Ukrainian prosecutors have detained the head of a state commission overseeing non-bank financial companies on corruption-related charges, the state prosecutor's office said on July 19.
Vasyl Volga, the detained man, became the highest-ranking member of a current government held on corruption charges since President Viktor Yanukovich came to power in February 2010.
The move followed comments from Western governments who had expressed concerns that the anti-corruption campaign in the former Soviet republic seemed to focus on members of the previous government who were now in opposition.
Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Yanukovich’s fiercest opponent, is on trial over abuse-of-office charges which she denies. Several of her allies face charges as well.
Yanukovich has said their prosecution was not politically motivated and was merely a part of his government’s drive against corruption.
In a move that could lend more credibility to the government’s position, prosecutors said on Tuesday they had detained Volga, the head of State Commission for Regulation of Financial Services Market.
The State Prosecutor’s office did not provide any details.
Volga has been in charge of overseeing insurance companies, credit unions, pension funds and other financial services companies since March 2010.
Unlike many other government members, Volga, who was once a member of a parliamentary committee on fighting corruption, is not a member of Yanukovich’s Regions Party.
Since winning a close run-off against Tymoshenko in 2010, Yanukovich has consolidated power and tilted foreign policy towards Russia by moves such as abandoning a bid to join NATO. He has, however, kept European integration a strategic foreign policy goal, making the Kiev government mindful of how it is perceived in the West.
