U.S. imposes sanctions against two corrupt Ukrainian officials

On International Anti-Corruption Day, Dec. 9, the U.S.
government introduced sanctions against two Ukrainian lawyers suspected of
pressuring courts and bribery.

Namely, the U.S. Department of Treasury imposed
sanctions under the Magnitsky Act against Andriy Portnov, a former top official
in the Yanukovych presidential administration and still a powerful person in
the judiciary system. “Portnov was credibly accused of using his influence to
buy access and decisions in Ukraine’s courts and undermining reform efforts,”
the department reported. Also, he is suspected in collusion with “a high
ranking Ukrainian government official” in 2019 to “shape higher legal institutions
to their advantage and influence Ukraine’s Constitutional Court.” He is also
suspected of attempting to influence the Prosecutor General.

Ukrainian anti-corruption activists connect Portnov to
the scandalous Pavlo Vovk, head of the District Administrative Court of Kyiv,
as well as to Oleh Tatarov, currently deputy head of Zelensky’s office.
According to a Dec. 9 comment by Vataliy Shabunin, head of the NGO
Anti-Corruption Action Center, Tatarov and Vovk are currently trying to
undermine the appointment of the head of the Special Anti-Corruption
Prosecutor’s Office.

Also, the Department of State imposed sanctions
against former head of Constitutional Court Oleksandr Tupytskyi and his spouse.
He is suspected of “significant corrupt acts to include the acceptance of a
monetary bribe while serving in the Ukrainian judiciary”.

Tupytskyi was earlier charged by Ukrainian prosecutors
for bribing a witness. In October
2020, the court headed by Tupytskyi adopted a scandalous ruling
that would have damaged the anti-corruption infrastructure. 

James Hydzik: Against the background of both the rising tension in Russia and the
U.S. carrot-and-stick approach to dealing with corruption in Ukraine, the
sanctions are also a signal to President Zelensky that reform can and must
continue. The topic certainly came up during the 90-minute call between the
presidents. Given that Biden knows as well as Zelensky does what the state of
the border is and what both sides are doing, there is little room for Zelensky
to dodge such conversations. Biden has taken a knock at Tupytskyi and Portnov;
now it’s Zelensky’s turn.