The political season in Ukraine is finishing with a resonant scandal.
Lawmaker, oligarch, and former President Petro Poroshenko allegedly left Ukraine for meetings abroad and celebrations of New Year and Orthodox Christmas there. But as he left the country, it became known that the prosecutor’s office had issued suspicion papers accusing him of “treason” and “aiding and abetting terrorist organizations.”
This story could completely reshape the political landscape in Ukraine and upset the behind-the-scenes processes that Poroshenko would like to forget.
On the last day of the parliament’s work, the State Bureau of Investigation tried to hand Poroshenko a summons for questioning. The former president screamed at his driver ordering him to drive off from the Verkhovna Rada building. A few hours later, he was seen at the airport checking in for a flight to Istanbul with a ticket he had just bought.
Poroshenko flew to Istanbul to see Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, although there was no urgent reason for such a visit. The former president had already visited Bartholomew in Istanbul in June 2021, after which they met again in August at celebrations of Independence Day in Kyiv.
Poroshenko's political party later announced he was not going to return to Kyiv in the following few weeks.
He is going to spend the festive season abroad and then make another business trip.
From the point of view of political tactics, Poroshenko’s unwillingness to return to Ukraine is understandable. The Rada is on vacation until Jan. 25, and Poroshenko and his supporters do not have the rostrum from which to make statements invoking political persecution. There will be no parliamentarians present in Kyiv who could form a support group for their leader or appear on TV to defend him.
The criminal case that forced Poroshenko to flee Ukraine is very sensitive for him from a political point of view. After all, Poroshenko’s ally was Putin’s demonic crony, Viktor Medvedchuk; in his official myths about Ukraine’s fifth president he rejects supporting Medvedchuk in any way, and he portrays him as evil incarnate.
But, as is always the case in the post-Soviet space, oligarchs can quarrel in public and do their dirty business behind the scenes. Poroshenko and Medvedchuk have known each other since 1998, when they both ran for parliament as Social Democrats, then quarreled, and then reconciled.
When Poroshenko was elected president in 2014, Medvedchuk became his secret adviser on delicate matters. For example, these involved issues of national importance, such as the exchange of hostages. But there were also different schemes. Under Poroshenko, the Ukrainian state lost control of a diesel pipeline while Medvedchuk’s structures gained control of it, which gave them over half of the diesel fuel sector in Ukraine. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau has now indicted and sued one of the officials who assisted in the deal.
Poroshenko’s involvement was also noticeable in shipments of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) into Ukraine, when to please Medvedchuks’s partners, the president-controlled Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) imposed sanctions on small traders, purging the market of competitors. Or, when Poroshenko helped Medvedchuk gain control of TV channels 112 and NewsOne by blocking sanctions or revoking licenses.
Therefore, the current treason case firmly has Poroshenko and Medvedchuk in a knot of political scheming of which they are both very wary.
Earlier, the SBU had already announced three suspects who are involved in the investigation:
The first is businessman Serhiy Kuzyara, who was an adviser to several energy ministers under the then president at the time, Viktor Yanukovych, and who owns coal-trading companies.
The second is Putin’s ally, Medvedchuk, who is currently under house arrest. His television empire, which promoted Russian propaganda narratives, was switched off by Zelensky in early 2021.
The third is the former Minister of Energy and Coal Industry appointed by Poroshenko, Volodymyr Demchyshyn, who pulled off the entire stunt.
This then is the company Poroshenko has found himself in. According to the investigation, he, being president, “made Ukraine’s energy sector dependent on Russia and on the chiefs of its puppet republics.”
As president, Poroshenko personally intervened in the supply of coal to thermal power plants in 2014 and insisted on his scenario for providing Ukraine with energy. As president, he had no authority to do so – for the Energy Minister at that time in Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s first government was Yuriy Prodan and there was still an old coalition that did not incorporate Poroshenko’s party.
At that point, without Poroshenko’s consent, it was decided that coal would to be supplied from South Africa so that Ukraine would not be dependent on coal mines in the Russian-occupied territories. But Poroshenko did not like this idea and used his powers and lever to terminate the contracts with South Africa.
According to the investigation, such actions assisted Russia and the terrorist organizations, the so-called 'LPR' and 'DPR,' in subversive activities against Ukraine. And this, according to the same investigation, is a form of treason.
The investigation’s suspects that the aide to the Russian president, Vladislav Surkov, and the deputy prime minister of the Russian government, Dmitry Kozak, engaged Medvedchuk in collaboration. The latter, in turn, concluded a deal with Poroshenko. All this can be heard on recordings previously published by investigative journalist Denys Bihus. The goal was to make the Ukrainian side pay the terrorists for coal from the occupied territories. The only alternative was coal from South Africa, and Poroshenko took it upon himself to break the contract.
