See related stories here, here and here.
Aggressive pro-government thugs – also known as “titushki” – who protested against the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine on July 17, included employees of the National Police’s security police department, which is subordinate to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s “Schemes” investigative show reported on July 26.
The Interior Ministry and National Police did not respond to the Kyiv Post’s requests for comment.
The anti-NABU protesters clashed with activists who protested against Chief Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Nazar Kholodnytsky, who had recently closed the embezzlement case against Avakov’s son Oleksandr Avakov and his ex-deputy Serhiy Chebotar in what critics see as an effort to save his job. A prosecutorial commission on July 26 refused to fire Kholodnytsky despite NABU tapes that revealed him pressuring prosecutors to block cases and giving advance notice to witnesses about investigated searches.
One of the people who was filmed at the rally attacking with a green antiseptic Vitaly Shabunin, head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center’s executive board, was Rostyslav Fedorko, an activist of Dmytro Korchynsky’s “Brotherhood” nationalist group. Korchynsky is a close associate of Ilia Kiva, an ex-Avakov aide who led anti-NABU protesters on July 17. Shabunin’s eyes had been burned.
During the rally, Fedorko spoke with his close associate and fellow “Brotherhood” activist Oleksiy Seredyuk, who is also a member of the All-Ukrainian Union of War Veterans that was founded by Kiva. Seredyuk later denied the Brotherhood’s involvement in the attack on Shabunin.
A group of titushki who threw cakes at Shabunin at the rally was led by Ruslan Kochmala who works at the streets patrol security unit of the National Police’s security police department. The unit was launched in 2017 by Kiva.
The anti-NABU titushki present at the rally also included Kostyantyn Bakhanov, Ruslan Kornutych and Ruslan Chobykin, all of whom work at the security police department. Chobykin is also a member of Kiva’s All-Ukrainian Union of War Veterans.
Kornutych said on Facebook that the security police unit had “protected the rally from provocations.”
Non-governmental group AutoMaidan filmed the anti-NABU protesters accepting payments to attend the rally.
In addition, on July 17, pro-government thugs led by Ivan Hrabar, head of the Headquarters for Liberation of Patriots, stormed into the NABU building and broke a camera, doors and a turnstile, with Avakov’s police idly standing by. Hrabar did not respond to the Kyiv Post’s request for comment.
Hrabar is an aide to Yevhen Deidei, an associate of Avakov and lawmaker from Avakov’s People’s Front party. Hrabar, Deidei and Oleksandr Avakov have served at the Interior Ministry’s Kyiv-1 battalion.
Deidei also featured in a video investigated by the NABU in which he negotiates an illegal deal with Oleksandr Avakov, Avakov’s business partner and People’s Front lawmaker Igor Kotvitsky and Avakov’s ex-deputy Chebotar.
NABU is investigating Deidei in an unlawful enrichment case. In 2012, Deidei was also sentenced to a 5-year suspended prison term for banditry, battery and robbery.
In response to a request for comment on Facebook, Deidei accused the Kyiv Post reporter of being “paid”, while Oleksiy Lyakhovolsky, an accomplice of Deidei who was convicted of banditry along with him, called the Kyiv Post reporter a “jackal.” Deidei’s supporters also threatened to physically assault the reporter in comments to the post.
Kotvitsky, referred to by Ukrainian media as “Avakov’s wallet,” is under investigation by NABU over an undeclared transfer of $40 million to Panama in 2014. Kotvitsky denies the corruption accusations.
In another video recorded on camera Avakov’s deputy Vadym Troyan and Chebotar discuss corrupt revenues from traffic police and extorting money from businesspeople. NABU is investigating the bribery case.
Troyan’s house was searched in July as part of the case. The Security Service of Ukraine and prosecutors said that three associates of Troyan had been arrested for extorting a Hr 1.5 million bribe adding that he had nothing to do with the bribery. The statement was seen by Troyan’s critics as an effort to let him escape punishment.
Troyan denies the accusations of wrongdoing.
