The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine on Sept. 15 announced a bribery case against a lawmaker from President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Servant of the People party, Oleksandr Yurchenko.
Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, a Zelensky loyalist, blocked the charges on the same day, claiming she saw no evidence of corruption. Back then, Zelensky apparently saw no problem with his protégé sabotaging the case.
But when NABU published videotapes that left no doubt about Yurchenko’s bribery scheme, Zelensky and his office had to stage a circus. They launched a tirade against the lawmaker, saying that every corrupt official must be jailed.
This was utter hypocrisy: Zelensky defended his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, when his brother was caught on video discussing the sale of state jobs on the chief of staff’s behalf. Zelensky has also hypocritically refused to condemn corruption in a major case against Judge Pavlo Vovk, saying he has no right to interfere. Why did he interfere in the Yurchenko case then?
The reason is clear: Yurchenko is a small fish who can be sacrificed, and Yermak and Vovk are big fish who are too powerful to get rid of.
The kleptocrats are taking revenge on the NABU. In recent weeks, the Constitutional Court recognized the 2015 decree on Sytnyk’s appointment and parts of the Law on the NABU to be unconstitutional. This appears to be an effort to get rid of Sytnyk and replace him with a puppet of top incumbent officials.
Sytnyk’s critics accuse him of failing to take on top-level corruption and being ineffective.
He is not perfect: Although NABU has gone after some top officials, it seldom genuinely attempted to go to the very top of the corruption pyramid either under ex-President Petro Poroshenko or Zelensky. Now Sytnyk has to gain the public’s favor and is stepping up his efforts to avoid losing his job.
But NABU’s faults are not the reason why there are ongoing attempts to get rid of Sytnyk. On the contrary, Zelensky, Yermak, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and the oligarchs want him to be fired because he has hurt their interests.
It is crystal clear that they want to replace Sytnyk with a voiceless stooge who will not touch any top incumbent official or oligarch.
What matters is not Sytnyk himself, but the principle of the NABU’s independence and integrity: Its head must be chosen in a fully transparent procedure that will make sure he’s the most professional, ethical and independent candidate.
But Zelensky and his allies do not want any independent and honest institutions: On Sept. 17, Zelensky’s majority in the Rada also chose controversial commission members who are likely to pick a dependent and compromised chief anti-corruption prosecutor — the person who oversees the NABU. That tells you all you need to know.
