Ukraine parliament removes political immunity from Novinsky

Ukraine’s parliament voted on Dec. 8 to remove the political immunity of MP Vadim Novinsky, an oligarch who is accused of conspiring to usurp church authority and conspiring in the unlawful captivity of a church official in 2013. The vote drew a slim majority of 228 votes, mostly from MPs of pro-Western political parties. Days before the vote, Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko said he would officially declare Novinsky a suspect in the crimes but he has yet to do that. Nor has he formally filed criminal charges yet or called for his arrest.

Novinsky has said that the criminal charges were entirely fabricated and he is being targeted for political persecution, with the ultimate goal of raiding his corporate assets. His wealth was estimated at USD 546 mln as of October this year by the nv.ua news site, placing him among the Top 10 wealthiest Ukrainians. Besides his Smart Holding assets – which include ship-building, oil&gas, farming and food-processing companies – Novinsky is a minority shareholder in Metinvest, Ukraine’s largest steel producer.

Zenon Zawada: Given that there has been no follow up from Lutsenko in prosecuting Novinsky, we believe the Poroshenko administration is using this matter to pressure Novinsky in order to extract concessions from him. It would be a very poor reflection upon the government if these concessions are in the form of assets or wealth.

The Poroshenko administration somehow thinks that these show trials, orchestrated against easy targets with Hollywood-style narratives every few months, will somehow satisfy the Ukrainian public’s demand for law enforcement and justice. However, we think these show trials are having an opposite effect and hurting the president’s credibility and support.

The public is well aware that no one involved in the EuroMaidan massacres has been convicted, and that enormous economic crimes have occurred during the Poroshenko presidency without any prosecution. So authorities suddenly targeting an oligarch for playing church politics looks suspicious at minimum, but it’s widely viewed as irrelevant compared to the bigger problems at hand.