Lviv mayor Sadovyi named suspect in criminal case

Andriy Sadovyi, the mayor of Ukraine’s seventh-largest
city Lviv, was named a suspect on Nov. 21, along with several city
councilmembers, in two criminal cases of abuse of authority and conspiring to
violate the interests of a state position. Sadovyi and the councilmembers
allegedly violated the law when they approved the sale of land beyond the Lviv
city limits for the development of an industrial business park, as reported by
the pravda.com.ua news site, citing anonymous sources. Moreover, the
development plan didn’t conform to the requirements of the land code and other
regulations on land use and zoning at the time of the approval, a source said.

The notices were issued by the Specialized
Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. “Law enforcement authorities have the
conclusions of the State Audit Service, an expert and the testimony of
witnesses who even quit their jobs so as not to sign illegal rulings,” a source
said. The office said it will request bail to be set at UAH 50 mln, which
Sadovyi said he doesn’t have.

As his response to the accusations, Sadovyi denied
wrongdoing. “There was a field where cows grazed when a company was supposed to
build an industrial park. Beginning in 2015, there was interference from all
sides, at the level of the state and the prosecutor general’s office … During
that time, the CTP company build parks in Romania and other countries. This is
the third largest investor in industrial property. They intend to create 3,000
jobs here in Lviv. Since 2016, prosecutors have been arriving and
investigating, while the land stands empty. This is the reality of our times.
We will fight and win,” Sadovyi said in a Facebook post.

Zenon Zawada: The
Zelensky’s administration’s strategy in fighting corruption has been to find
convenient targets in the current wave of issuing notices of suspicions in
criminal cases (which is a step before indictment of criminal charges).
Convenient targets are better than no targets. Figures like Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevskiy,
businessman    Oleg Bakhmatyuk, Lisnycha/Kondzelia, bankers Alexander Pisaruk and Oleksandr Hrytsenko, former MP Serhiy Pashynskiy and now
Sadovyi are what we would call second-tier targets. Notably, the Zelensky
administration has also targeted some heavyweight, first-tier targets for
prosecution, including former President Poroshenko
and his close associate Oleh Hladkovskiy, billionaire
Kostyantyn Zhevago.

All of this is positive but not enough. Recall that
the Poroshenko administration named many key figures in the Yanukovych
administration as suspects, but their criminal cases never underwent a court
trial, let alone reaching a verdict. Some of these second-tier cases targeted
by the Zelensky administration are relatively weak compared to other potential
cases, or politically inexpedient. For example, Bakhmatyuk seems to be
genuinely interested in resolving his debt issues with the state, while Sadovyi
seems to have been earnestly trying to build this industrial park, despite the
likely related corruption shenanigans typical of Ukraine.

Nonetheless, the majority of these first- and
second-tier suspects targeted by the Zelensky administration need to face a
full courtroom trial and verdict, at minimum, for the president’s claims of
fighting corruption to be legitimate. Anything less would be a repeat of the
failures of the Poroshenko administration and will contribute to Zelensky’s
political demise, just as corruption undermined his predecessor.