You're reading: Supervisor of Tymoshenko’s prosecution gets job on national security council

Renat Kuzmin, the first deputy prosecutor who successfully supervised the prosecutions of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and former Interior Minister Yuri Lutsenko, has been appointed deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, according to a presidential decree signed by Viktor Yanukovych on Oct. 4.

Kuzmin, 46, wasn’t immediately available for comment.

A native of Donetsk, Kuzmin investigated high-profile criminal cases, often of top political opponents of Yanukovych.

The convictions of Tymoshenko who is serving a seven-year sentence and Lutsenko who eventually received a presidential pardon in April, in particular, are regularly cited in the West as examples of political persecution.

He has also investigated ex-President Leonid Kuchma on whether he ordered the Sept. 16, 2000 murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze.

“I’m deputy general prosecutor for everybody,” Kuzmin told the Kyiv Post on April 10. “The fact that I’m investigating criminal cases against politicians causes criticism from
politicians.”

Lutsenko, on his Facebook page, called Kuzmin’s appointment a “logical step” by the president who was forced to “meet Europe’s requirement to put an end to political
repressions and selective justice in Ukraine.”

The former top cop said that “until Kuzmin and his cronies are punished for lawlessness, there is no certainty that the political and business racket of the General Prosecutor’s
Office has gone in oblivion.”

He added that the appointment is an “important signal to those who obediently carry out illegal instructions.”

Kuzmin has worked as a prosecutor for more than 20 years and came to Kyiv from Donetsk, just like his now former boss, General Prosecutor Viktor Pshonka, and Yanukovych.

Kyiv Post editor Mark Rachkevych can be reached  at [email protected]