Pro-Russian oligarch Vadim Novinsky could join the list of former allies of ousted former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to be arrested – or forced to flee the country.
Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko announced on Nov. 3 that he would ask lawmakers to permit the criminal prosecution of Novinsky. The lawmaker belongs to the Opposition Bloc faction, which is made up predominantly of Yanukovych’s former loyalists.
Lutsenko posted on his Facebook page a motion for parliament to prosecute Novinsky for allegedly participating, along with several other Yanukovych loyalists, in a plot to oust the late Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan), the now deceased leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. The plot involved illegally detaining a close church confidant of the metropolitan.
Novinsky, 53, the owner of Smart Holding group and a business partner of Ukraine’s richest man Rinat Akhmetov, was named by Lutsenko this summer as a possible target for prosecutors.
But speaking to the Kyiv Post by phone, the oligarch laughed off the charges, which he denies. “I will commit hara-kiri, hang myself and drown myself out of fear,” he said sarcastically, commenting on Lutsenko’s announcement.
“I’m going to (Mount) Athos (in Greece) tomorrow, since I had planned a visit there. But I’m returning on Monday… I’m not going to go anywhere,” Novinsky added.
A member and sponsor of Ukraine’s Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, Novinsky often visits Mount of Athos, a sacred site in Orthodox Christianity. Athos is a popular place of pilgrimage for pro-Russian politicians, including Yanukovych. Russian President Vladimir Putin has also visited.
Born in Russia, Novinsky received Ukrainian citizenship from Yanukovych only in 2012.
A group of pro-government lawmakers in 2015 petitioned Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to strip Novinsky of Ukrainian citizenship, saying he had received it illegally. However, they failed to collect enough votes in parliament to continue the procedure.
Lutsenko’s motion to prosecute the oligarch will probably be initially reviewed by a parliament committee next week. Any bill to strip Novinsky of his immunity from prosecution, a privilege enjoyed by Ukrainian lawmakers, has to receive at least 326 votes in favor to pass.
Of the five lawmakers who have been stripped of their parliament immunity over the last two years, only one – Oleksandr Yefremov – has actually been arrested. He was detained in July and formally arrested in August of 2016.
Two lawmakers – Oleksandr Onyshchenko and Sergiy Klyuyev – managed to avoid arrest by fleeing the country. Onyshchenko went to the United Kingdom, and Klyuyev is reported to be in Russia.
The other two lawmakers – Igor Mosiychuk and Sergiy Melnychuk – are not undergoing prosecution and are continuing to work in parliament, despite being stripped of their immunity from prosecution.
