Former minister jailed in probe
February 14, 2008 at 01:33he said it was to negotiate construction of a Boryspil airport terminal and inspect bridges in California to build them in Ukraine.
Among the things Rudkovskiy, the former transportation minister, was inspecting this week were the bars of his holding cell after the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) arrested him Feb. 9 for not cooperating with investigators and violating a December order not to leave his registered residence in Chernihiv.
While it’s no secret corruption still thrives in the highest echelons of Ukrainian government, observers said Rudkovskiy was singled out from the myriad of other suspect politicians, partly because he no longer enjoys prosecutorial immunity as a government minister.
“This is good PR for the government because it’s easier to convince people that he used government money to finance a personal trip with his girlfriend,” said Sergiy Taran, director of the International Democracy Institute, referring to a June 2007 flight to Paris.
“It’s more difficult for the public to understand RosUkrEnergo and the transport of Russian gas to Ukraine.”
Rudkovskiy is being investigated for misappropriating taxpayer money to finance three chartered flights abroad worth more than $200,000.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs filed its own criminal charges alleging Rudkovskiy pilfered more than $1.7 million worth of ministry property.
In June 2007, Rudkovsky chartered separate flights to Paris and Brussels. He was accompanied by former Miss Ukraine Aleksandra Nikolaenko on the three-day Paris trip.
In July 2007, an 11-member delegation flew to Tokyo via Vienna. At least two on the trip were not transportation ministry employees, according to news reports.
Rudkovskiy opted not to return with the delegation and instead flew around the world via Hawaii and California before returning to Kyiv after a Munich layover. A state enterprise within Rudkovskiy’s Ministry of Transportation and Communication financed all the travel expenses.
The Tokyo trip was so hastily planned that Rudkovskiy failed to follow protocols and inform government authorities of “hotel accommodations, visa applications, flight tickets, and transportation,” reported the State Administration to Combat Organized Crime.
The Pechersk District Court decided to apprehend Rudkovskiy since he was not cooperating with ongoing investigations and for allegedly violating an order that prevented him from leaving Chernihiv, the city where he is registered. He is being held at a pre-trial detention center in Kyiv.
Dubbed “Globetrotter of the Year” by the press in 2007, Rudkovskiy has denied any wrongdoing, alleging he’s a victim of political persecution by the Presidential Secretariat.
He claimed he never avoided investigators, citing a statement he provided to prosecutors confirming he was residing with his parents in Kyiv.
While numerous former and present high-level officials are being investigated by prosecutors, virtually no cases make it to court and few spend time in jail, Taran said.
However “this case has a high probability of making it to court,” he added, largely because Rudkovskiy’s Socialist Party of Ukraine is out of government, the case is easy fodder and it will draw the media’s attention.
“The Socialist Party is no longer in parliament,” Taran said. “He has no political structure to protect him so he’s easy to prosecute.”
Rudkovskiy’s arrest, soon after Yulia Tymoshenko’s return as prime minister, was similar to how her government arrested Borys Kolesnikov immediately after the Orange Revolution.
“The practice of arbitrarily applying laws to prosecute politicians started in the 1990’s during Kuchma’s reign,” said Yuriy Yakymenko, director of political and legal programs at the Razumkov Center for Economic and Political Research in Kyiv.
The SBU arrested Rudkovskiy late Feb. 9, reporting he was taken into custody outside the Borys private hospital on Bazhana Boulevard. Officers asked Rudkovskiy to accompany them to a pre-trial detention center and he complied quietly.
In Rudkovskiy’s version of events, he was undergoing rehabilitation after a Feb. 7 surgery for herniated discs.
His press secretary said he was taken from the Borys clinic by 15 masked gunmen.
On Feb. 11, a Pechersk District Court judge ruled that Rudkovskiy should be held in pre-trial confinement until investigations are complete.
The court scene was a media circus as cameras broadcast a fragile-looking, wheelchair-bound Rudkovskiy complaining of weakness and high blood pressure, receiving injections from accompanying paramedics.
If convicted, Rudkovskiy faces up to 12 years in jail and subsequently barred from public office for three years.
It’s not the first time Rudkovskiy’s gotten into trouble.
Despite Rudkovskiy’s claim of having earned two higher degrees, he never disproved news reports claiming he didn’t complete the Moscow School of Economics and the Chernihiv Pedagogical Institute.