You're reading: Yatsenyuk, ally dismiss graft accusations

Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s Cabinet, a state firm executive appointed by Yatsenyuk and one of his allies, Ihor Kotvitsky, on Sept. 28 dismissed corruption accusations against them and pledged to take legal action.

Serhiy
Kaplin, a member of the Verkhovna Rada from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, wrote in his blog on Sept. 26 that Kyiv’s Pechersky District Court had ordered the Prosecutor General’s Office to
start an investigation against Yatsenyuk on suspicion of getting a $3 million
bribe for appointing Volodymyr Ishchuk as chief executive of state-owned Radio
Broadcasting, Radio Communications and Television Company in August. He
published a scanned copy of the court order.

Andriy
Demartino, a spokesman for the Prosecutor General’s Office, confirmed by phone
that the office had initially refused to start a case against Yatsenyuk based
on a complaint filed by Kaplin.

Demartino
said, however, that he did not know about the Pechersky Court order.

The
court was not available for comment by phone or e-mail.
However, the Kyiv Post found the case’s reference number in the Ukrainian court system’s online database.

Oleg
Vasilik, a spokesman for Radio Broadcasting, Radio Communications and
Television Company, said by phone that he believed Kaplin’s actions were “part
of a power struggle at the company.”

Kaplin supports Konstyantyn Zakharenko, who headed the
company under disgraced former President Viktor Yanukovych and is trying to
return to his position, Vasilik claimed.

Ishchuk
denied the accusations in a statement on Sept. 28 and said he would ask the
Prosecutor General’s Office, the Interior Ministry and Security Service to
start libel and abuse of power investigations against Kaplin.

Kaplin
was not available for comment.

Ishchuk
claimed that Kaplin was helping a “group of provocateurs from Viktor Yanukovych’s
entourage” who are seeking to “discredit Ukraine’s new democratic government,
increase the influence of Kremlin propaganda in our country’s whole territory
and restore a pro-Russian puppet regime.”

The
Cabinet told the Times in a written statement on Sept. 28 that Kaplin’s accusations
were part of efforts by “Yanukovych’s gang to continue old practices of robbery.”

The
Cabinet attributed what it described as an attack on Radio Broadcasting, Radio
Communications and Television Company to its efforts to curb digital television
provider Zeonbud’s monopoly on the digital television market. Zeonbud is reportedly
linked to Yanukovych allies but the company has not disclosed its ownership.

“Kaplin
is a very flamboyant person,” Tetiana Ozon, a spokeswoman for Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front party, said by
phone. “He constantly accuses everyone of everything, so we don’t even pay
attention to him.”

Andriy Teteruk, a People’s Front lawmaker, described
Kaplin as a crazy person and called him a “primate.”

“I’m not a scientist who researches the world of
primates,” he told the Kyiv Post. “So I don’t want to comment on anything that
goes on in that world.”

Kotvitsky, a lawmaker from the People’s Front party, has also been accused of corruption.

Serhiy
Leshchenko, a lawmaker of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, wrote on Sept. 25 that
Kotvitsky had transferred $40 million to an offshore company based in Panama
through Ukraine’s state-owned Oshchadbank.

Kotvitsky
did not initially include this amount in his 2014 declaration and included it
half a year after the deadline for declarations expired, Leshchenko said,
posting scanned copies of what he said were the original and corrected
declarations. Leshchenko also said that the money could belong to Interior
Minister Arsen Avakov and that Kotvitsky was his business partner.

Avakov
later dismissed the accusations.

“I
could comment but everyone distorts information in their own interests so much
that I don’t even want to comment,” Kotvitsky told the Kyiv Post via Facebook.“Leshchenko
wrote a nonsensical smear job. I’ll file a lawsuit!”

Leshchenko
told the Kyiv Post that his reaction to the lawsuit would depend on the
specific claims that Kotvitsky would file.

When
asked whether the money had been transferred to Panama, whether his declaration
had been corrected and whether he was a business partner of Avakov, Kotvitsky
wrote that he could not tell this via mobile Internet.

Ozon
said that she could not comment on the accusations against Kotvitsky.

Teteruk
said that, if Kotvitsky had changed his declaration after the deadline expired,
he “must be held responsible like any other lawmaker who commits a crime” and
that “everyone must be equal before the law.”

Kyiv Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be reached at [email protected]