You're reading: Sanctions, Please: Calls rise for US, EU to identify Ukraine’s corrupt elite, freeze assets, deny visas

Fed up with never-ending corruption and impunity among Ukraine's elite, Ukrainians and others are calling on the United States and European Union to impose economic and visa sanctions against select businesspeople and current officials.

The idea is gaining ground as Ukrainians and their friends abroad watch with deepening dismay while the nation’s anti-corruption drive is subverted, diluted or delayed by President Petro Poroshenko and other top officials.

See the list of Ukrainians that are under sanctions from EU, U.S.

Some believe U.S. President Barack Obama, who is set to become the first American president since Ronald Reagan not to visit Ukraine while in office, should be doing more to help Ukrainians combat the corruption among their elite, as well as to win the war against Russia.

Meanwhile, Ambassador Jan Tombinski, the Polish diplomat who heads the EU delegation in Ukraine, said he understands the disappointment of Ukrainians who have seen no justice since the EuroMaidan Revolution that drove President Viktor Yanukovych from power in 2014.

“The post-Maidan period requires more responsibility and sense of public service from people who execute public functions than before,” Tombinski told the Kyiv Post. “Therefore all abuse of public trust, for corruption or other reasons, should imply sanctions.”

U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey R. Pyatt, who has been outspoken on Ukraine’s need to fight corruption, was uncharacteristically silent on the possibility of an expansion of U.S. sanctions against Ukrainians.

The EU and U.S. have already combined forces to apply travel bans, asset freezes or other restrictions on some 80 Ukrainians, mainly those tied to the Yanukovych regime, Russia’s Crimean annexation or the Kremlin-instigated war in the eastern Donbas.

But some say that’s not enough.

One of the latest to back an expansion of sanctions is David J. Kramer, the former U.S. assistant secretary of state who is the senior director for human rights and democracy at the McCain Institute for International Leadership in Washington, D.C.

“American and European law enforcement agencies should look into the source of purchases of high-ticket assets and real estate by Ukrainians in our own countries,” Kramer wrote in The American Interest on April 28.

“From where are Ukrainian officials and oligarchs getting the money to buy companies and expensive condos in the United States, for example? The West should not enable Ukraine’s corruption.”

Lawmakers in favor

Hanna Hopko, an independent member of Ukraine’s parliament, is among many lawmakers and civil society activists who have long called on the West to take tougher measures. She wrote an op-ed outlining her views at least as far back as Feb. 28 in Den newspaper.

The West should impose “sanctions against top corrupt Ukrainians close to the authorities,” Hopko wrote. “Western financial institutions have enough levers to ban them from entering the civilized world. For instance, personal sanctions against the corrupt officials who buy real estate at world-famous resorts, unable to verify the origin of the money. That would be a strong message for the corrupt officials. (The West should also be) returning the assets taken abroad by the gang of Yanukovych. The West is not rushing to return the money stolen from the Ukrainian nation, citing the absence of evidence by the Prosecutor General’s Office.”

In an interview with the Kyiv Post, Hopko said she has personally raised the issue with U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and EU officials, and went so far as to suggest the names of those Ukrainians who she thinks would be deserving targets for sanctions.

But Hopko said she’s seen no signs that the West will take this path because of “a lack of real leadership” to impose a punitive policy as well as strong vested interests to accept even “dirty money” in the West.
Member of parliament Igor Lutsenko told the Kyiv Post that he, in principle, favors U.S. sanctions against corrupt members of Ukraine’s elite. “In general, I agree with the suggestions,” Lutsenko said. “Especially, regarding real estate issues. Visas is yet another good idea to consider.”

Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, also believes the West should have long ago toughened up on Ukraine’s business and political elite.

“We need all possible tools which can help fight the feeling of impunity of our corrupt elites,” Kaleniuk told the Kyiv Post. “Blocking correspondent accounts of (billionaire Igor) Kolomoisky’s businesses would be a powerful tool in negotiations with him, and force him to do something or to stop doing something. The same could be done regarding other oligarchs and business politicians.”

Kaleniuk also said she had not gotten a welcoming response from Western leaders.

“The West is reluctant to do anything that will trigger their additional responsibility, such as sanctions and any international joint anti-corruption investigative team or a hybrid court,” Kaleniuk said. “I have raised all these ideas many times.”

Presidential bloc lawmaker Sergii Leshchenko, a renowned investigative journalist, is also in support of expanding Western sanctions. Leshchenko goes even further in his willingness to name people he thinks would make good candidates for possible Western sanctions, all of whom have denied any wrongdoing. Leshchenko’s list includes presidential business partner and lawmaker Ihor Kononenko, presidential chief of staff Borys Lozhkin, ex-lawmaker Mykola Martynenko, businessman Alexander Granovsky and lawmakers Oleh Nedava, Andriy Ivanchuk and Serhiy Pashinskiy.

