Ukraine has had a new acting prosecutor since Feb. 8, even though there has been no formal announcement of resignation of Vitaly Yarema, a source at the Kyiv prosecutor's office told the Kyiv Post on Feb. 9.
Deputy
Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin was appointed acting prosecutor
general by President Petro Poroshenko over the weekend, the source said. “You’ve
seen the recent media coverage of Yarema,” the source said,
commenting on the reasons for the resignation. “This decision has
been in the making for some time.”
Yarema,
who was appointed top prosecutor in June, has been severely
criticized for the lack of progress in high-profile criminal cases against
former President Viktor Yanukovych and his allies. Yarema also came under fire for alleged corruption
and nepotism in his office.
Shokin
has been a deputy prosecutor general since June and had occupied the
same position in 2002-2003 and in 2004-2007. Shokin, who could not been reached for comment, is believed to be close to Poroshenko and has also been accused of ties to businessman Oleksiy Chebotaryov, an ally of Yanukovych. Like Yarema, he has been blamed for stalling high-profile investigations against Yanukovych’s entourage.
The
press service of the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Presidential Administration’s press office declined to comment on
the change.
Deputy Prosecutor General Alexei Baganets, as well as Alyona
Shkrum and Ihor Lutsenko, parliamentarians representing the
Batkyvshchyna party, and Yegor Sobolev of the Samopomich party
confirmed that Yarema had submitted his resignation.
Sobolev
said, citing anonymous sources at the presidential administration,
that Poroshenko had accepted Yarema’s resignation.
Yarema’s
most controversial deputies are also leaving, a source close to
Poroshenko told Ukrainskaya Pravda.
Oleh
Zalisko is going on vacation, while Oleh Bachun will be on paternity
leave and Anatoliy Danylenko is resigning, according to the source.
Bachun
has been accused of corruption after he declared receiving presents
worth about Hr 6 million in 2014, while Danylenko has been a target
of criticism since Nashi Groshi investigative journalism project last
year revealed illegal property deals allegedly made by his family.
Both he and Yarema dismissed the charges.
Meanwhile, Baganets said that two unnamed deputies of Yarema had submitted their resignation.
Yarema’s
resignation will be announced at a meeting of the Poroshenko Bloc’s
parliamentary faction on Feb. 9 and will be made public on Feb.
10, a source at the bloc told Ukrainian newspaper Capital.
Poroshenko’s
candidates for the positions of prosecutor general and his deputies
will be “a positive surprise” and will include foreigners, the
source said.
“This
is not just one resignation, it’s a reset of the whole leadership
of the Prosecutor General’s Office,” the source told the paper. “It’s a gigantic mechanism rife with corruption.”
Shkrum
attributed Yarema’s resignation to his report at the Verkhovna Rada
on Feb. 6.
“I
think Yarema came to the Verkhovna Rada to spell out his position and
failed to persuade them,” she said by phone.
“But (his resignation) is a strong move by a strong man.”
She
said she was “100 percent unhappy” with Yarema’s report at the parliament.
“We
didn’t hear what has actually been done,” Shkrum said. “He shouldn’t have told us
about trivialities.”
Timothy Ash, an emerging markets analyst with Standard Bank in London, said that Ukraine’s donors and creditors demand more action against crime and corruption than Yarema was delivering.
“I think this is probably part of the official creditors’ drive to ensure that more is being done to root out corruption and graft, and an important signal prior to Western agreement over a new International Monetary Fund (loan).”
Many of Yarema’s critics say he was a Soviet holdover who perpetuated longstanding inaction against crime and corruption among influential people both in and out of office.
Kyiv
Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be reached at [email protected].
