People's Deputy of Ukraine, leader of the Radical Party Oleh Lyashko. Photo: UNIAN
Experts link the revocation of the radical's American visa to political corruption. Journalists from the publication Apostrophe investigated the situation.
Oleh Lyashko, the leader of the Radical Party, constantly creates fodder for controversy: he drags a cow to the Verkhovna Rada, eats dirt on the podium, and even starts a fight with his parliamentary colleagues. But this time, Lyashko was spotted outside of Ukraine—the US Embassy revoked his visa without explanation. Experts say Lyashko could be one of the first Ukrainian politicians to be denied entry to the US due to corruption allegations.
Lyashko announced the revocation of his 10-year U.S. visa on his Facebook page, not failing to make a bit of a PR stunt out of it. The politician wrote that the decision was related to his position on the new Memorandum with the International Monetary Fund, which is planning to provide Ukraine with a new $1 billion loan. "I associate this unprecedented decision with our demand that the United States fulfill its obligations to Ukraine under the Budapest Memorandum, otherwise Ukraine will be forced to restore nuclear weapons to defend itself. I suspect that my categorical rejection of the new Memorandum with the IMF, which perpetuates Ukraine's status as a raw materials colony, also influenced the decision to revoke the visa," Lyashko wrote.
They won't let us into America - let's go to the people
The radical leader is also convinced he will visit America once he becomes president of Ukraine. "Goodbye, America! I'll come there when the Ukrainians elect me as their president. In the meantime, instead of the US, I'll go to our people who need jobs and a decent life," the MP remarked.
Later, the Radical Party's official website also commented on the visa cancellation, but in a more diplomatic manner. The statement noted that despite the US decision, the Radical Party and its leader would continue to do everything possible to ensure America remains Ukraine's ally, "as the lives of Ukrainians dying in Donbas depend on them."
Behind the scenes in parliament, this topic was discussed as eagerly as the recent conversation between Batkivshchyna leader Yulia Tymoshenko and US President Donald Trump. Members of parliament mocked each other and offered various theories about what had transpired. "This is the main result of Trump's conversation with Tymoshenko," they told Apostrophe behind the scenes. Someone suggested that the main reason was corruption in the actions of the country's leading radical. The radicals themselves were reticent, citing all the same reasons Oleh Lyashko had previously expressed among the reasons for the annulment.
"There's an official party statement: we believe Oleh Valerievich's visa was revoked for his demands on the United States regarding his position on restoring nuclear weapons. To those who say otherwise, I can say that these are their own internal problems. This is the party's position, not my own opinion. There were no accusations of corruption from the United States, just accusations from clueless experts who don't know what to make up. We're not interested in that; we're interested in providing jobs and salaries for Ukrainians," Radical Party MP Ihor Mosiychuk told Apostrophe.
But Anatoliy Oktysyuk, a senior analyst at the Center for Advanced Studies, disagrees with the radicals, claiming that, according to his information, Oleh Lyashko's visa was revoked precisely because of his political corruption. "There are rumors circulating in diplomatic circles that Lyashko's U.S. visa was revoked because Washington considers him one of the most politically corrupt officials in Ukraine, and because his position fluctuates like a weather vane when important decisions are being made—budget approval and other matters. And this greatly irritates our Western partners," Oktysyuk asserts.
The expert also predicts that Lyashko won't be the last Ukrainian politician barred from entering the United States due to political corruption. "This year, Western allies plan to take the issue of political corruption in Ukraine very seriously, and it's not just that Lyashko won't be followed by others. For example, from the president's inner circle, including Kononenko, Granovsky, Berezenko, and Dovhyi (members of parliament, — Apostrophe), that is, all the odious functionaries. I know that the Euro-optimists (an inter-factional association of people's deputies, — Apostrophe) are openly telling all ambassadors and diplomats that Western partners need to impose individual sanctions on people involved in political corruption. Therefore, I don't rule out the possibility that similar decisions could follow regarding other political figures. No country has the level of political corruption that Ukraine has, and the level of intolerance for it in the United States is very high. They may be more or less tolerant about corruption in business and other issues; this is present even in Western companies, but political corruption is considered evil,” the analyst adds.
