Reformer of the week – Oleksiy Hrytsenko
Oleksiy Hrytsenko, leader of the AutoMaidan protest group. (Courtesy)
Oleksiy Hrytsenko, the leader of the car-based AutoMaidan protest movement, has been pushing for the resignation of Interior Minister Arsen Avakov.
AutoMaidan is scheduled to hold a rally on Dec. 4 to call for the dismissal of Avakov and a politically independent professional to be appointed in his place.
“Avakov has intentionally sabotaged the reform of the National Police and the Interior Ministry, which was partially funded by foreign donors,” AutoMaidan said in a statement released on Nov. 29.
AutoMaidan activists say that Avakov has entrenched the corrupt police system by appointing old police cadres accused of graft.
In November, Avakov appointed Valery Lyuty, a controversial police official linked to ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s allies, as chief of Cherkassy Oblast’s police, triggering large-scale protests in the region. Lyuty recorded one of the lowest scores during vetting.
And Oleksiy Takhtai, who features in video footage in which a corrupt deal is discussed, was appointed as the Interior Ministry’s state secretary on Nov. 23.
AutoMaidan also argued that National Police Chief Khatia Dekanoidze’s resignation on Nov. 14 meant the end of any efforts to reform the police.
Avakov has denied the accusations.
Anti-reformer of the week – Volodymyr Uvarov
Volodymyr Uvarov, head of the Inspectorate General. (Courtesy)
Volodymyr Uvarov, a former subordinate of Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, was appointed head of the prosecution service’s Inspectorate General on Nov. 30.
Uvarov, currently a professor at a police academy, is seen as a representative of the old police system – he has worked at the Interior Ministry for 26 years.
Lutsenko has promised to make the Inspectorate General an independent graft-fighting tool. But Uvarov’s supposed independence has come into question, because he headed Mykolayiv Oblast’s police department when Lutsenko was interior minister.
Uvarov scored the lowest in a general knowledge test during the selection process for the post, and has also opposed transferring investigative functions from the Soviet-style prosecution service to the yet-to-be-created State Investigation Bureau.
Uvarov’s candidacy was supported by a pro-Lutsenko majority of the selection commission, while civil society representatives opposed it. Moreover, the selection was not broadcast and was closed to the media.
The Prosecutor General’s Office is also going after President Petro Poroshenko’s critics, as high-profile crimes remain unpunished.
A prosecutorial department accused of having links to Poroshenko’s top allies Ihor Kononenko and Oleksandr Hranovsky on Nov. 1 opened an unlawful enrichment case against reformist lawmaker Sergii Leshchenko. The prosecutors violated the law that gives the National Anti-Corruption Bureau exclusive jurisdiction in high-profile graft cases, Leshchenko argued.
He wrote on Nov. 30 that the case was being handled by a unit that employs Dmytro Sus, a controversial prosecutor accused of corruption and torturing National Anti-Corruption Bureau staff – claims that Sus denies.
The Prosecutor General’s Office has admitted that Sus lied in his declaration, but refused to fire him, choosing instead to demote him.
The National Agency for Preventing Corruption, which inspects asset declarations, has also chosen not to go after big fish, and instead targeted Leshchenko, saying on Dec. 1 that he had committed a misdemeanor in the process of buying an apartment.
