Insider dealing by Ukraine's ministers exposed at PACE

Testimony before the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe


March 19, 2013

"Ukraine’s proven reserves of natural gas are amongst the largest in the world. Tapping into the Black Sea’s reserves, given the politically delicate region, vast sums of money involved and insatiable global thirst for energy create opportunities for grand corruption.

According to reporting and documents published by Ukranian NGO Anticorruption ActionCentre, in March 2011, a subsidiary of the state owned Naftogaz bought an oil rig from a U.K.-registered company for $400 million, a 60% increase over the then market value of $250 million.

More than a year after the equipment should have been delivered, it has not. In questioning the cause for the $150 million premium, and failure to deliver the equipment, journalists and civil society investigators have uncovered a network of shell companies that obscured a purportedly competitive procurement process and masked a multi-million dollar assault on the Ukrainian Treasury allegedly perpetrated by a small group of individuals with close ties to high ranking public officials.The Anticorruption Action Centre reports that the two “competing” companies for the equipment sale share a common director. 

The same name appears as the director of the winning company and as the director of the parent company of the losing company. It appears as though there was no true competition at all.But even if the procurement process had been open and competitive, it is unclear what the Ukrainian government is getting for its money. Apparently, the rig has not yet been delivered.Ukrainian online newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda uncovered that an 80% down payment on therig was paid and deposited into the winning U.K.-registered company’s account at a small Latvian bank.

The site’s investigative reporting also revealed a set of close relationships that raise serious questions about how the transaction came about, including the commonality between management of Ukrainian state-owned natural resource companies, the involved banks, the winning-bidding company, Russian criminal organizations and Ukrainian public officials.

What has been uncovered in this and other transactions in Ukraine rig sales reeks of insider dealing at the expense of citizens who cannot afford the bleeding of their national wealth. 

It appears that Latvia has and the U.K. may have initiated criminal investigations into this matter."

AT LONG LAST...

Why should Europe's leaders have any dealings with such brazen crooks? Or sign any deal - these guys will probably steal the pens...and the toilet paper....
[Photo source]

p.s. Former interior minister spent over two years on the scandalously dubious charges.
In total his actions allegedly resulted in losses of $125,000 to the state.

Biggest beast in Europe speaks out on Ukraine

Ukraine's efforts to satisfy specified conditions laid down by the EU in order that an Association Agreement be signed in November this year have been half-hearted and wholly unconvincing.

Despite this, your humble blogger considers Ukrainian politicians of all colours have consistently overestimated the desire of the EU to clinch this Association Agreement deal, and the overestime the chances of this taking place.

Some observers claim the EU have 'given up' on Tymoshenko, but by some kind of 'cock-eyed logic' suggest signing of the AA could take place if it was possibly combined with sanctions directed at individuals responsible for persecution of opposition leaders. [Hardly a sound start to any long-term relationship].

Yet everyone is aware that Tymoshenko's imprisonment was ordered solely at the command of the man who became president having received less that 50% of votes cast when he narrowly beat Tymoshenko in the two-horse race for the presidency. It was the narrowness of this victory that drove Yanukovych to eliminate his greatest rival from the political stage.

Now bluff-talking German Chancellor Angela Merkel has made her position crystal-clear:

'Deutsche Welle' reports: "For Ukraine to move closer to the EU it must resolve "a whole series of problems," said Angela Merkel in Berlin on Wednesday, April 17, after talks with Prime Minister of Estonia Andrus Ansip. But she stressed that the development of closer relations with Ukraine remains an aim for the EU.

According to Merkel, the case of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is not the only obstacle to the signing of the AA the EU. "In general we are talking about the legal system in Ukraine and respect for human rights and civil liberties" - she said. That's why the signing of the long-agreed document is now frozen.

Was Merkel deliberately spiking Kwasniewski and Cox's guns?

Gangster talk in Donetsk oblast

Mayor of Slovyansk, Nelya Shtepa recently publicly addressed city officials. [Video here]

Dressing down the city architect, she said: "I'm tired of you, I'm tired of you! Your idle life today is in no way suited to the life of our city. The city works, all the people are working, and only you remain idle! Enough of this! If you fell under my arm when I went round the city this morning, then you would have been buried today! I do not hit twice, only once...[once] in the snout [morda], and then once on the coffin lid. Straight away - on the coffin lid!"

Slavyonsk is a medium-sized town in the Donetsk oblast, known for its spa.

