After the EuroMaidan Revolution that toppled President Viktor Yanukovych on Feb. 22, 2014, three anti-corruption government agencies were launched.
They included the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), the National Agency for Preventing Corruption (NAPC) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO).
The final link still missing from the chain is the anti-corruption court, which has yet to be created.
However, President Petro Poroshenko’s administration and lawmakers have dragged their feet or outright obstructed or undermined the fight against corruption, leading to a situation where nobody of any significance has been convicted of corruption.
Here’s a chronology:
December 2015 — Anti-corruption activists accuse the government of deliberately delaying the launch of the National Agency for Preventing Corruption (NAPC) and rigging the selection of its management.
February 2016 — Bloc of Petro Poroshenko lawmaker Vadym Denysenko adds last-minute amendments that sabotage the electronic declarations law by delaying criminal liability for officials who make false statements in their declarations. The law was vetoed by Poroshenko after an outcry from Ukraine’s Western backers. A new law was passed in March.
September 2016 — Bloc of Poroshenko lawmaker Ihor Hryniv puts forward amendments that would allow officials not disclose expensive property in their electronic assets declarations. The amendments are withdrawn after a public outcry.
October 2016 — All the employees of the Security Service of Ukraine, better known as the SBU, are allowed to not disclose their assets to the public. This exception from the rule will later include several hundred prosecutors and judges.
March — August, 2017 — Attacks are launched against Vitaliy Shabunin, a prominent activist and head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, who had demanded that SBU employees disclose their assets. A protest against Shabunin’s activities, widely believed to have been orchestrated, takes place near his house on April 9, 2016 — employees of the SBU are seen at the scene. Shabunin is charged in a criminal case in August.
March 16, 21, 2017 — Parliament tries and fails twice to appoint Nigel Brown, a British citizen, as one of NABU’s three auditors. Independent lawmakers sound the alarm about Brown’s candidacy, saying he is loyal to Poroshenko.
March 27, 2017 — Parliament votes for amendment to the electronic asset declarations legislation, and forces investigative journalists and anti-corruption activists to reveal their assets.
Sept. 15, 2017 — Poroshenko publicly rejects the idea of creating an independent Anti-Corruption Court, saying it would take too long. Instead, he roots for an anti-corruption chamber within the regular court system. He backs down from the plan after a backlash from the West.
Nov. 13, 2017 — The National Agency for Preventing Corruption, controlled by Poroshenko loyalists, sends an administrative case against NABU Chief Artem Sytnyk to trial, accusing him of a conflict of interest, missing deadlines for submitting documents and information, and failing to fully provide information to the agency.
Nov. 14, 2017 — Hanna Solomatina, a top official of the NAPC, blows the whistle on her own agency, saying it is involved in corruption and is controlled by the Presidential Administration. The NABU starts an investigation.
Nov. 18, 2017 — The PGO takes the NAPC corruption investigation from the NABU and transfers it to the presidentially controlled SBU, despite an SBU employee being named in the whistleblower’s testimony.
Nov. 29, 2017 — The Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) detains NABU agents as they are giving a bribe to a top official from State Migration Service as part of an agency sting operation. On the same day, the SBU conducts searches of safe houses used by the NABU.
Dec. 1, 2017 — Prosecutors searches the home of NABU agent Kateryna Sikorska and reveals her identity. The agent, previously known only by her first name, played a key role in a bribery investigation into several lawmakers, including Borys Rozenblat, in spring and summer of 2017.
Dec. 5, 2017 — Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko gives an emotional speech in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, lambasting the NABU.
Dec. 6, 2017 — Lawmakers Artur Herasymov and Maksym Burbak of the ruling coalition submit a draft law that would allow parliament to fire the head of the NABU without an audit, as opposed to the current legislation, which only allows for such as dismissal after a negative audit result. Later, the bill was removed from parliament’s agenda.
Dec. 7, 2017 — Verkhovna Rada dismisses Samopomich lawmaker Yegor Soboliev, a critic of Poroshenko, as the head of the parliament’s Anti-Corruption Committee with 256 lawmakers from all parties except for Samopomich and Batkivshchyna voting for it.
