Yermak associates reveal corruption details in interview

Two former law enforcement officials, who were video-recorded
in arranging the sale of government posts on behalf of the President’s Office,
described their corrupt schemes in detail in a televised interview with the
bihus.info news site published on Apr. 8. During their recruitment of state
officials, they said they gathered “up to USD 100,000” in bribes for Denys
Yermak, the brother of president’s office head whom they worked with and
video-recorded as well. They said they also gave USD 10,000 to Andriy Yermak
himself. “The approximate price was determined by Denys. If a person wanted to
be on the team, wanted to be appointed and has a project, they are supposed to
offer cash to confirm their serious attitude. And Denys turned to Andriy
further on. At least, that’s how it was in the first several times,” said
Dmytro Shtanko, a lawyer who said he worked for 16 years in the Internal
Affairs Ministry.

His partner in the scheme, Serhiy Shumskiy, said he’s
a counterintelligence freelancer with the Security Service of Ukraine. “Denys
Yermak was my friend until a certain moment, until he absolutely lost my trust
and status as a friend,” Shumskiy said. He added that Andriy Yermak viewed him
as “a resource that was very easy to use” because he was unpaid. As to why he
got involved in the recruiting scheme, Shumskiy said he thought he was “doing
good for the country because I wasn’t allowing into the higher echelons of
power people who stained themselves somehow.”

Zenon Zawada: The
confessions of corruption by these former law enforcement officials, something highly
unusual for Ukraine, is deeply embarrassing for the President’s Office. We can
only speculate on what motivated them to spill the beans, but we suspect it’s
because they feel they were not paid for their share of the “work,” rather than
to expose corruption or to seek justice. We also believe People’s Servant MP
Geo Leros, who has had three criminal cases opened against him for leaking the
videos, asked these associates to come forward, given that his credibility was
being questioned since he declined to identify the source of the video
recordings.

The main issue is whether the public will continue to
afford President Zelensky the same trust that it has given so far. Judging from
a poll released last week, they will blame Andriy Yermak and Prime Minister
Shmyhal, but give Zelensky the benefit of the doubt, largely because of his
celebrity status. And we believe Zelensky will take advantage of that, shifting
any blame for failures on Shmyhal and Yermak (as had been done with the
previous PM, Oleksiy Honcharuk).

Yet the enormous stresses the Ukrainian government
faces (the war in Donbas, the coronavirus outbreak, the battles with
Kolomoisky, corruption scandals, the economic recession) are certain to erode
Zelensky’s celebrity veneer in the coming months. It’s possible that he will
resign to preserve what’s left of it.