Alexandra Ustinova – reformer of the week
Alexandra Ustinova, an expert at the Anti-Corruption Action Center, and her colleagues from the watchdog have sued the Security Service of Ukraine for hiding its employees’ income declarations from the public and other state agencies.
Ustinova said on May 11 that she had been followed by SBU employees and people hired by the SBU. The agency has denied harassing critics of the authorities.
Reformist lawmaker Sergii Leshchenko said on May 13 that he had been harassed by a person claiming to be a journalist. Leshchenko argues that the person was also hired by the SBU.
On April 20, Radio Liberty published possible evidence of the SBU’s involvement in organizing a protest against Vitaly Shabunin, head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center’s executive board.
Meanwhile, the National Police on May 16 searched the apartment of Max Cherkasenko from the reformist Democratic Alliance party. Cherkasenko claims that the searches had been carried out with procedural violations and aimed to obtain politically sensitive information from him.
The authorities have also investigated other opponents of Poroshenko, including Dragon Capital CEO Tomas Fiala, ex-customs official Yulia Marushevska and anti-corruption investigator Kateryna Vezeleva-Borisova.
Vitaly Hlukhoverya – anti-reformer of the week
Interior Minister Arsen Avakov on May 10 appointed Vitaly Hlukhoverya as chief of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast’s police.
Hlukoverya replaced Ihor Repeshko, who was fired due to a brutal crackdown by the police and pro-government thugs, or “titushki”, on nationalist activists and Ukrainian veterans of Russia’s war against Ukraine at a protest on May 9. The police and titushki beat the activists with batons and kicked them with their legs.
Hlukhoverya has triggered a controversy when a photo of him with a sweater reading “USSR” has been shared on social networks.
In 2010 to 2013 he worked as the Interior Ministry’s representative in Russia and was seen as a close ally of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s Interior Minister Vitaly Zakharchenko.
Hlukhoverya was previously appointed as chief of Dnipro Oblast police in 2014, when he failed to fire or punish police officers involved in crackdowns on EuroMaidan protesters.
Subsequently Hlukhoverya headed Dnipro Oblast police’s controversial anti-human trafficking department. Employyes of this department have said during vetting that they had looked for prostitutes for their superiors.
In 2016 the Nashi Hroshi investigative show reported that Hlukhoverya’s wife had acquired a Land Cruiser and a Mazda that were worth 15 times more than the family’s annual income.
Meanwhile, ex-Cherkassy Oblast Police Chief Vladyslav Pustovar, who was fired and arrested last year on suspicion of giving a $2,000 bribe, said on May 18 that he had been reinstated on his job by a court. This was seen as another sign of the police reform’s failure.
