Ukraine detectives identify suspect in Abromavicius allegations

Detectives with the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine announced in a March 9 statement that they have identified former Naftogaz Deputy Board Chairman Andriy Pasishnyk a suspect in a criminal case. Pasishnyk was supposed to have received a written notice but told detectives he was seeking urgent medical treatment abroad. He is suspected in the criminal charge of interfering in the activity of a state official, which refers to the claims of former Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavicius that his ministry’s work was interfered with by several officials, including Petro Poroshenko Bloc deputy faction head Ihor Kononenko. In their statement, the detectives said they determined that Pasishnyk illegally tried to influence Abromavicius in appointing him as his deputy minister. Pasishnyk’s naming as a suspect was done with the approval of the prosecutors of the Specialized Anticorruption Prosecution, the statement said.

In response, Pasishnyk wrote on his Facebook page that the allegations are him are baseless. “I didn’t expect that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau would go down the path of looking for scapegoats instead of effectively investigating and rejecting the emotional statements of a minister,” he wrote. “It’s easiest to accuse the weaker ones, but the bureau wasn’t created for that purpose,” he wrote.

There won’t be quick results in the corruption investigations of Kononenko, as well as MPs Serhiy Pashynskiy and Mykola Martynenko, said Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Nazar Kholodnytskiy in an interview with the Deutsche Welle news agency published on March 9.  Investigations and collection of evidence are ongoing and suspects have yet to be named, Kholodnytskiy said. “In such cases in which there’s systemic corruption, in which offshores and shadow schemes are involved, time is needed as well as significant efforts, particularly with the help of international partners,” he said.

Zenon Zawada: Pasishnyk’s naming as a suspect marks the first major prosecutorial step against a high-ranking official by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau. Therefore, this case will be closely watched, particularly in regards to possible charges against Kononenko.

Equally significant, Pasishnyk marks the first wave of high-ranking officials following the EuroMaidan to have sought refuge abroad from prosecution. The difference this time is that it’s the state officials, not members of the political opposition, who could be fleeing, which is a mark of progress, no matter how slow it has come.