When Michel Terestchenko, a French-born descendant of the Russian Empire's richest industrial dynasty, became mayor of Hlukhiv in Sumy Oblast in October, he hoped to revitalize a decaying town mired in corruption.
But Terestchenko now says he faces constant obstruction from the deputies of Hlukhiv City Council, local law enforcement, and prosecutors. Speaking at a press conference in Kyiv on July 11, Terestchenko said local prosecutors had
opened nine criminal cases against him.
He said all of the cases are politically motivated, and lawmaker Andriy Derkach, who controlled the city for the last 18 years, is behind them. In local elections in October Terestchenko defeated former Mayor Yuriy Burlaka, Derkach’s protégé and a member of runaway former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions.
The Kyiv Post contacted Derkach’s office in Hlukhiv but they weren’t able to comment by the time of the publication.
Terestchenko has been charged giving false information on his income declaration, making libelous statements about lawmaker Derkach in an interview with Ukrainian newspaper Den’, evading taxes, and impeding the work of journalists.
Hitting back, Terestchenko says that authorities have refused to investigate corruption cases filed by his team, and that Derkach was trying to pressure him and his team.
“When Derkach is in the city, he calls the prosecutor, the head of city administration, heads of the Interior Ministry and Security
Service in Sumy Oblast, they come to him, receive instructions and work according to those instructions,” Terestchenko said. “This results in huge pressure against us.”
Terestchenko also said that members of the city council had sabotaged council meetings by not showing up for work.Terestchenko said that only 14 deputies out of 34 attended Hlukhiv Council’s latest session, on June 30. The councilors were to have voted on several key decisions, including on land valuation and attracting investors to the town, Terestchenko said.
Terestchenko held a slim majority on the town council, with a coalition of 19 councilors. However, he said that some deputies from the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko, Samopomich, and the Ukrop party had since left the coalition. He called on the parties to withdraw these members from Hlukhiv City Council.
Terestchenko has also written an open letter to the Ukrainian parliament asking it to dissolve the City council and set early elections. According to the Ukrainian law on local government, a mayor has the right to initiate early elections if the town council doesn’t hold sessions according to the schedule set by the law.
Terestchenko called on Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, Chief of Ukrainian National Police Khatia Dekanoidze, Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko and Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko to ensure their departments in Sumy
Oblast were working correctly.
In an earlier interview with the Kyiv Post, Terestchenko said his priorities in Hlukhiv were to tackle corruption with the help of an anti-corruption commission, attract investors, and push through a “single window” administrative reform in City Hall that would make just one person responsible for collecting all the documents required by members of the public from various government
departments. Terestchenko also launched the new ProZorro electronic procurement system for state purchases, and worked to revive his town’s cultural life, holding various celebrations and festivals to attract tourists.
Terestchenko asked central government officials to investigate how money from Sumy Council is allocated to smaller towns’ budgets. He said that Hlukhiv, with 35,000 people, received only Hr 800,000 ($32,000), compared to the Hr 6.7 million ($268,000) allocated to the town of Shostka, which has a population of 86,000 people.
Independent lawmaker Hanna Hopko said at the press conference that Terestschenko is one of Ukraine’ few internationally known mayors, who brings hope to small towns like Hlukhiv. She, along with lawmaker Viktor Romanyuk from the People’s Front Party and Ostap Ednak from the Samopomich Party, supported Terestchenko’s demand for early elections.
“Hlukhiv is of strategic significance to Ukraine because of its location,” Hopko said. The city is just 15 kilometers from the Russian
border. “Officials shouldn’t be preventing Michel (Terestschenko) from doing his job.”
