The so-called pro-European parliamentary coalition formed in the Ukrainian Rada following the October 2014 elections comprises five factions. And now, almost simultaneously, three of them have suddenly decided to create investigative commissions. These are Yulia Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna party, the Radical Party of the prominent gay activist Oleh Lyashko, and Samopomich, whose work is remotely coordinated by Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi. What's more, the subject of these commissions' investigations is... the corrupt activities of the Arseniy Yatsenyuk government. It turns out that the prime minister is a very bad, morally corrupt politician. He's a parasite who steals money, covers up financial fraud, kowtowing to oligarchs, and robs the country's population with unjustified tariffs. After all, only a year has passed since the “revolution of dignity” (the official name of the February coup, which was introduced into circulation by the US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt).
Now, let's take things in order. Yulia Tymoshenko, whom many have forgotten, familiarized herself with the results of relatively recent sociological research (March) and felt a little more reassured. It turns out her approval ratings have been gradually rising: from four percent (October 2014) to seven. As a result, Batkivshchyna has overtaken Lyashko's "radicals," with whom they are essentially treading water in the same electoral niche. And so Tymoshenko began carefully, one might even say tenderly, to portray Yatsenyuk as a corrupt official and bribe-taker. It should be noted that Yulia Tymoshenko knows her stuff. As you recall, in 2005, right after the Orange Revolution, she forced the resignation of the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Petro Poroshenko. Moreover, she accused him of corruption. And it worked. As a result, Poroshenko hesitated to enter the political arena for almost ten years.
Yulia Volodymyrivna began her remarks with a blunt proposal: she proposed forming an investigative commission to investigate the Yatsenyuk government's unjustified tariff increases for the population. Tymoshenko hinted that the Cabinet of Ministers was artificially inflating gas, electricity, and water tariffs, and asked rhetorically, "Senya, where does the money go?" According to her, Naftogaz Ukrainy, whose balance sheet Yatsenyuk is so actively bailing out by pumping billions of hryvnias into, is a highly corrupt organization. It should be completely abolished, leaving two companies: one for energy supplies and the other for their transportation.
It must be said that the topic of tariffs, which have just been significantly increased since April, is so sensitive that it's never mentioned in the news. They simply state: hurray, Europe is closer, tariffs have increased, the IMF will give money. Maybe. But even die-hard patriots, upon receiving their latest bills, don't shout "Glory to Ukraine!" or even jump up and down. They instantly resort to the language of Russian terrorists—that is, swearing. I've heard it myself many times. So Tymoshenko has made a very successful entry into the media landscape with her tariff commission.
Oleh Lyashko, who is known for his heightened sensitivity to prevailing public sentiments (perhaps somehow related to his non-traditional sexual orientation), has also picked up on the new "Arseniy is a bad man" trend. He proposes investigating the government's criminal activities in Ukraine's purchase of electricity and coal from the Russian Federation. By local standards, this amounts to more than just corruption, but full-blown "zrada" (betrayal). The logic is as follows: under Yatsenyuk's protection, the Ukrainian Ministry of Fuel and Energy entered into a criminal conspiracy with "Russian terrorists" who ensured the supply of coal and electricity. These are the kind of "terrorists" they are: instead of blowing things up and killing people, they supply electricity to prevent rolling blackouts in a completely sovereign Ukraine.
And finally, the most high-profile proposal is to create a temporary special commission to investigate government abuses amounting to seven and a half billion hryvnias. It was formally registered by former Right Sector press secretary Boryslav Bereza (independent) and Opposition Bloc MP Vadym Rabinovych. Yes, Rabinovych is in the opposition—what's so funny? This is Ukraine, after all. However, this initiative was enthusiastically supported by cautious and timid representatives of Samopomich. Things are generally complicated within this faction. They so guard the political innocence of Andriy Sadovyi, whom they consider the future president of Ukraine, that they constantly stir things up, seemingly remaining in the shadows. However, they joined in the fascinating process of weaving bast shoes for the prime minister, because they understand that they must catch the winds of change in time.
The prime minister is most terrified of this investigative commission. He even gave a lengthy interview over the weekend to the 1+1 television channel, controlled by Ihor Kolomoisky. He claimed that a conspiracy is brewing in the Rada aimed at overthrowing the current government and splitting the coalition, and that the charges brought against him are politically motivated. Arseniy was indeed right about the conspiracy. The facts that prompted the government corruption investigation are especially interesting. The prime minister dismissed the head of the State Financial Inspectorate, Mykola Gordiyenko, who had been appointed to the position under a quota... from the Petro Poroshenko bloc. Gordiyenko, instead of whining, suddenly began to tell the plain truth: everyone in the Cabinet is a thief, he claimed, and here are the corruption schemes through which seven and a half billion hryvnias were stolen from the country in six months. It must be said that this behavior is highly unusual for a government official. Gordiyenko is ready to provide the facts and details to an independent body in the form of a parliamentary commission.
A statement by Sergei Leshchenko, a member of parliament from the presidential faction (directly controlled by the US State Department), was also highly relevant. He exposed one of Yatsenyuk's associates, Mykola Martynenko, a representative of the People's Front faction. I quote: "A criminal case has been opened in Switzerland against Martynenko for accepting a bribe of thirty million francs from Skoda JS, a supplier of equipment for nuclear power plants. What does government corruption and the investigative commission have to do with this? It's very simple. Firstly, Rabinovich and Bereza are proposing to combine Gordiyenko and Martynenko in a single case. Secondly, Mykola Martynenko is Yatsenyuk's 'overseer' of the national company Energoatom. All the kickbacks go through him. This amounts to hundreds (!) of millions of dollars. If we dig into it, many will have to save themselves."
So, three factions from the parliamentary coalition that recommended the president appoint Arseniy Yatsenyuk as prime minister have suddenly become preoccupied—directly or indirectly—with the creation of investigative commissions. In reality, there's no real point in creating such structures in the Rada. In my memory, parliament has created hundreds of commissions, and the only effect has been to raise awareness of the issue. For several months, "parliamentary investigators" collect responses from the Prosecutor General's Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), and then produce a report. Or they don't produce one at all. They have no authority to conduct operational activities or involve specialists in the investigation.
What's important is that the Rada is actively creating investigative commissions in two situations: before parliamentary elections and before personnel changes in the government (or, alternatively, the presidential administration). This is a clear sign. And Arseniy Yatsenyuk's response to this initiative clearly demonstrates that he's smelled a rat. Previously, at the initiative of Speaker Groysman, the coalition faction leaders agreed to hear Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin next Friday regarding the facts outlined in a document by former head of the State Financial Inspectorate Gordiyenko. But the situation is clearly heading either toward the government's resignation or early parliamentary elections. Or both.
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