Ukraine interior ministry demands answers from Lyovochkin

Anton Gerashchenko, an MP and advisor to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, requested on June 4 that parliament require MP Serhiy Lyovochkin to appear for questioning in relation to the murder of Oleg Kalashnikov, a former MP and Party of Regions member. He presented to parliament a written appeal issued by Arsen Avakov after Lyovochkin failed to appear for questioning on May 25 and 28. “Either Lyovochkin has something to hide in the Kalashnikov murder, either he has something to hide in financing the anti-maidan in Kyiv,” Gerashchenko said.

Zenon Zawada: The Prosecutor General’s Office has named Serhiy Kliuyev and Serhiy Lyovochkin, both Yanukovych insiders, as witnesses in the investigation of Kalashnikov’s murder. Both politicians have tried to align themselves with officials in the current government to evade arrest and prosecution. Just how successful they will be will depend on whether they can withstand pressure from the public and rival political parties.

Kliuyev has yet to be arrested, despite reportedly attempting to flee Ukraine after his political immunity was stripped. We can’t rule out that he has agreements with key officials. Lyovochkin, on other hand, clearly has some kind of a political alliance with the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, as revealed by his business partner, Dmytro Firtash. Meanwhile, Gerashchenko represents the People’s Front party of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a rival to the president.

In essence, what we’re seeing here is a political rivalry being played out on the stages of Ukraine’s judicial system, rather than a consistent, systemic prosecution of criminals. In such conditions, powerful, wealthy players like Kliuyev and Lyovochkin are going to appeal to European courts, just as Firtash did, to prove the prosecutions are selective.

Nonetheless, the government needs to carry out whatever arrests and prosecutions it can of key political insiders, such as Kliuyev and Lyovochkin. The first steps need to be taken in this long overdue process of prosecuting the crimes of the Yanukovych administration, despite the lack of a reformed and consistent judicial system.

The political prospects for Yatsenyuk and the People’s Front party are already bleak. Yet the failure to follow through in the cases of Kliuyev and Lyovochkin, even in these imperfect conditions, could prove disastrous to Poroshenko and his political party as well.