Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov announced on Feb. 22 that someone was preparing a provocation intended to discredit him and potentially the integrity of Ukraine’s upcoming presidential election on March 31.
As the head of Ukrainian law enforcement, Avakov has a significant role in ensuring a transparent election. For this reason, the alleged provocateurs plan to use a money to make it appear that Avakov is working to rig the vote, the interior minister wrote on his Facebook page.
“According to the scenario, an impressive amount of foreign currency will ‘fall’ into my bank accounts in Ukraine or Italy from unknown sources,” Avakov wrote, “allegedly to ‘pay the Ministry of Internal Affairs for services to cover up electoral falsification and bribing voters in favor of a certain candidate.’”
Citing “operative sources,” Avakov suggested that provocation was being organized inside Ukraine, but that the money might be of Russian origin to do greater damage to his and the Interior Ministry’s image. Since 2014, Ukraine has been at war with Russia after Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula and invade Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
“I can understand when such a provocation comes from the aggressor country. But when such intrigues lash out against you in your own country, it is difficult to accept,” Avakov wrote.
However, political analyst Yevhen Mahda, director of the Institute of World Policy, told the Kyiv Post that Avakov’s announcement looks odd for several reasons.
First, it’s not clear why the interior minister still has accounts abroad. Second, all sums of money above Hr 150,000 ($5,500) are subject to financial monitoring in Ukraine.
“How can Hr 150,000 provoke Mr. Avakov? This is ridiculous,” Mahda said.
However, Mahda believes that Avakov’s Facebook post may be a response to a statement by presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko — who served as Ukraine’s prime minister in 2005 and 2007–2010 — that was perceived as praising the interior minister.
“Due to political circumstances, due to political relations that exist, I believe that the Ministry of the Interior and Minister Avakov will work to ensure that there is no fraud and bribery,” Tymoshenko said on Feb. 22 during a briefing held in Kyiv.
After law enforcement responded harshly to protesters at a Tymoshenko rally on Feb. 9, some political commentators concluded that Avakov was secretly supporting the former prime minister in the race. Later, Avakov responded to the rumor — albeit obliquely — criticizing the actions of the protesters and calling the presidential campaign “horrible f*ckery.”
Since then, in an interview with the Zerkalo Tyzhnya news site, Avakov has stated that he has no political alliance with any candidate and criticized attempts to make it appear otherwise.
According to Mahda, Avakov’s claim to be an impartial arbiter would look more sincere were he not preparing to run for parliament in October.
“Avakov is placing high bets on the presidential election, but he must also abide by the rules of the game,” he said. “He wants to be an arbiter during the presidential vote, and then take part in the parliamentary election.”
Avakov believes the alleged provocation against him will not be the last.
He noted that, at the time of his Facebook post, the Interior Ministry and National Police had received 1,741 reports of electoral violations, leading to 77 criminal cases and 401 misdemeanor ones. Of all the political parties, the Petro Poroshenko Bloc received the most complaints, 420, followed by Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna party with 337, the Samopomich party with 159, the Civic Position party with 124, and the Radical Party with 117.
“The closer to day X, the more such messages and calls we will receive around the clock,” he wrote.
In the Zerkalo Tyzhnya interview, Avakov also stated that the deputy head of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, Serhiy Berezenko is a de facto suspect in criminal cases over electoral violations. Berezenko has been called an “organizer of schemes” to influence the vote, Avakov said. However, as a lawmaker, Berezenko has parliamentary immunity.
During the past week, the presidential race grew increasingly ugly. Ukrainian General Prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko, a Poroshenko ally, opened investigations against two leading candidates: Yulia Tymoshenko, currently in third place according to polls, and former Defense Minister Anatoliy Grytsenko, who most recently has been in fourth place.
Tymoshenko faces investigation for her ties to two U.S. lobbying firms. These lobbyists were hired by a third party to represent her interests. However, in her asset declaration, Tymoshenko neither indicated spending money on lobbying, nor receiving lobbying services as a gift.
Meanwhile, Grytsenko is being investigated for treason as part of a criminal case against former defense ministers accused of selling off Ukraine’s military equipment and thereby undermining the country’s defense capabilities.
The investigation comes after Grytsenko, who served as defense minister in Tymoshenko’s government in 2005–2007, publicly feuded with Lutsenko aftering stating — incorrectly — that the general prosecutor had hidden his son from military service. Grytsenko later apologized for that comment.
The former defense minister has called the allegations against him lies.
