See related stories here, here and here.
Reformer of the week – Artem Sytnyk
Artem Sytnyk is the head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, the nation’s only independent law enforcement agency and the only one that is leading a genuine anti-corruption drive.
The NABU has brought corruption charges against State Fiscal Service Chief Roman Nasirov, ex-People’s Front lawmaker Mykola Martynenko, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov’s son Oleksandr, Central Election Commission Chairman Mykhailo Okhendovsky, Deputy Defense Minister Igor Pavlovsky and other top officials.
However, the bureau’s efforts have been obstructed by President Petro Poroshenko and other top officials, as well as the corrupt and politicized judiciary.
Pro-government lawmakers on parliament’s anti-corruption committee on Dec. 20 and Dec. 21 continued their efforts to impose loyal auditors on the NABU in order to control the bureau and potentially fire Sytnyk.
The Security Service of Ukraine on Dec. 13 opened a criminal case against the NABU in connection with the bureau’s investigation against Poroshenko’s Rybalskya Kuznya shipyard, accusing the bureau of divulging a state secret.
Meanwhile, lawmaker and Poroshenko ally Boryslav Rozenblat, a suspect in a NABU graft case, has filed three lawsuits against the NABU. The latest one, filed on Dec. 15, seeks to recognize the NABU’s cooperation with the U. S. Federal Bureau of Investigations as illegal.
Moreover, in November the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Security Service of Ukraine disrupted a NABU corruption investigation into the State Migration Service by publishing the personal data of NABU undercover agents, arresting them and charging one of them with provoking an official to get a bribe.
The Verkhovna Rada on Dec. 7 also fired Yegor Soboliev, a staunch defender of the NABU’s independence, as chairman of parliament’s anti-corruption committee.
Anti-reformer of the week – Petro Poroshenko
President Petro Poroshenko has spearheaded the obstruction of law enforcement and economic reforms and preserved the kleptocratic system he inherited from predecessor Viktor Yanukovych.
Law enforcement agencies controlled by Poroshenko have blocked corruption cases against Yanukovych and his allies, cases into the murder of over 100 protesters during the 2013–2014 EuroMaidan Revolution and graft cases against incumbent officials.
Instead, Poroshenko’s law enforcers have attacked his political opponents, including ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and his allies, as well as lawmaker Sergii Leshchenko, anti-corruption activist Vitaly Shabunin and former top prosecutor Vitaly Kasko.
Poroshenko has blocked the creation of an anti-corruption court for more than a year and led the efforts to restrict the National Anti-Corruption Bureau’s independence.
Poroshenko’s allies, including State Fiscal Service Chief Roman Nasirov and lawmakers Ihor Kononenko and Oleksandr Hranovsky, have been investigated in graft cases.
The reforms of the judiciary, prosecution service and police carried out under Poroshenko failed to cleanse them of corrupt cadres, while privatization and the lifting of the ban on farmland sales were blocked. Poroshenko denies the accusations of corruption and sabotage.