No wonder the oblast has a gangster reputation because it seems such declarations are quite normal there...but would any decent person do business with such a woman? In such a town where such threats can be made with impunity?

p.s. Shtepa could have a glittering career ahead of her....

"Kurokrady"

Party of Regions parliamentary deputies continue to steal votes in parliament, despite their solemn undertaking to cut out such anti-constitutional behaviour.

Because of laziness, not being bothered to turn up, or lack of party discipline, the ruling majority is still incapable of honestly garnering the 226+ votes necessary to pass new legislation. PoR faction leader Yefremov puts the high absentee rate down to a nebulous 'human factor'

However, when no journalists or members of the opposition are present to scrutinise proceedings, as during the hijacked April 4 session, held behind closed doors in a small cinema, Hey presto! they can assemble 244 pro-government members, no problem.

President Yanukovych, together with many other Ukrainian politicians delude themselves on their relationship with mature western democracies. Today the president said: "We have an ambitious goal - to sign the Association Agreement in November this year with the EU at  Vilnius summit....The process of euro-integration is lengthy. There are criteria toward which Ukraine is striving; and above all, we are interested in this, because it is the modernisation of our country, it is our success."

One problem: No respectable politician or businessman will have any lasting relationship with such 'stone-age' kurokrady....

*In Eastern Europe a kurokrad [lit. chicken thief] was the epithet given to to petty thief. In villages chickens grazed freely - only the lowest of the low would stoop so low as to steal his neighbour's chickens.

p.s. TVi report seasoned Ukrainian politician and latterly presidential adviser, Valeriy Konovalyuk, has quit PoR in a huff.

The youthful Konovalyuk struck me as being from the same mould as Vitaliy Khoroskovsky, [who also recently walked out of Ukrainian politics], and Serhiy Tihipko - all bright, eloquent, highly presentable performers.

Without such people Party of Regions' look ever more like a bunch of old crocodiles - like PM Azarov, parliamentary speaker Rybak, Yefremov (see above) - same old faces that have been around too long.

The new young Donbas guys linked to 'The Family' who have been assigned the construction of a power monopoly structure headed by Yanukovych, shy away from publicity and the cut and thrust of politics.

Konovalyuk laments: "All of my numerous requests and documents about the situation in the country, about failing and inefficient economic policies, the absence of real reform, the extent of corruption and abuse, of the low standard of the executive authority and its discipline, and much, much more ... What is happening today (about which I have repeatedly warned) - is a direct path to crisis and the bankruptcy of the country. It is a complete rejection of the promises and obligations given three years ago, and the betrayal of those who for many years have supported and believed in the development and the prosperity of Ukraine,"

Ukraine's legal system completely discredited

Today Ukraine's Higher Administrative court deemed the hijacked 4th April parliamentary session which was held in a small cinema hall close to the main parliament building, to be legitimate. Opposition MP's had not been informed of the move from the normal parliamentary plenum chamber, and were brusquely refused access when they arrived..

The court claims a quorum i.e. was assembled, and  244 deputies attended the session, even though the parliamentary administration has refused to provide copies of the register containing signatures of those allegedly present. [Probably because it would be a simple task to check if any of these 244 where elsewhere at the time.]

Normally after any voting in the parliamentary plenum chamber, a list of names - who voted in favour, or against, is always posted on the official parliamentary website. This information has not materialised for the 4th April session, denying the electorate the opportunity to check how their individual MP's voted on the bills 'passed'.

No-one even knows for sure how many hands were shown to be in favour of any motion - only pro-government members of the counting committee were present in the hall. Opposition members of the committee were refused admission - access for them was physically denied to them by PoR deputies - so how could these PoR deputies vote when they were patrolling the narrow corridors outside the hall?

How can such a country, where the legal system is such a joke, be admitted to any European democratic institutions?

Thanks...for nothing..

So Yanukovych has succumbed to two years of ferocious arm-twisting by European and global politicians. Today he pardoned Yuriy Lutsenko.

The case against the former Minister of the Interior was preposterous, as is his pardon.

Lutsenko has never requested a pardon - he therefore has nothing to thank Yanukovych for.

On the  contrary - the emotion to 'get even' will be deep - and a gangster like Yanukovych knows this well,

Although imprisoned for well over two years, Lutsenko has been at the forefront of Ukrainian politics. Many European and Ukrainian leaders have visited him in court and in prison, and his name has never left the headlines. His writings are widely broadcast and read, and his opinion has been sought by today's opposition leaders.

