Latest corruption allegations surface against Poroshenko, Biden

Former President Poroshenko asked the White House for
its support in the 2019 presidential elections in Ukraine, according to the
latest excerpts released of the memoirs to be published of John Bolton, who
served as national security adviser to U.S. President Trump for 15 months.
After the U.S. and Ukrainian official delegations held a meeting in late August
2018, Poroshenko took Bolton into a separate room and requested U.S. support
for his re-election, which he said he rejected. Among a series of other
requests was for the U.S. to impose sanctions against billionaire magnate Ihor
Kolomoisky. Poroshenko said he was supporting Yulia Tymoshenko, who was his
main contender in the presidential race at the time (before the emergence of
Volodymyr Zelensky, who was also backed by Kolomoisky). Bolton said he didn’t
reject this request, and proposed that Poroshenko submit evidence of crimes to
the U.S. Justice Department.

The latest alleged recordings of telephone
conversations between then-President Poroshenko and then-U.S. Vice President
Joe Biden were released and narrated at a June 22 press conference by MP Andriy
Derkach, an MP with alleged but unproven ties to the Russian Federal Security
Service (FSB). About 20 excerpts of these conversations were published the same
day on the NABU Leaks YouTube channel, about a month after Derkach held a
similar press conference to discuss the release of similar recordings. Among
the main excerpts was Biden allegedly asking Poroshenko to protect
then-Naftogaz Chairman Andriy Kobolev from possible attempts by then-PM Arseniy
Yatsenyuk to dismiss him. Poroshenko assured Biden that Kobolev would remain.

Biden also mentioned the name of Amos Hochstein, a
U.S. member of Naftogaz’s supervisory board that Derkach alleged served Biden’s
personal business interests. Formally, Hochstein is recognized as a close
diplomatic adviser to Biden as a top energy authority in the U.S. State
Department. Hochstein also serves on the supervisory board of the Atlantic
Council think tank in Washington. Derkach alleged that Biden personally
profited from the reverse transit of natural gas from Slovakia through his
influence on Naftogaz through Hochstein. In another recording, Biden also
allegedly requested Poroshenko to tell then-PM Volodymyr Groysman to stop
trying to amend IMF requirements for the latest loan tranche, which Poroshenko
said he would do.

In his turn, Poroshenko also made requests of Biden,
which included requesting that then-PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk influence Internal
Affairs Minister Arsen Avakov, with whom he was having a conflict. Poroshenko
also asked Biden to pressure Yatsenyuk into having his parliamentary faction
approve the 2017 budget and legislation needed to implement the Minsk Accords.

Zenon Zawada: These
allegations about Poroshenko’s policies and actions as president, if they are
true, would imply an inability of Ukrainian leaders to reach political
consensus without U.S. intervention, as well as possible corruption in
U.S.-Ukraine relations. They also imply that interests hostile to Ukraine’s
Western integration are capable of recording, or gaining the recordings, of
highly sensitive conversations involving the highest-ranking officials. Among
these hostile interests could be the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB),
Ukrainian security officials serving the interests of Russia, or officials
serving political opponents to Poroshenko, such as Ihor Kolomoisky.

The Derkach recordings have been carefully organized
to release sensitive information in installments, with June 22 being the second
release of leaks. We view them to be part of a Kremlin-backed campaign (whether
direct or indirect) to discredit the U.S. as corrupt in the eyes of the
Ukrainian public, among other aims. The reason many Ukrainians favor
Western-integration is that they perceive it to be a valuable ally in
implementing rule of law and combating corruption. The Kremlin understands that
more Ukrainians will back integration with Russia if this perception of the
U.S. is discredited gradually.

It’s worth noting that this campaign of
discrediting the West in the eyes of the public is occurring just as pro-Russian activists have been
taking up socio-economic causes and protests in
recent weeks, which were typically led by pro-Western forces. These are all
elements in a complex Kremlin campaign to convince Ukrainians that Western
integration just isn’t worth it anymore.