The accusations of political corruption against the leader of the Radical Party are far from unfounded. It's worth recalling that Oleh Lyashko was elected to the Verkhovna Rada on the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc list, though he was "resigned" from the faction in 2010 for "cooperating with the majority coalition, specifically, voting for constitutional amendments," according to a statement released by the BYuT press service. In the 2012 Verkhovna Rada elections, Lyashko, now under the banner of his own Radical Party, won a seat in parliament from a single-mandate constituency in the Chernihiv region. The political force garnered only about 1% of the vote in the nationwide elections. Nevertheless, Lyashko remains etched in the voters' memories, as does the main symbol of his campaign—the pitchfork with which he constantly threatened corrupt officials.
One project for all
After setting out on his own, Lyashko was linked to one of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's allies, his chief of staff, Serhiy Lyovochkin. Many MPs, experts, and political scientists openly claimed that Lyashko was Lyovochkin's project; however, the politician himself always dismissed such accusations as politically motivated. Later, rumors surfaced that Lyashko had once again changed his political allegiance and joined the ranks of oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky. At the same time, Lyashko never failed to heap criticism on his political opponents. President Petro Poroshenko received considerable criticism, calling him "a mafia leader, a corrupt official, a dictator, a lawless individual, a cynical profiteer who profits from war, and who makes billions with Russian oligarchs." The leading radical also stated back in 2015 that his party would seek Poroshenko's impeachment. But this promise by Lyashko, like many others, remained unfulfilled.
In 2016, Lyashko claimed that his faction was leaving the pro-presidential coalition "European Ukraine," which consisted of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction, the People's Front, Batkivshchyna, and the RPL. However, to this day, according to the civic network "Opora," radicals vote with the presidential faction 75% of the time. This means that the faction leader's public rhetoric diverges from his actions. However, recently, reports have emerged that Lyashko has once again changed his political stance, and now, like Bankova, his main enemy is Batkivshchyna leader Yulia Tymoshenko. Lyashko called his former ally, with whom he had recently embraced in parliament, a "Moscow cuckoo" who is attempting to implement the Kremlin's plan to seize power through proxy means.
Accusations of political corruption against Lyashko also regularly surface during the Rada's adoption of state budgets. For example, during the 2016 and 2017 budgets, Oleh Lyashko negotiated with the authorities for his faction's votes in exchange for necessary preferences, specifically UAH 600 million allocated from the state budget for the purchase of fire trucks for the Pozhmashina company in the Chernihiv region, which Lyashko is believed to control.
So, it's quite possible that the United States has taken notice of an implacable anti-corruption crusader who is himself dishonest. According to political scientist Andriy Zolotarev, the decision to revoke the U.S. visa of the head of the parliamentary faction is highly telling. "From the American perspective, Lyashko is a highly questionable character. With a murky past, a murky present, and a murky future. Therefore, suspicions of political corruption are likely to be present. Considering that Lyashko is a political freak, it's possible that they've decided to use him as a warning to Ukrainian politicians that they will no longer enjoy a privileged position, and many will even have to experience the harsh hand of American justice. Whatever anyone says, when the head of the parliamentary faction has his ten-year visa revoked, it's certainly significant, and we'll have to keep an eye on the State Department from now on," the expert speculated to Apostrophe.
Political expert Taras Zagorodniy also believes that the US decision is a signal to all Ukrainian politicians that relations between the countries will become more stringent.
"There are many reasons why this actually happened. Perhaps there are political reasons, to show that times have changed. We need to look at what Lyashko said about Clinton and Trump, because many politicians have made far-fetched statements. Perhaps this is a signal to the entire political establishment, and Lyashko simply turned up as a convenient candidate. They showed the entire Ukrainian political establishment that they will be punished for interfering in the US elections, and this is only the first punishment. More severe measures will likely follow, because Manafort (Paul Manafort, former chairman of Donald Trump's campaign — Apostrophe), who was so carelessly accused, remains in Trump's circle and is most likely working on the Ukrainian issue. Therefore, this illustrates a paradigm shift; relations will become more severe, because many are fed up with what is happening in our country. In other words, the fairy tale is over and reality is beginning, and there will be bills to pay. "I think that now many politicians who try to get into America will be surprised to discover that they can't do it," Zagorodniy commented to Apostrophe.
On the topic: Militant Radical Lyashko. Part 1
Igor Mosiychuk: How one of Ukraine's leading "radicals" got his start
Yulia Zabelina
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