Other voices

Others, such as the Atlantic Council’s Adrian Karatnycky, are against the idea.

“Ukraine just passed an important gas tariff increase and the introduction of a decent civil service law,” Karatnycky said. “Ukraine’s elite need to be encouraged and supported, not hounded.”

Both laws, however, were requirements for Western aid from the International Monetary Fund and the EU.

Others in favor


Swedish economist Anders Aslund, who also writes for the Atlantic Council, said that he is “all in favor of personalized sanctions against people who misbehave, highly selectively.”

Steven Pifer, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 1997 to 2000, is also in the pro-sanctions camp. “I would support it as a way for the U.S. government to show that it takes corruption seriously,” Pifer told the Kyiv Post. “Those measures would have an impact and would be effective.”
Pifer, however, thinks the Obama administration will adopt a “wait- and-see” approach to the new government in Kyiv and give them more time before resorting to sanctions.

“Most Ukrainians would be very supportive of it,” Pifer said of sanctions. “Those unhappy would be those who are targeted.”

Timothy Ash, a London-based analyst with Nomura International, said such sanctions could be effective if the EU and U.S. acted in unison.

‘A real wake-up call’

Kramer said he is speaking out because of growing frustration with the lack of progress against Ukraine’s deeply embedded corruption.

“The policy we have had has not worked,” Kramer said. “The blame is on Ukrainians, not on the U.S. But I think this will be a real wake-up call to people in Ukraine that we do mean it when we say you have to deal with corruption. People in Ukraine demand better.”

Kramer said Obama has the legal authority to take executive action, but also “Congress can, indeed, legislate such sanctions, as it did with the Magnitsky Act in 2012 over administration objections. There the administration has been very slow in implementing the legislation, although some three dozen Russians have been targeted.”

Imposing visa bans is easier since their issuance is discretionary within the U.S. State Department, but the names of those refused generally don’t become public — so the shame-and-name value is lost.

Imposing asset freezes on those with money in U.S. financial institutions or who use U.S. financial institutions is more complicated. The process is controlled by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Assets Control, which works with the State Department in identifying individuals for justifiable sanctions based on political reasons and evidence of wrongdoing.

“This involves freezing any assets that a person might have in the U.S. or who is using U.S. financial institutions,” he said. “This is part of a broader interest in going after corrupt individuals who then exploit our systems, and we in turn are trying to go back on the offensive. Ukraine should not be immune from this.”

He said, while the State Department usually generates the list of candidates for asset sanctions, the Office of Financial Assets Control does the follow-up investigations to assess the strength of the evidence of wrongdoing.

Kramer didn’t offer specific names or numbers of Ukrainians who he thinks are deserving of sanctions. In part, he said, it’s good to “keep people guessing.”

Distrust high

Ukraine’s criminal justice system is not functioning as it should — it’s broken, some would say. Ukraine’s politicians are resisting changes that would end their control over police, prosecutors and judges or put effective professionals in charge of running independent institutions.

Polls show that almost all Ukrainians distrust the nation’s 18,000-member prosecutorial service. Some critics liken it to a mafia for its reputation of soliciting bribes to open and close criminal cases and controlling judicial verdicts.

Not a single case of major corruption has gone to trial since EuroMaidan Revolution while three ineffectual prosecutor generals have come and gone — Oleh Magnitsky, Vitaly Yarema and Viktor Shokin. The president appoints the top prosecutor subject to confirmation by parliament.

Additionally, ex-Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk called for the nation’s 9,000 judges to be replaced, yet nothing has happened. Only recently has Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko floated the idea of asking parliament to pass a law to establish a special anti-corruption court.

Kramer said he believes the U.S. government is moving “in this direction” of sanctions, “though so far only on visas, not yet on assets. The (visa bans) can be done quietly, but for the U.S. government to seize assets, the U.S. Treasury would announce such steps so that financial institutions know not to do business with the sanctioned individual.”

Ukrainians facing sanctions (asset freezes, travel bans) in the US and EU:

Crimean officials who welcomed the annexation of the peninsula by Russia:


Sergey Aksyonov, prime minister of Crimea (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Rustam Tamirgaliev, former deputy prime minister of Crimea (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Nataliya Poklonskaya, prosecutor of Crimea (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Vladimir Konstantinov, speaker of the Supreme Council of the annexed Crimea (sanctions in EU, U.S.)

