The post is new, the nature is old.
(Continued. Beginning: Tour of Yuriy Lutsenko ).
Yesterday was a day marked by Lutsenko. The notorious scoundrel and troublemaker gave his first major press conference in his new role—this time as Ukraine's Prosecutor General.
As is his custom, Yuri Vitalyevich said a lot. But not much.
But even this "kicking the air" allows us to draw a number of conclusions. Not encouraging ones for us and the fate of the state.
So, what did Lutsenko say that really caught your attention?
Personnel changes at the Prosecutor General's Office following the replacement of the odious Viktor Shokin with the equally scandalous Yuriy Lutsenko (Read more: Yuriy Lutsenko. The "Terminator" of Ukrainian Politics ).
Three of Shokin's deputies are leaving the Prosecutor General's Office (GPU)—they're leaving their lucrative positions without anathema, but with generous pensions: Yuriy Sevruk, patron of the "diamond prosecutors," Oleh Zalisko, and Roman Govda ( more about him in the article "Roman Govda: How a Prosecutor Became a Fixer "). For two years, they've failed to prove their professional worth. And they've also "blown up" their jobs.
It seems Lutsenko is not addressing the fundamental question of the responsibility of these prosecutors for their actions. He is thus continuing the Prosecutor General's Office's vile tradition of sending specific scoundrels who have been parasitizing on the system and, most importantly, their fellow citizens, to generous state pensions.
It's possible that Lutsenko's humanism is dictated by sound calculation: it's impossible to persecute and punish prosecutors who have been stupidly fulfilling the "wants" of Bankova (Lozhkin, Kononenko, Poroshenko) and Viktor Medvedchuk, who is close to her.
In exchange for the three "Shokintsy", Lutsenko presented four new deputies.
One of them is the "appointee" Dmitry Storozhuk (a direct protégé of the "People's Front", who won "his" deputy prosecutor general in a bargaining match with Poroshenko in order to control the processes in the Prosecutor General's Office on the eve of the large-scale privatization, "scheduled" on the eve of A. Yatsenyuk's resignation).
Two more are Lutsenko's own protégés, dating back to the days of "Our Ukraine" and "People's Self-Defense" (a political project funded by Russian intelligence agencies). Petro Shkutyak, previously the head of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional State Administration and best known as the longtime mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk, became the GPU's "cleaner" with the rank of Deputy Prosecutor General, responsible for identifying corrupt officials within the Prosecutor General's Office.
Volodymyr Bedrykivskyi has been appointed head of the Department for Supervision of Law Enforcement in Ukraine's Law Enforcement Agencies . Bedrykivskyi served as the First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine and Head of the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime (2008-2010) during Yury Lutsenko's tenure as Minister of Internal Affairs.
It's impossible to evaluate these appointments. The gentleman from Ivano-Frankivsk has never had any connection to law or law enforcement (perhaps this is even a plus). Meanwhile, Bedrykivskyi (Bedrikovskyi) has worked in the UBOP system since its inception and even earlier. But here's the problem: a huge number of UBOP employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, both in Kyiv and in the regions, have worked for the Russian special services since its inception.
Essentially, the UBOP was a kind of "Trojan horse" for the Russian special services in Ukraine, used to achieve the Kremlin's desired goals—whether it was bringing the entire Donbas region under operational control in the second half of the 1990s or the murder of journalist Giya Gongadze. Knowing all this, seeing Bedrikovsky's face in a position that allows him to oversee all operational and investigative activities of both the police and the SBU is an unacceptable risk in the context of a war with Russia.
Although, perhaps Bedrikovsky belongs to that section of the UBOP officers who remained loyal to Ukraine. Then his experience and knowledge could serve Lutsenko well: for example, any mid-level UBOP operative would have whispered to Yuriy Vitalyevich that it was forbidden to take money from David Zhvania. But, apparently, Bedrikovsky wasn't with Lutsenko at the time...
Lutsenko's only sensible appointment is the appointment of renowned lawyer Valentina Telichenko as Deputy Prosecutor General. Unlike all the other top officials at the Prosecutor General's Office, this person has a genuine reputation. A rare gift for such positions.
I don't want to think that her appointment is just a cynical PR stunt, which Yuriy Vitalnevich is a master of windbags.
V. Telichenko's reaction to the events at the Prosecutor General's Office will be a reliable indicator of the direction of the proceedings in this corrupt agency. This woman cannot lie—another gift from God, incidentally, that the current Prosecutor General himself completely lacks.
Concluding our review of Lutsenko-style personnel changes, we note the Prosecutor General's modest silence regarding another of his deputies, inherited from Shokin. This is Yuriy Stolyarchuk. This man is known for his professionally botched investigation into Yuriy Ivanyushchenko. Having exonerated this prominent figure from the Donbas gangster scene, Stolyarchuk has absolved the "Ivanyushchenko case." Maidan activists and journalists may be outraged by the freedom of movement of a man who flooded Kyiv with titushki murderers and embezzled state funds in cahoots with Yanukovych. Stolyarchuk has, in effect, leaked the "Ivanyushchenko case."
