U.S. demands resignation of Ukraine prosecutor general, report says

U.S. State Department officials reportedly informed a Ukrainian delegation currently visiting Washington that USD 1 bln in planned loan guarantees depend on the resignation of Prosecutor General of Ukraine Viktor Shokin, reported the zn.ua news site on Jan. 21, citing an anonymous source. The delegation is meeting with various U.S. state officials and is led by Deputy Prosecutor General David Sakvarelidze, National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine Artem Sytnyk, and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office Director Nazar Kholodnytskiy. The loan guarantees have already been approved, the report said, but their release depends on fulfilling the IMF program and conducting anti-corruption reform.

A Kyiv district court ruled on Jan. 20 that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine must open an investigation into the alleged illegal transfer of real estate into the ownership of Deputy Prosecutor General Vitaliy Kasko, as reported by the pravda.com.ua news site on Jan. 21, citing MP Ihor Lutsenko. Kasko is accused of illegally privatizing two apartments issued by the government for work, the news report said. In response, Kasko said he privatized only one apartment, as is allowed by law.

The U.S. government has repeatedly endorsed the anti-corruption work of Kasko. At the same time, Kasko is immersed in an ongoing conflict with Shokin, who denied him the ability to travel to Washington as part of the current anti-corruption delegation, drawing criticism from the U.S. government.

Zenon Zawada: Any report making such a serious claim, without an identified source, needs to be taken with a grain of salt, particularly when there’s such a heated battle taking place within the prosecutor general’s office. Like most of the public, we are inclined to think that young Kasko represents the positive force for change, given his assertive investigations of corruption so far, and that the post-Soviet, career prosecutor Shokin is resisting reforms. Alleged corruption within the Poroshenko administration only buttresses such suspicions.

At the same time, it’s been alleged by some in the Kyiv NGO community that Kasko could be aligned with Igor Kolomosky, the biggest rival to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. This alleged alliance could be what’s feeding the intense hostility between Shokin and Kasko. In which case, the U.S. government could be injecting itself into a political rivalry in a way that is only exacerbating the conflict.

Equally disturbing is that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, which is supposed to be an independent state body, could also be getting mixed up in what could be merely the latest episode in the ongoing conflict between Poroshenko and Kolomoisky. It would be devastating for Ukraine’s blossoming anti-corruption efforts for the newly created prosecutorial bodies to become tainted so early into their launch.