The stigma of using selective justice to destroy his enemies will mark Yanukovych for the rest of his life.

Lutsenko with the help of his lawyers will certainly continue to try to clear his name by every means possible, both inside and outside the country, until he is fully rehabilitated. There is a high probability his aim will ultimately be achieved.

p.s. Lutsenko's release did not 'come out of the blue'. So why his humiliation last week?

A final kick up the a** as he walks out of the prison gates?

Sadists to the end....

Putsch on Bank Street?

According to 'K.P.' Ukraine's parliament split in half today.

The pro-presidential majority conducted an alternative parliament session in a small cinema/conference hall on Bank Street, while the opposition gathered in the regular parliamentary session hall.

The majority's decision to move elsewhere without prior notice was branded as “a coup” by the opposition. They are now calling for protest demonstrations to be held. Ironically, the disappointing turn-out at recent anti-government demos organised by the 'united opposition' may have emboldened the parliamentary majority to such measures.

The small  hall in which the highly questionable "parliamentary session" took place comprises 11 rows of seats with 22 seats in each row, plus 6 other places. If every seat was taken there would only be room for 259 persons in the hall. There are 450 deputies Ukraine's parliament - quite where they all would have fitted had they all turned up is anyone's guess.

Photographs [such as this one from 'Ukrainska Pravda'] and videos tend to indicate that there may well not have even been the 226 deputies required for a quorum present.

The vote on the decision to stage the parliamentary session at an alternative location was not taken in the Verkhovna Rada, but rather by the 'renegades' in the hall on Bank Street. The decision to transfer the parliamentary sitting to Bank Street is therefore highly constitutionally questionable, to say the least.

The parliamentary speaker claimed 244 parliamentary deputies turned up at the alternative location even though everyone knows for the last 20 years absentee voting and other fiddling has been widespread amongst parliamentary deputies ..

Opposition deputies who wanted to get in and journalists who wanted to scrutinise proceedings and check the true number of those present were denied admission, raising much suspicion of foul play. Video recordings outside the entrance to the hall and the building will no doubt be carefully examined to see who was there and who was not.

So..was this a putsch?

At time of writing neither the parliamentary speaker nor the president have signed off resolutions passed today...if/when they do, there may be a clear criminal case to answer some time in the future.

The day's events provide more evidence to what we already know - Ukraine is becoming an authoritarian state - the point of no return has probably already been passed, and the book on Euro-integration closed.

p.s. picking up the bat and ball, declaring "I'm not playing with you any more," and slinking off to another place is not the way winner's behave..

p.p.s. The sh*t will hit the fan soon when big-names holding off-shore accounts in the BVI will be dribbled out...

Update  - Careful checks of videos of renegade deputies entering and leaving the hall on Bank Street reveal in the 244 figure is almost certainly inflated...there was probably fewer that 200 deputies present.

Today's appeal court ruling gives Lutsenko added strength

The Higher Specialised Appeal Court today ordered Yuriy Lutsenko remain in prison to serve the remainder of his term.

Yet again Ukraine's ruling authorities turned down the opportunity to indicate they were prepared to make compromises to European leaders demands he be freed, because in their opinion, his persecution is politically motivated.

Lutsenko was denied the right to make a final address to the court.

Yanukovych has publicly stated that once all legal process is exhausted, as president, he would review the Lutsenko case again. Some [wildly optimistic?] observers consider Yanukovych could even release Lutsenko as a test...if reaction in society is muted, then maybe...maybe.. Tymoshenko could be deported to Germany for treatment.

The European Court of Human Rights can now examine his case in detail. Few doubt they will eventually rule in his favour.

The actions of Yanukovych and his henchmen thus far expose their great fear of Lutsenko, which paradoxically gives him added impetus to continue. Even if he serves his full term in prison and is released at the end of 2014, he will remain a major player in Ukrainian politics. Of the current bunch of   opposition leaders, it seems Klychko is the one who contacts Lutsenko most frequently for advice on political strategy....

Lutsenko's treatment reveals true face of Ukraine's sadistic authorities

On Tuesday "A dramatic court hearing kicked off in Kyiv that could become pivotal for Ukraine's chances to sign an Association Agreement with the European Union this year."

Former Minister of the Interior, Yuriy Lutsenko, was appearing before the Higher Specialized Appeal Court for Civil and Criminal Cases.

The court room selected was about 15 sq.m. in size - Lutsenko was placed inside a soundproof  'glass aquarium' with a bench against the back wall for him to sit on.

