Son of Ukraine interior minister detained by anti-corruption bureau

Oleksandr Avakov, the son of Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, was detained on Oct. 31 and named a suspect in criminal case alleging price gouging in which he allegedly sold 6,000 backpacks to the ministry at inflated prices. Former deputy interior minister Serhiy Chebotar was also detained and named a suspect. Their detention was ordered and carried out by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, which was established in 2015 in cooperation with Western governments to investigate and prepare for prosecution corruption cases in Ukraine.

In response to the detentions, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov accused the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of being under influence of “political groups and interests” and “having political interests and a public relations position.” He said the accused committed no crimes and will be exonerated in a court of law. The People’s Front party, of which Avakov is a member, stated that the detentions are “political pressure on the minister personally, the National Police as a whole, as well as on the party and its parliamentary faction. “This case gathered dust for two-and-a-half years on the shelf of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecution,” the statement said, mentioning that scores of examinations and hundreds of procedures were performed in relation to the case with no reason to prosecute.

Recall in August 2016, a Kyiv court ruled to allow the National Anti-Corruption Bureau to review phone calls in their investigation of Avakov’s alleged approval of the purchase of 6,000 backpacks at inflated price from a firm linked to his son Oleksandr. A video had been leaked to the Internet in February 2016 in which Oleksandr Avakov is cutting a deal with Chebotar to provide the backpacks to the ministry’s police units.
Zenon Zawada: Like the bombing last week that nearly killed MP Ihor Mosiychuk, numerous theories have surfaced as to why the National Anti-Corruption Bureau decided to target the interior minister’s son at this moment, especially when this investigation became public a year ago. And especially when the criminal charges are not as serious as many other alleged crimes occurring. The biggest question is whether anyone ordered the arrest, or was it decided independently by the bureau’s head, Artem Sytnyk.

We are confident that the Anti-Corruption Bureau is Ukraine’s leading independent law enforcement authority that is not influenced by the president. At the same time, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have political motivations. So we can’t rule out the possibility that it detained Avakov’s son in order to pressure Avakov not to eliminate the tent city protest in front of parliament that has reached its second week. We mentioned yesterday that Avakov decided to replace the police positioned there with National Guardsmen.
We can also speculate that the bureau is acting on U.S. government wishes to prevent Avakov from eliminating the tent city, among whose leaders is U.S. ally Mikheil Saakashvili. What is certain is that there’s an intense battle for power occurring in the top echelons of government between the president, the interior minister, and the opposition activists in the tent city, who are being led by Saakashvili and the Self-Reliance party. If the Poroshenko administration survives this episode by reaching compromises and avoiding violence, it will continue on a relatively smooth path to re-election in 2019.