U.S. officials confirm Ukraine intervention, not Yovanovitch involvement

Several U.S. State Department officials, speaking on
anonymity, confirmed that requests were made by U.S. diplomats that Ukrainian
law enforcement authorities not pursue criminal investigations of Ukrainian
citizens, including Vitaliy Shabunin, the head of the Anti-Corruption Action
Centre. Describing the request as unusual, the State Dept. officials “feared
the investigation was simply retribution for the group’s high-profile efforts
to force anti-corruption reforms inside Ukraine, some of which took authorities
and prestige from the Prosecutor General’s office,” thehill.com reporter John
Solomon reported in a March 26 column. They added, “We’re not normally in the
business of telling a country’s police force who they can and can’t pursue,
unless it involves an American citizen we think is wrongly accused.”

The three Ukrainian citizens who drew the U.S.
embassy’s intervention are identified as the founder of the Anti-Corruption
Action Centre, Vitaliy Shabunin, and two members of Parliament “who vocally
supported the group’s anti-corruption reform agenda,” according to a source
directly familiar with the meeting. In that meeting, U.S. Ambassador Marie
Yovanovitch allegedly asked Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko not to
investigate these Ukrainians for criminal activity.

Zenon Zawada: These
statements by anonymous U.S. State Department officials do not mention whether
it was Yovanovitch who made the requests, as had been alleged by Lutsenko in what became a diplomatic scandal.
In statements afterwards, Shabunin has said that the letter provided by
Lutsenko as evidence of interference by the U.S. embassy was dated April 2016,
before Yovanovitch was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine. Moreover, Lutsenko
had himself condemned the investigation that drew the U.S. intervention,
Shabunin alleged. The subject of that investigation was USD 4.4 mln in funds to
fight corruption, as mentioned in Solomon’s March 26 column.

So ultimately, we continue to view Lutsenko’s
accusations as a cheap stunt to strike back at Yovanovitch by the Presidential
Administration, as well as discredit her (to whatever extent that’s possible)
ahead of the elections, which could turn tumultuous. At the same time, Lutsenko
mentioned a potential investigation of Ukrainians aiding the U.S. presidential
campaign of Hillary Clinton, which we view as the Poroshenko administration
extending a hand of cooperation to the White House. Both the embassy
intervention, and the interference of Ukrainians in U.S. elections are likely
to involve MP Serhiy Leshchenko, which has been among the Poroshenko
administration’s leading critics. So Poroshenko’s team are using these scandals
to settle scores and create new allies.