As early in November 2014, Poroshenko did not have his own minister, Demchyshyn, in place, he convened the National Security and Defense Council, which demanded a halt to coal imports from South Africa and a probe into the supplier, Steel Mont Trading Ltd. On the same day, the police launched an investigation. There were a number of raids at Ukrainian state-owned companies, one of the top managers became a suspect (although a year and a half later, in 2016, the case was closed for lack of evidence).
Poroshenko himself started to criticize South African coal shipments. While on a trip to Lviv in late 2014, the then president spoke positively about cooperating with Russia in securing coal supplies from the occupied territories.
It had the required effect – under pressure from politicians and the coercive apparatus, Steel Mont Trading Ltd unilaterally gave up the contract to supply coal from Africa.
In December 2014, a new, second government was formed under Yatsenyuk’s leadership. Poroshenko’s personnel quota was already there. Demchyshyn from the ICU investment company, which had served Poroshenko’s private business for many years, was tapped to occupy the energy minister’s post. He agreed to implement the scenario worked out by Poroshenko and Medvedchuk, i.e., to get coal from the occupied territories.
To do this, they chose two legal entities – mines that were to be de-jure suppliers of coal: the Coal Mine named after K.I. Kiselyov and Luhanskvuhillia; they were chosen by the terrorists themselves. To cover up the crime, the mines were re-registered, using bogus addresses in Kyiv. They were a smokescreen, because the mines could not extract coal. For example, only one person was employed by the Kiselyov coal mine as of the end of 2014.
To launch coal shipments, the “LPR”/ “DPR” terrorist organizations demanded prepayment. And it was made in cash – they got Hr 10 million on December 31, 2014, and another Hr 20 million on January 6, 2014. The money was split equally between the two “organizations.”
Further payments were handled on a cashless basis. All in all, the companies from the occupied territories received at least UAH 205 million in state funds in 2015, according to the investigators. This was turned into cash – that is, after the money arrived on the bank accounts of the two non-operating mines originating from the occupied territories, it was wired through the accounts of bogus firms and withdrawn as cash. In general, the plans of Poroshenko and Medvedchuk were to channel over Hr 3 billion to those mines.
What is the evidence this investigation is based on?
It includes a transcript of a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council, where Poroshenko broke his contract with South Africa, wiretapped conversations between Medvedchuk and Kuzyara with members of the puppet “republics” and Russian officials, conclusions confirming the damage to national security, documents recording events of 2014-2015, and other proof.
Announcing Poroshenko a suspect has caused a stir on social media among the ex-president’s advocates. In particular, there is Yuriy Lutsenko, who once was Prosecutor General and got Ukraine involved in Rudy Giuliani’s conspiracy theory, fought against U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, and slammed anti-corruption agencies. Although Lutsenko still lacks a degree in law, he has given a legal assessment of the charges brought against Poroshenko.
It argues that if they did not pay taxes on the occupied territories, then it had nothing to do with the financing of terrorism. But this is just an attempt to mislead. After all, the terrorists were financed with cash brought in there rather than in the form of taxes paid to the occupation forces’ so-called “administrations.”
A member of the European Solidarity Party and one of Poroshenko’s political strategists, Viktoria Siumar, made it personal and started mocking Zelenskyy “Vova [a diminutive form of the male name Volodymyr] received such a coveted gift from Saint Nicholas – the charges against Poroshenko, confidently following the path of Yanukovych.”
She described the suspicion papers handed over to Poroshenko as “a green [most likely an allusion to the color used by Zelensky’s ruling Servant of People Party] oxymoron on the brink of cocaine delirium.”
But there are enough voices from those who consider Poroshenko’s prosecution to be fair. Among them is the participant in the 2014 Revolution of Dignity, Volodymyr Parasiuk, who says: “Poroshenko and Medvedchuk have created the most corrupt scheme in the history of Ukraine – “bloody trade” [with terrorists]. But in the end, Poroshenko will twist everything around, presenting himself as a victim and great political prisoner. He knows how to turn shit into chocolate for people.”
The Medvedchuk-Poroshenko case could be the final Waterloo between old and new politicians in Ukraine. It will not be easy for Poroshenko to form a coalition to defend himself, as he is becoming increasingly toxic. That’s why he decided to wait and see from abroad, gathering strength. If he flees, as was the case with his closest allies, Ihor Kononenko and Alexander Granovskiy, he will bury his political future for good. And for the authorities, this case is a challenge of demonstrating impartiality and the rule of law. They themselves must avoid the temptation of corruption and appoint independent chiefs of anti-corruption agencies. Otherwise, any mistake or sabotage will be used by Poroshenko and his advocates to discredit the investigation against him and put pressure on the government to announce new elections.
From the Editors: This Op-Ed piece expresses the personal view of the author and does not necessarily represent the position of the Kyiv Post.
