In September, Odesa Oblast Governor Mikheil Saakashvili accused Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk of serving the interests of oligarchs and claimed that Ukraine had a corrupt "shadow government."
Since then, journalists and lawmakers have been trying to identify the “shadow government” Saakashvili is talking about.
There is, indeed, a highly influential group of allies of Yatsenyuk and President Petro Poroshenko who are suspected of corruption and blocking overdue reforms. Critics say these people are effectively immune from criminal investigation or prosecution because of their status as untouchables.
The Prosecutor General’s Office did not reply to a request on whether any of the accusations against these persons would be investigated.
Yatsenyuk became the center of a scandal in September when a court ordered prosecutors to start an investigation against him on suspicion of taking a $3 million bribe for appointing the head of state-owned Radio Broadcasting, Radio Communications and Television Company.
The bribery complaint against the prime minister was filed by Serhiy Kaplin, a lawmaker from the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko. Yatsenyuk’s Cabinet has dismissed the allegations, saying it was part of Kaplin’s alleged efforts to re-install an ex-head of the company.
The Prosecutor General’s Office was reluctant to open a case even after the court issued its order, and launched it only after The Times, a British newspaper, wrote about the scandal, Kaplin told the Kyiv Post.
“The Prosecutor General’s Office is a political tool,” he said. “It’s always been the president’s hammer and sickle.”
Allies of the prime minister have also come under fire.
One of the most powerful members of Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front is lawmaker Mykola Martynenko, whom Bloc of Petro Poroshenko lawmaker Serhiy Leshchenko calls “Yatsenyuk’s wallet.”
Swiss prosecutors are investigating Martynenko on suspicion of accepting 30 million Swiss francs in bribes from Czech engineering firm Skoda for giving it a contract to supply equipment to Ukrainian nuclear power firm Energoatom, according to Swiss media.
Martynenko denies the accusations and even the case’s existence.
Leshchenko wrote on Oct. 6 that Switzerland had already sent two requests to Ukraine in connection with the Martynenko case, asking to question suspects, search premises and seize documents.
But Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin “is covering up for Martynenko and is preventing Switzerland’s request from being implemented,” Leshchenko said in a posting on Facebook.
Martynenko has hired lawyer Hans-Peter Schaad to represent his interests, Leshchenko said on Oct. 4.
“But he’s still lying to the public that there is not a single case against him abroad,” Leshchenko added.
And Martynenko’s interests are not limited to Energoatom, critics say.
Kaplin and Viktoria Voytsytska, a lawmaker from the Samopomich party, have accused Martynenko of having influence at the Odesa Port Plant, a chemical company, and running schemes to sell natural gas to the plant at above-market prices. Meanwhile, Saakashvili has accused Martynenko of standing behind top executives of Kharkiv engineering firm Elektrovazhmash and the United Mining and Chemical Company, who have also been accused of corruption.
Martynenko’s press office dismissed Kaplin’s accusations as a “fake” and Saakashvili’s ones as “groundless.”
Another alleged member of the “shadow government” is People’s Front heavyweight Andriy Ivanchuk, who has been an acquaintance of Yatsenyuk since college.
Ivanchuk is also believed to be linked to Ukraine’s billionaire oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky. In March, Kolomoisky confirmed that he and Ivanchuk are co-owners of bioethanol producer Tekhinservis.
Ex-Agricultural Policy Minister Ihor Shvaika has accused Ivanchuk of having links to state-owned alcohol producer Ukrspyrt and smuggling alcohol through Moldova jointly with Yury Ivanyushchenko, an ally of disgraced ex-President Viktor Yanukovych.
Serhiy Kaplin, a Bloc of President Petro Poroshenko lawmaker, accuses Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk of bribery.
Yury Matronovsky, an aide to Ivanchuk, said by phone that he could not comment on the accusations.
And while Interior Minister Arsen Avakov is also believed to have great influence on the People’s Front political party led by the prime minister, Leshchenko claims that, in turn, another People’s Front lawmaker, Ihor Kotvitsky, is Avakov’s “wallet” and business partner – something that Avakov has denied.
Documents provided to the Kyiv Post by Leshchenko show that Kotvitsky has transferred $40 million to Panama and failed to include that amount in his income declaration. Despite this, the transfer was not blocked due to protection from high-ranking members of the People’s Front, Leshchenko claims.
Kotvitsky has dismissed the accusations.
One of Kotvitsky’s assistants is controversial businessman Oleksandr Pavlyuchenko, who is trying to get gas field licenses in Poltava Oblast without an auction, according to investigative journalist Dmytro Gnap.
Kaplin attributed the Prosecutor General’s Office’s reluctance to prosecute Yatsenyuk and his allies to “the biggest political wedding of the year – one between the People’s Front, the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko” and some lawmakers who have left other factions.
“This ménage a trois will defend its own folks,” he said.
Similarly to Yatsenyuk, Poroshenko has a number of influential allies suspected of corruption and who so far have not been investigated in Ukraine.
Austrian prosecutors are investigating a suspected money laundering scheme linked to Poroshenko’s chief of staff Borys Lozhkin, the Austrian News Agency reported on Sept. 24, citing a spokesman for the country’s anti-corruption prosecution office.
The office confirmed to the Kyiv Post that the case existed but did not specify the names of those involved.
Lozhkin wrote in e-mailed comments sent to the Kyiv Post that he had not received any requests from Austrian prosecutors. He denied any wrongdoing.
But Leshchenko says Austrian prosecutors sent a request for assistance in the investigation to Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office several weeks ago, but Shokin “has kept it secret.” And Leshchenko said on Oct. 1 that Lozhkin himself had confirmed to him the existence of the criminal case in Austria.
“Borys Lozhkin does not talk about the criminal case against him in Austria,” Leshchenko said on Oct. 5. “But work is under way behind the scenes.” Lozhkin’s deputy Oleksiy Filatov is currently settling the matter in Vienna, Leshchenko added.
Leshchenko also says that one of Lozhkin’s protégés is Roman Nasirov, the head of the State Fiscal Service.
In September, Konstyantyn Likarchuk, a deputy head of the State Fiscal Service, accused Nasirov of restoring Yanukovych-era corruption schemes at the agency and appointing Yanukovych allies, including Hennady Romanenko. Likarchuk, who was subsequently fired, also published a document according to which the Interior Ministry had opened a bribery case against Romanenko, along with what Likarchuk says is a property title to an undeclared apartment owned by Nasirov in London. Nasirov denies the accusations.
Yet another Poroshenko ally is Ihor Kononenko, a business partner of the president whom analysts believe to be the most influential lawmaker of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc and a liaison between the president and parliament.
Voytsytska has accused Kononenko of having influence at state power company Tsentrenergo and running schemes to supply natural gas to the company at inflated prices.
Kononenko’s office and his party’s press service declined to comment.
Kyiv Post staff writer Allison Quinn contributed to this story.
