Hladkovskiy takes leave of absence pending investigations

Oleh Hladkovskiy, the defense official accused of
corruption and treason, said on Feb. 26 he will take a temporary leave of absence
from his positions until the accusations against him are investigated. He
called upon the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office and National Anti-Corruption
Bureau to investigate the accusations as quickly as possible. Hladkovskiy
currently serves as deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense
Council and head of the interdepartmental commission for military hardware
cooperation and export monitoring.

Recall, an investigative journalism broadcast released
on Feb. 25 accused Hladkovskiy and his son of buying parts from Russian
suppliers to sell to Ukrainian defense contractors at inflated prices. Among
the shell companies involved belonged to the president, according to the
journalists of the Nashi Hroshi (Our Money) program broadcast on the bihus.info
YouTube channel. The report also accused the president’s entourage of reselling
to the Ukrainian military parts that were designated for disposal.

Presidential contender Yulia Tymoshenko called for
Poroshenko’s impeachment for initiating procedures for state treason, while
Radical Party Parliamentary Faction Head Oleh Liashko called for the creation
of a temporary investigative commission to verify the claims.

Denying all the accusations of the “so-called
investigation,” Hladkovskiy said the video report is a compilation of
“well-known facts and dirty fake information.” Law enforcement authorities are
currently investigating the claims, at their own initiative and the request of
the national security council, he said in a statement on the council’s website.
They are also reviewing “numerous signals about corruption and other financial
violations in the defense sector,” the statement said. “Real facts of
violations should be investigated as soon as possible and submitted to court.
In the case of lies, people should be removed from suspicion promptly and their
good name shouldn’t be tarnished.”

Lesia Ivanova, the journalist who compiled the
information on the president’s alleged corruption in the defense sphere, said
the release of her video report was not deliberately timed for the presidential
election campaign. “We received an enormous volume of materials,” she said in
an interview with pravda.com.ua. “All of it simply had to be read through, and
reviewed and verified afterwards on whether the presented facts are true and
whether the described purchases took place. This is an enormous volume of
work.”

Zenon Zawada: A temporary
leave of absence amid corruption allegations pending investigation is a
standard measure in most governments around the world. What distinguishes
Ukraine, however, is that investigations against powerful people either drag on
indefinitely or lead to inconclusive results. Rarely do they provide the basis
to prosecute an official of such high status. If President Poroshenko is
re-elected, Hladkovskiy is sure to retain his authority in some way, if not
return to his posts. He is among the president’s closest confidantes, including
Ihor Kononenko, the deputy head of the Poroshenko Bloc parliamentary faction.

The bigger question is whether this scandal will
affect Poroshenko’s support in the elections. We believe it will have a minimum
effect, despite Tymoshenko’s attempts to make it into a key election issue.
While the accusations are serious, the public has been aware of corruption in
the military for years now. Most of those opposed to Poroshenko already made
their decision, and are now choosing between Tymoshenko and Volodymyr Zelenskiy
in order to unseat him.