As a reminder, the case against Yuriy Ivanyushchenko, a close associate of fugitive former President Viktor Yanukovych, was closed due to the "inaction of prosecutor" Yuriy Stolyarchuk. This is evidenced by the decisions in the Unified Register of Court Decisions.
"Over the past year, not a single procedural decision has been made, which constitutes a violation of the rights of citizen Ivanyushchenko, who is suspected of committing a crime without sufficient grounds, whose movement has been restricted, and whose movable and immovable property has been seized," states a document previously provided to the media by the Anti-Corruption Action Center.
“Due to the improper performance of his duties, the prosecutor, who is exercising procedural leadership over the pre-trial investigation in criminal case No. 42015000000000207, failed to ensure a prompt, complete and impartial investigation of the said criminal case,” it states.
Yes, later, after activists raised a fuss, the court granted the Prosecutor General's Office's motion to extend the search for former Party of Regions MP Yuriy Ivanyushchenko, who had been placed on the wanted list in January 2015. However, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, he disappeared in December 2014.
Ivanyushchenko is suspected of committing crimes under Part 5 of Article 191 (embezzlement, misappropriation, or acquisition of property through abuse of office) and Part 3 of Article 368 (receiving an undue benefit by an official) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. In April, MP Serhiy Leshchenko stated that the lifting of the freeze on Ivanyushchenko's accounts in the European Union was facilitated by a letter from the Prosecutor General's Office (GPU), stating that he has no criminal record in Ukraine, has not been placed on a wanted list, and is not a party to criminal proceedings.
The leak of the Ivanyushchenko case coincided with Yury Stolyarchuk's promotion from deputy head of the Main Investigative Department of the Prosecutor General's Office to deputy Prosecutor General V. Shokin. This suggests that the leak of Ivanyushchenko's case was not the private enterprise of V. Shokin and Yury Stolyarchuk, but an order from above. And there was and is only one person "above": Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko, the President of Ukraine. If this is the case, then Stolyarchuk's retention in his current position is entirely understandable.
What's inexplicable is that Yuri Stolyarchuk is leading the investigation into the murder of journalist Gia Gongadze. Years pass, and those who organized the murder and who ordered it remain unpunished. Perhaps Yura Yenakievsky and Gongadze's killers have the same masters: the Russian secret services. I don't want to think that the Deputy Prosecutor General has the same masters.
Only solving the case can dispel these doubts. Yury Stolyarchuk stated that the case has been solved and that the Prosecutor General's Office can identify those who ordered and organized Gongadze's murder. Many days have passed—where is the promised result?
Perhaps the whole point is that the Prosecutor General hasn't yet taken an interest in the cases of the murders of Chornovol and Gongadze and the poisoning of Yushchenko. Yuriy Vitalyevich has no time.
There's time to go drinking. But there's no time to inquire about the status (or even the existence!) of the investigations into the most high-profile criminal cases.
Let's remember: 18 days have passed since Yury Lutsenko's appointment as Prosecutor General. He's been reshuffling personnel, attending interviews and birthday celebrations at the Presidential Administration, but he hasn't found the time to even find out whether any criminal cases crucial to Ukraine's statehood are open or closed, or even whether there are any.
And if the Prosecutor General is not interested in the main thing in his job - solving criminal cases, then that's the whole portrait of the "Prosecutor General."
Significantly, Prosecutor Lutsenko devoted much more attention to the Prosecutor General's Office, created by Shokin to serve the business interests of Kononenko, Petro Poroshenko's right-hand man. According to Lutsenko, this unit will no longer serve MPs (the Prosecutor General thereby acknowledging that this was the case before his arrival at the Prosecutor General's Office), but will instead focus on routine matters.
Later, he recommended that businessmen whose businesses had been "squeezed out" by unscrupulous individuals appeal to the Prosecutor General's Office, which would use the former unit, "tailored" to Kononenko and Co., to restore the rule of law and protect those oppressed. Lutsenko's recommendation was ambiguous, given that the head of the Prosecutor General's Office unit created "for Kononenko" had never been ousted. And why should this unit, created for "fixing" cases, be the one handling property disputes between business entities?
In light of these revelations and personnel decisions, it is absolutely clear why Vitaly Kasko ( read more about him in the article Vitaly Kasko – swindler, corrupt official, “shot down pilot” ) and David Sakvarelidze will not work in the current Prosecutor General’s Office.
And Telichenko won't stay long.
On the topic: Yuriy Lutsenko. The "Terminator" of Ukrainian politics
Georgy Semenets, Argument
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