You're reading: Comeback of Political Refugees & Prisoners

Prosecuting political dissenters is a classic hallmark of an authoritarian regime, widely practiced in Ukraine during the oppressive Soviet Union.

Persecution still takes place in neighboring Russia and Belarus, where businessmen, journalists and politicians who run afoul of the regime regularly flee the country, rot in jail or pay for their views with their lives.

Now, many inside and outside of Ukraine are worrying about whether the nation under President Viktor Yanukovych is once again edging towards authoritarianism.

The Yanukovych administration, however, denies hounding opponents for political reasons. Officials insist the investigations are genuine attempts to crack down on abuse of power and corruption. The president “demands that our law enforcement authorities objectively pursue any investigations,” said presidential administration head Serhiy Lyovochkin on Jan. 20.

However, on Jan. 13, the American human rights watchdog, Freedom House, released a report that downgraded Ukraine from “free” to “partly free.”

United States and European Union officials have criticized a decline in press freedoms and politically motivated criminal investigations of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Yanukovych’s rival, and her allies.

These include Bohdan Danylyshyn, her former economy minister, who was granted political asylum in the Czech Republic on Jan. 13.

Many thought Ukraine, once-and-for-all, had made a breakthrough to democracy with the 2004 Orange Revolution that overturned an election rigged in Yanukovych’s favor. But recent events suggest otherwise.

Nearly a dozen political allies of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko have been arrested in a series of corruption investigations that both the U.S. and European Union say smell of “selective prosecution.” Those who challenge the current administration are investigated with vigor, while allegations of rampant corruption close to those in power are ignored.

In recent weeks, authorities have also investigated and jailed dozens of activists involved in protests against the Yanukovych administration.

However, Lyovochkin also said that 166 out of more than 360 criminal cases launched in the last year have targeted pro-presidential government officials.

Tymoshenko, charged with misspending $300 million in environmental money on pensions, has been called in for questioning by prosecutors some 16 times since early December. She claims Yanukovych is engaged in “political oppression” and that the ruling powers are turning the nation into a mafia-like state.

Volodymyr Fesenko, a political analyst who heads Kyiv’s Gorshenin think tank, said the current prosecutions are a mix of political revenge and personal animosity cloaked as an “anti-corruption” campaign.

Fesenko said it appears that the Yanukovych administration is raising the stakes after Party of Regions’ parliamentarian Borys Kolesnikov and other allies came under investigation in the mid-2000’s while President Viktor Yushchenko and Tymoshenko were in power.

Criminal investigations also were launched and went nowhere against some of former President Leonid Kuchma’s allies – Ihor Bakai, Anatoliy Zasukha, Ruslan Bodelan and Volodymyr Shcherban. The first three went to Russia; all the cases were eventually closed.

Kyiv Post staff writer Olesia Olesho can be reached at [email protected]