Denis Berezovskiy, Ukrainian Navy commander who switched sides and became Deputy Commander of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation (sanctions in EU)

Aleksei Chaliy, self-proclaimed mayor of Sevastopol (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Dmitry Kozak, deputy prime minister of Crimea (sanctions in EU)

Pyotr Zima, head of Crimea Security Service (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Sergei Menyailo, governor of Sevastopol (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Igor Shevchenko, prosecutor of Sevastopol (sanctions in EU)

Petr Jarosh, head of the Federal Migration Service office for Crimea (sanctions in EU)

Oleg Kozyura, ex-head of the Federal Migration Service office for Sevastopol (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Mikhail Sheremet, deputy prime minister of Crimea (sanctions in EU)

Sergey Tsekov, deputy chairman of the Supreme Council of Crimea (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Dmitry Neklyudov, Crimean official, separatist (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Mikhail Malyshev, chairman of the Crimea Electoral Commission (sanctions in U.S.)

Yuriy Zherebtsov, counselor of speaker of the Supreme Council of Crimea (sanctions in U.S.)

Valeriy Medvedev, member of Sevastopol Electoral Commission (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Serhiy Abisov, interior minister of Crimea (sanctions in EU)

Separatists, mercenaries, members of separatist organizations in Donetsk, Luhansk:


Oleh Tsaryov, former Party of Regions lawmaker, participant of separatist movement (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Oleksandr Zakharchenko, leader of Donetsk separatists (sanctions in EU, U.S.)

Valeriy Bolotov, one of the leaders of the separatist group “Army of the South-East” (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Andriy Purgin, former leader of the separatist organization “Donetsk People’s Republic” (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Denys Pushylin, one of the leaders of the separatist organization “Donetsk People’s Republic” (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Igor Plotnitskiy, leader of separatists of Luhansk (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Pavel Gubarev, one of the leaders of separatists of Donetsk (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Kateryna Gubareva, separatist activist, wife of Pavel Gubarev (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Sergey Tsyplakov, one of the leaders of Donetsk separatists (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Viacheslav Ponomariov, separatist, former self-declared mayor of Sloviansk, Donetsk Oblast (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Igor Bezler, one of the leaders of separatists in Horlivka, Donetsk (sanctions in EU, U.S.)

Igor Kakidzyanov, one of the leaders of the separatist organization in Donetsk (sanctions in EU)

Roman Lyagin, Ukrainian businessman, separatist (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Oleksandr Malykhin, member of separatist organization in Donetsk (sanctions in EU)

Oleksandr Khodakovsky, former activist of the separatist organization in Donetsk (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Oleksandr Kalyussky, member of separatist organization in Donetsk (sanctions in EU)

Oleksandr Khryakov, one of the leaders of separatists of Donetsk Oblast (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Oleksiy Karyakin, one of the leaders of the separatists of Luhansk (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Yuriy Ivakin, separatist activist in Luhansk (sanctions in EU, U.S.)

Valeriy Kaurov, separatist activist (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Borys Litvynov, member of separatist organization in Donetsk (sanctions in EU)

Miroslav Rudenko, member of separatist organization in Donetsk (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Oleh Akimov, member of separatist organization in Luhansk (sanctions in EU)

Larisa Airapetyan, member of separatist organization in Luhansk (sanctions in EU)

Yuriy Sivokonenko, member of Donetsk Separatists’ parliament (sanctions in EU)

Oleksandr Kofman, Ukrainian separatist (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Lesya Lapteva, member of separatist organization in Luhansk (sanctions in EU)

Vladyslav Deynego, one of the leaders of separatist organization in Luhansk (sanctions in U.S.)

Yevhen Orlov, member of separatist organization in Donetsk (sanctions in EU)

Mikhail Tolstykh (Givi), commander of separatist mercenaries in Donetsk (sanctions in EU)

Eduard Basurin, commander of separatist mercenaries in Donetsk (sanctions in EU)

Oleksandr Shubin, one of the leaders of mercenaries in Luhansk (sanctions in EU)

Serhiy Litvin, one of the leaders of separatists in Luhansk (sanctions in EU)

Ekaterina Filippova, member of separatist organization in Donetsk (sanctions in EU)

Oleksandr Timofeev, member of separatist organization in Donetsk (sanctions in EU)

Evgen Manuilov, member of separatist organization in Luhansk (sanctions in EU)

Viktor Yatsenko, member of separatist organization in Donetsk (sanctions in EU)

Nikolay Kozitsyn, commander of separatist Cossack group based in Donetsk (sanctions in EU)

Olga Besedina, member of separatist organization in Luhansk (sanctions in EU)

Zaur Isliamov, member of separatist organization in Luhansk (sanctions in EU)

Olena Semenova, Ukrainian native, reason not specified (sanctions in U.S.)

Petr Savchenko, businessman, separatist (sanctions in U.S.)

Fyodor Berezin, high-ranking Ukrainian separatist (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Vasyliy Nikitin, member of separatist organization in Luhansk (sanctions in U.S., EU)

Serhiy Zdrylyuk, Donetsk separatist known as Abver (sanctions in U.S., EU)