EU court lifts sanctions against key Yanukovych official

The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled on Oct. 26 to lift its sanctions against Andriy Portnov, the former first deputy head of the Presidential Administration under Viktor Yanukovych, in response to a complaint he filed that they were illegally imposed, reported the eurointegration.com.ua news site. The court determined that the single reason the EU imposed sanctions was a letter from the Procurator General of Ukraine that claimed that information gathered from its investigations allows it to claim that Portnov was among those responsible for embezzling a large amount of state funds and their illegal transfer out of Ukraine. Yet the letter didn’t offer any details of the alleged crime, which is not enough of a basis to impose sanctions, the report said.

The EU imposed in March 2014 sanctions against top officials in the regime of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych after his flight, citing their role as suspects in the theft of costs from the Ukrainian government and illegally transferring them abroad. Portnov’s exoneration could lead to similar rulings in appeals of other Yanukovych officials, which totaled 18 when the EU disclosed its sanctions list that month. Among the measures were asset freezes in banks on EU territory.

Zenon Zawada: It’s our view that the EU was well aware of the lack of evidence that existed at the time it imposed the sanctions, yet it was willing to give the Ukrainian government the benefit of the doubt in promptly gathering sufficient evidence in the subsequent weeks and months to justify the sanctions. We are confident that such a ruling would not have been reached if sufficient evidence was submitted in a timely fashion. Yet it’s also possible that any transferring of funds occurred within the bounds of Ukrainian law, which has been manipulated and abused by corrupt politicians and state officials. In which case, Ukrainian officials were helpless in gathering evidence.

Regardless, this ruling certainly has the potential to unleash a domino effect of Yanukovych officials becoming exonerated, which will harm the deteriorating political standing of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. The return of Yanukovych officials to Ukrainian society and politics, without any punishment for their heinous crimes (particularly beyond the financial sphere), has the potential to destabilize the situation in the country further and prompt the public to increasingly turn to radical elements for solutions to their political problems, which the government is failing miserably in resolving. The lower-than-expected voter turnout in the local elections is merely a reflection of the widespread disenchantment.