The Odesa city police chief has been detained for
allegedly taking a $20,000 bribe, and prosecutors say they stumbled upon a
makeshift shrine to Russian law enforcement in the suspect’s office when he was
arrested.
Ukraine’s top military prosecutor, Anatoly Matios,
announced the news on his Facebook page on Aug. 27, posting photos of the
Russian paraphernalia, which included several banners of Russia’s Interior
Ministry.
“The Russian Interior Ministry is closed! These are
the banners of the aggressor found in the office of the detained Odesa police
chief. I’m ready to exchange this wannabe Russian cop for our heroes in
captivity,” Matios wrote.
Although Matios does not identify the suspect in his
post, the official website of the Odesa city police lists the head as Oleg
Makukha, a Donetsk native appointed to the position on July 1.
The press service for the Odesa police department told
the Kyiv Post they were “conducting an investigation and looking into” how
Makukha could have had pro-Russian flags displayed in his working office
without any colleagues calling attention to it.
As for the corruption aspect of the case, the bribes
allegedly accepted by the police chief were in exchange for “resolving
corporate conflicts” involving property deals, according to Matios.
Odesa Oblast is widely seen as the epicenter of the
country’s fight against corruption, with new Governor Mikheil Saakashvili
bringing a team of Western-educated professionals and Georgians to reform the
city and region.
Sasha
Borovik, a Western-educated adviser to Saakashvili who has been outspoken in
demanding full reforms, was unavailable for comment on what the governor’s next
move would be to stamp out corruption among the police.
But Saakashvili responded to the scandal on his
Facebook page on Aug. 28 by describing the Odesa police force as a
“well-organized criminal syndicate.” He said the latest corruption case proved
it was time to rid all law enforcement and government agencies of corrupt
officials.
“From my point of view, we need to completely dismiss
them (the police force) and organize the force anew. On this step, together
with (Interior Minister) Arsen Avakov we will create a special branch within
the Interior Ministry, the employees of which will be selected very carefully,
and they will tackle corruption inside the administration and the police,”
Saakashvili said.
The governor’s plans for restructuring the police
force are nothing new, having been on the agenda since he took office on May
30.
Police reforms are part of a wide package of reforms
in the region, with the new patrol police having hit the streets on Aug. 25.
Staff writer
Allison Quinn can be reached at [email protected].
