Ukraine parliament votes to arrest Radical Party MP

Ukraine’s parliament voted on Sept. 17 to remove political immunity from MP Ihor Mosiychuk and place him under arrest after Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin displayed video allegedly showing Mosiychuk accepting several bribes and discussing prices for political favors. Mosiychuk was among the leaders of Oleh Liashko’s Radical Party, which abandoned the government coalition on Sept.1.

                                                                                     

It was the first time in independent Ukraine that an MP was arrested in the parliament building, Liashko said. Mosiychuk was detained by officers of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), who searched his automobile. He faces five criminal charges, including incidents unrelated to the alleged bribery, the Procurator General’s press service reported. These incidents involve threatening a state official and threatening a judge.

 

Mosiychuk told reporters that the videos were fabricated, reflected by its segmented nature and phrases that he said were taken out of context. He said he doesn’t have the cash discussed, which would have had to have been marked. He accused Shokin of taking revenge for his claims that the prosecutor general was responsible for destroying evidence in the case of journalist Georgiy Gongadze, which he also fabricated. He also accused the president of orchestrating the scene in parliament.

 

In his turn, Liashko said the video demonstration and subsequent vote occurred in gross violation of parliamentary procedures. Moreover, neither he nor Mosiychuk were given a chance to respond to the accusations. “If Mosiychuk took money, if he committed a crime, then we won’t vouch for him,” said Liashko, who said that he didn’t know anything about the bribe and whether the video evidence was true. He said the president began to persecute him and his political party for refusing to support a corrupt scheme and called for his impeachment.

 

Zenon Zawada: With yesterday’s maneuver, the president has demonstrated that he is capable of employing the same made-for-TV theatrics as Liashko is accomplishing a political aim. Liashko and his fellow MPs became a top enemy for President Poroshenko not only when he abandoned the coalition, but also when he and his MPs began to consistently accuse the president of corruption. With this display in parliament, and with reported attempts to get MPs to abandon Liashko’s faction, the Presidential Administration wants to ruin Liashko as a political player.

 

Mosiychuk’s arrest will strengthen support for the president and his party among those who are already favoring him. Yet contrary to popular opinion, we believe the arrest can also work in Liashko’s favor. Ukrainians are already expressing outrage at the arrest of Mosiychuk, in the context of the failure to make a single arrest of any officials from the Yanuokvych administration, who are suspected of far greater corruption, costing the state billions. Liashko can play this card well and we expect him to. Indeed the more the government targets Liashko and his MPs, the more his support can grow ahead of the Oct. 25 local elections.

 

In the big picture, it’s safe to say that there’s a full-fledged battle between the establishment pro-Western forces, and the radical pro-Western forces that reject the establishment of the Donbas specific order. Interestingly enough, Ukraine’s Russia-oriented forces also support the specific order. As Liashko had recently aligned himself with industrial magnate Igor Kolomoisky, it’s also apparent that his battle with the president is continuing, which will negatively affect the situation at Ukrnafta.

 

We have advocated that the president find a compromise with the pro-Western radicals. Instead, he is seeking to destroy them politically, which was also apparent from yesterday’s address to parliament by Interior Minister Arsen Avakov. He said the bloodshed outside the parliament on Aug. 31 was premeditated by a “specially prepared group of individuals” who would later be scapegoated. He was referring to the Freedom nationalist party and its Sich battalion.

 

This approach has dangerous implications, whether or not the attack was premeditated. The fact remains that many Ukrainians, perhaps a majority, oppose the Donbas specific order, and the president has to deal with their concerns. Moreover, Ukrainians still want members of the Yanukovych administration brought to justice, which the president has failed to do.