Western NGOs call for immediate firing of pro-Russian prosecutor

More than 20 Western-sponsored civil society
organizations signed a Sept. 11 statement calling upon Prosecutor General Iryna
Venediktova to dismiss her recently appointed deputy, Maksym Yakubovskiy, as
announced by the ZMINA Center for Human Rights. Yakubovskiy needs to be
dismissed in order to ensure the independence of the departments in the
Prosecutor General’s Office that he has been appointed to lead, the statement
said. These are the departments to conduct EuroMaidan-related investigations,
to combat the use of torture and to prosecute military crimes. The statement
also called for Venediktova to voice public support for criminal cases
involving the EuroMaidan crimes.

Venediktova appointed Yakubovskiy as her deputy on
Sept. 10, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced that day. In 2011-2013,
Yakubovskiy served as an expert of criminal law for the Constitutional State
Independent Ukrainian Center for Legal Initiatives and Examinations, which is
sponsored by Viktor Medvedchuk, widely recognized as Putin’s righthand man in
Ukraine. The center’s director is Vasyl Nimchenko, who is an MP with the
Opposition Platform For Life party, which was co-founded by Medvedchuk (also an
MP). Among the center’s key activities was discrediting the Ukraine-E.U.
Association Agreement, the statement said.

Yakubovskiy’s appointment “eliminates the independence
of the prosecutors of the Prosecutor General’s Office as procedural directors
in the EuroMaidan cases, as well as the possibility for an effective conclusion
to investigating these cases and an appropriate presentation of accusations in
court,” said the statement, whose signers include the Anti-Corruption Action
Centre and Transparency International Ukraine.

His appointment also discredits the Prosecutor
General’s Office and the state leadership in the eyes of Ukrainian society and
the international community. The statement also called for the dismissal of
Oleh Tatarov, a deputy head of the President’s Office who served as a deputy
head of an investigative department of the Internal Affairs Ministry that was
involved with persecuting the EuroMaidan protest in 2013-2014.

Zenon Zawada:
Yakubovskiy’s appointment has made it apparent that Ukraine’s pro-Russian forces
are laying the groundwork for Zelensky’s departure, which we view as having
solid chances of occurring (better than 50/50) before his five-year term as
president concludes. Gradually, they have been placing loyal officials in key
positions through which they will be able to retake control of affairs in the
event of his departure.

Venediktova’s appointment as prosecutor general in
March was a critical step in this strategy. Though not overtly pro-Russian in
her statements, she is fully satisfying the agenda of Ukraine’s pro-Russian
forces. This not only applies to the appointments of Yakubovskiy and Tatarov,
but a series of other political decisions that include attacks on IMF-sponsored institutions
and politically motivated prosecutions
that mostly target pro-Western figures.

The tragedy is that Zelensky and his righthand man,
Andriy Yermak, view the appointment of Russian-oriented officials as a
demonstration of democratic values, introducing balance to politics and
ensuring the equal representation of all Ukrainians and their viewpoints. (They
have been involved in the appointment of pro-Western officials
to key posts as well.) Instead they are being used by the Kremlin to gradually
bring about not only their own political demise, but possibly also that of
Ukrainian sovereignty and/or statehood.