1 October 2014
A Kyiv court ruled on Sept. 30 that Valeriy Khoroshkovskiy, an MP candidate under the Strong Ukraine party, has the right to compete in the Oct. 26 early parliamentary election. A complaint was filed by three MP candidates that Khoroshkovskiy’s candidacy violated the election law because he was absent from Ukraine between December 2012 and September 2014, which was confirmed by the State Border Service. “For me, the Khoroshkovskiy case was a ‘stress-test’ of the current political system,” journalist and MP candidate Sergii Leshchenko wrote on his Facebook page. “It has failed the test. The courts are corrupt, and the ‘telephone right’ is active. Surrounding Khoroshkovskiy is a conspiracy of government leaders.” (The term “telephone right” sarcastically refers to the prevailing “right” of politicians to phone judges and demand a certain ruling.) Leshchenko was among those filing the complaint.
Newly appointed Kherson Oblast State Administration Chair Andriy Putylov allowed a close associate to Yanukovych’s interior minister to attend a meeting of the oblast’s defense council, reported on Sept. 30 Yuriy Odarchenko, the former Kherson state administration chair. Oleh Tatarov was present at the council and had access to state secrets such as military defense measures, information about Russian armies near the Kherson border in Crimea and information about strategically important sites, said Odarchenko, who filed an appeal with local prosecutors to investigate who allowed Tatarov to gain access to such information. Tatarov is now in eastern Ukraine, he said, as reported by the Ukrayinska Pravda news site. Tatarov is a close associate to Vitaliy Zakharchenko, who served as the interior minister under former President Viktor Yanukovych and is part of his entourage. He is wanted by authorities for his role in suppressing the EuroMaidan protests.
Deputy Prosecutor General Anantoliy Danylenko requested a temporary leave while an investigation occurs of a complaint that he threatened journalists, Prosecutor General Vitaliy Yarema told a Sept. 30 press briefing. The investigation will involve officers of the Security Service of Ukraine. Meanwhile, police are investigating a complaint concerning the subject of the journalists’ report, which claimed than Danylenko illegally privatized 140 ha of a pond in the outskirts of Kyiv. The report also questioned the legitimacy of Danylenko’s mansion not far from the pond.
Nationalist activists attacked on Sept. 30 MP Nestor Shufrych on the steps of the Odesa State Oblast Administration, said Zoya Kazanzhy, an advisor to the administration head. They jumped him and pulled him towards a garbage container with the intention of throwing him inside as part of a local “Trash Bucket Challenge” to conduct a “street lustration” of officials. When Shufrych broke free, they caught up to him and beat him again, she reported on her Facebook page. Many of the attackers were from the nationalist Right Sector organization, she said. Shufrych, who has aligned himself with the pro-Russian opposition, wasn’t able to attend a planned press conference that day.
A group of unknown individuals assaulted Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Prosecutor Roman Fedyk on Sept. 30 in his office building, reported Prosecutor General Vitaliy Yarema during a Kyiv press briefing. He blamed the attack on “the so-called Lustration Committee,” which approached him, began to remove his badges and provoked a confrontation. “Thank God they didn’t inflict any bodily injuries,”
Yarema said. “I view this as pressure and will respond in the appropriate way within the limits of the law and the authority vested in me.”
Yarema’s statement about the conflict ignores the fact that Fedyk was confronted with several judicial rulings on his negligence in offce, and has been accused of covering for the local drug trade and corruption schemes, Dnipropetrovsk Deputy Oblast State Administration Chair Borys Filatov wrote on his Facebook page in response. The activists dumped a trash bucket on Fedyk’s head, he said.
Zenon Zawada: These examples of alleged corruption are troubling in the sense that they’re undermining the public’s trust in the post-Maidan government, which could be very dangerous. Faced with an aggressive Russian government, the current politicians must have the support of the majority of the public if they are to win this conflict. Without this trust, their government will be on the direct road to collapse.
The consequences of failing to root out corruption are already apparent with the stunts such as the Trash Bucket Challenge and outright attacks on state officials. Without the legal mechanisms to establish justice, the citizenry will result to street forms of justice, however crude. This conflict of allegedly corrupt state officials and the active citizenry has just as much potential to undermine the presidency of Petro Poroshenko as the Russian military aggression. Unfortunately, we see little signs that the current government understands this.