Following the adoption of the "Purification of Government" law, a euphoric mood has emerged in society: the criminal regime, they say, is now finished. This misconception must be overcome immediately. For example, we have such an unsinkable power as the judiciary, which, like the Lernaean Hydra, is capable of growing three heads where one is severed.
"The third set of inspections concerns judges. The inspection period begins in December 2014 and ends in December 2015," Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk recently announced, emphasizing that all professional judges, members of the High Council of Justice, and members of the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine will undergo the inspection.
But, apparently, they couldn't care less about lustration, the law, the prime minister, the president, and the speaker who had joined them.
The law on the cleansing of power is unconstitutional, as Volodymyr Moysik, head of the temporary investigative commission for the review of judges of courts of general jurisdiction, has already stated. The Chairman of the Supreme Court of Ukraine, Yaroslav Romanyuk, is also pushing the issue. According to him, the Congress of Judges recommended on September 26 that he convene a plenary session and discuss the possibility of appealing to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine regarding laws that limit guarantees of judicial independence, including the law "On the Cleansing of Power."
And in a situation where representatives of other branches of government – bureaucrats, corrupt officials of all stripes, scoundrels and swindlers – have gone quiet and are sitting like a mouse under a broom, the “hydras” in robes are frolicking as if nothing had happened.
Take, for example, Kyiv's electoral district #216, where Chernovetskyi's ally and former Party of Regions member Oleksandr Suprunenko beat Ksenia Lyapina by less than a percent (according to the vote count). Tellingly, during the criminal regime in 2012, they contested their victory in this same district. And during the dark days of Yanukovych, the Kyiv District Court of Appeals rejected Suprunenko's request for a recount and ruled to uphold Lyapina's petition for a review of the rulings issued by the District Court of Appeals. And the Kyiv District Administrative Court then found that the protocols had been falsified in Suprunenko's favor!
Today, after the victory of Maidan-2014, after the tightening of electoral legislation (when vote-buying became a criminal offense), after 12 (twelve!!) cases of vote-buying were brought against Suprunenko, the aforementioned courts rule in favor of... Suprunenko.
What kind of Constitution can Moysik and Romanyuk bleat about after this? Do they want the frustrated people to drag out these robed freaks and shove their faces into trash bins (thank goodness they didn't impale them)?
Because the "professional judges" of the district and appellate administrative courts demonstrated their professionalism behind the scenes. In private conversations, they would say, "Yes, Lyapina's arguments are ironclad, difficult to argue against," but then, with their pockets bulging under their robes, they would make their decision, disregarding those ironclad arguments, the law, the Basic Law, Moisyk and Romanyuk, and even Yatsenyuk and Poroshenko.
Money conquers all?
No, it's not that simple. If it were just about money, they would certainly be wary. Impunity breeds guarantees. Or pressure from above. After all, every judge's soul has its own legacy (remember the carol-singing judge Zvarych), which a knowledgeable person can pull on by promising a "lustration," which threatens more than just the loss of their position.
It is known that when the 216th electoral district commission invalidated the results of eight polling stations due to numerous violations orchestrated by Suprunenko's people, it was pressured by Volodymyr Prokopiv, head of the Kyiv City Council's Standing Committee on Urban Development, Architecture, and Land Use (who also happens to be the head of the Kyiv headquarters of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc and number 142 on the presidential bloc's electoral list). The district commission immediately reversed its decision.
It's also known that Prokopiv is a protégé of Serhiy Berezenko, currently the head of the State Administrative Department and formerly also an ally of Chernovetskyi. Naturally, the head of the notorious State Department of Justice always has something to say to Kyiv judges, which will make lustration seem like a Miami vacation.
But the "heavy artillery" was also brought into play. For example, on the eve of the Appellate Court hearing in the Suprunenko case, Igor Nikonov, Kyiv's first deputy mayor under Vitali Klitschko, personally called the court. Nikonov is known for his "unrelenting" group, K.A.N. Development, which strangled Kyiv with behemoths such as Diamond Hill, Parkovy Gorodok, Ocean Plaza shopping mall, Comfort Town, Arena City, the Parus office center, and others. He was (and continues to be?) a business partner of the Chernovetskyi family and Dmytro Firtash.
Okay. Okay, money, pressure from such "hotshots" as Prokopiv, Berezenko, Nikonov... But what about the Maidan, the Heavenly Hundred, lustration, the "new parliament cleansed of traitors"?
To understand why someone is undesirable to the authorities, we must look at what they do for (or against) them. As is well known, Ksenia Lyapina is the author of a bill registered in the Verkhovna Rada introducing an electronic public procurement standard in Ukraine. Moreover, she, along with Prime Minister Yatsenyuk, is the actual "push-pull" for the implementation of the open public procurement concept in all sectors. This is an attack on the fiefdom of the tender mafia, which earned hundreds of millions annually on public procurement (and, consequently, lost money to the budget). Is there a reason to destroy it?
Not to mention that a completely new Rada isn't just about completely new faces, or even faces that fully represent a democratic, European-oriented political camp. A radically new Verkhovna Rada means transforming it into a parliament, an EXCLUSIVELY LEGISLATIVE BODY. Because throughout the years of independence, it was a CLUB OF DECISION-MAKERS, distributing kickbacks. What can Lapin's Rada do? Write laws, implement an electronic public procurement system where no one can steal.
What can Deputy Suprunenko, a true fledgling of Chernovetskyi's nest, do? First, steal big, then kick back "to the top" to avoid jail time.
And the judges have nothing to do with it.
Igor Alekseev, for ORD
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