its lowest ebb, a sniper fired three shots at his office as he held a late night meeting. A military prosecutor investigating the attack said the shooter had used a thermal imaging scope to target the law chief in the dark. He had only been saved, the investigator said, because the bullets were stopped by bulletproof glass.

Experts scorned that account, highlighting that thermal sensors cannot penetrate glass, which gives off its own heat signature. Nalyvaichenko appeared to suggest that the assassination attempt may have been staged in a twisted PR effort to rehabilitate Shokin’s tattered reputation.

“Everybody knows that office has special windows. They are bulletproof and even protect against rockets. So the question is — what was the reason to shoot?” he said.

“It’s very suspicious when six hours beforehand [the government] announced a potential threat to his life and nobody did anything. The perimeter of a building such as the prosecutor general’s office is searched and secured — every window, every rooftop, every basement within the perimeter is under the control of the SBU.”

Since Nalyvaichenko departed the SBU, critics say that corruption has gone unchecked within the service. The president replaced him with Vasyl Hrytsak, the head of Poroshenko’s private security detail between 2010 and 2014. Hrytsak swiftly began to unravel his predecessor’s changes.

“During my last month in the office I fired all the leadership of this special anti-corruption department because they got simply no results. There was operational information about their involvement in corruption and contraband activity,” said Nalyvaichenko. “What happened after I left? They were all brought back to the office.”

Last month two journalists were assaulted by guards as they filmed secret car-parks used by SBU bosses to hide their luxury cars. The agency initially promised an investigation into the attack, but instead tried to get the journalists’ program pulled by threatening legal action.

* * *

Nalyvaichenko’s own criticism of the government has also earned unwelcome attention. He has been accused by the president’s party of serving the interests of oligarchs. His family has been accused by Ukrainian media of accepting gifts on his behalf. Yet he has persevered, establishing an NGO whose avowed purpose is to investigate and expose government graft.

Nalyvaichenko said that he wants to share his investigations with U.S. law enforcement. He also wants to warn Ukraine’s U.S. backers that he believes President Poroshenko is not the right man for the job, and that, in his opinion, the President’s apparent focus on appointing loyalists rather than genuine reformers is undermining the country’s democratic aspirations.

“Each and every place and every position is occupied only by people he can trust and only by people loyal to him,” Nalyvaichenko warned. “It’s becoming a very closed circle.”

Maxim Tucker is a freelance journalist in Kyiv.

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Lara 7:27 pm on November 19, 2015
Tags: Kyiv ( 34,223 )

The politics of corruption in Kyiv

News.Kyiv.Me.

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Lara 7:27 pm on November 19, 2015 Tags: Kyiv ( 34,223 )

The politics of corruption in Kyiv

Lara 7:27 pm on November 19, 2015
Tags: Kyiv ( 34,223 )