The only way he could communicate with his defence council or others in the courtroom was through a waist-high opening at the side of the glass  box - forcing him to bend down deeply whenever he wished to talk...

Most of the seats in the tiny courtroom were occupied by uniformed officers. Journalists had to sit in an adjacent room and watch proceedings on a plasma screen. There was no room for political colleagues - only his closest family members could attend.

In courtrooms in the European Union, and in most civilised countries, even murderers are not humiliated in this way.

In these countries Lutsenko's alleged crimes would perhaps not even warrant a custodial sentence. The European Court of Human Rights have already declared he had been unfairly held under arrest before his trial. He has served well over half of a four-year sentence and recently underwent a surgical  operation. More surgery may be required in the future.

Lutsenko's disgraceful treatment provides more evidence of the vindictiveness and vengefulness of the Yanukovych regime...and how little they know of the European values to which they aspire..

I shudder to think what European politicans make of this...

Selective use of justice used to break will of opposition [updated]

It was in the Obukhiv constituency in Kyiv, constituency no. 94, where some of the most blatant vote rigging in last autumn' parliamentary elections took place.

Party of Regions' candidate Tetyana Zasukha and her associates in the electoral commission, at a stroke, annulled almost 30,000 thousand votes cast at polling stations where her opponent, 'Batkivshchyna's Viktor Romanyuk, was according to independent polling, estimated to be well ahead.

Eventually Ukraine's Central Electoral Commission decided the final results were not 'safe' in 5 constituencies, including the result in constituency no. 94, and they were not approved. It is not clear when/if re-election will take place in these five constitutencies.

Romanyuk is challenging the result at the European Court of Human Rights.

Now Romanyuk is being hounded by the ruling authorities and is being sought in connection with 'an attempt to steal state property', even though this state property, remains in the hands of the state.

Romanyuk was detained in Italy late last week after the Ukrainian authorities placed him on the Interpol wanted list. His lawyers are confident the case against him is pathetically weak and he will be released in a week or two.

As I blogged previously, an opposition candidate from another of the five disputed constituencies, Arkadiy Kornatsky, is being severely 'squeezed'.

Vitaliy Klychko, leader of the 'Udar' party has complained several of his parliamentary deputies are also being pressurized by law enforcement agencies via their families, their business interests, in an attempt to make them compliant.

Selective use of the judicial system to break the will of the opposition is being systematically utilised by the ruling authorities.

Update - There are reports Romanyuk has been released from detention in Italy with 'no strings attached'..

Political price will be paid in Kyiv as a result of snow paralysis

Exceptionally heavy snowfalls and bad weather conditions have caused chaos in Kyiv these last few days - the city has all but ground to a halt. There are warnings that floods could occur if the weather turns quickly.

The performance of municipal services has been shambolic. Many routes have been impassable for days and public transport services heavily curtailed. Elected city officials have provided no leadership and given little coherent public service information to the residents of the city.

Many of the city residents are aware how such problems are dealt with in Western urban centres including those in North America.

There, elected officials make it a priority to provide honest, accurate advice with constant updates in the mass media whenever such extraordinary meteorological events take place. Municipal workers put in extra shifts and do their utmost to help alleviate the situation. Additional temporary personnel are frequently employed. Smart politicians take the opportunity to openly declare the measures they are taking to deal with the crisis situation to provide assurance. The public don't care that this may be PR - they just want to know that elected officials and city employees are doing their best on their behalf.

Kyiv residents are feeling really angry that they have been let down both by the state and the city administrations. This anger may well surface in days to come as part of the reaction to the Ukrainian government's nonchalant attitude to opposition demands that timely mayoral elections take place in the city.

Thieves now run Ukraine

'Kyiv Post' in their op/ed piece "Ukrainian agribusinessman struggles for justice" describe how "state and local bureaucrats target successful but independent entrepreneurs like Arkady Kornatsky, the owner of a modern agribusiness in the southern Mykolayiv Oblast". They describe how his victory in last Autumn's parliamentary elections were stolen from him,

But yet again, 'K.P.' miss out important background to this story....

Kornatsky's business is being stolen not by bureaucrats, but by Artem Pshonka, son of the prosecutor general of Ukraine Viktor Pshonka....one of Yanukovych's closest associates from the old days back in Donetsk..

Kornatsky's parliamentary election victory last autumn was stolen by Party of Regions thugs..and by Mykolayiv Oblast Governor, Mykola Kruglov.

Kruglov was appointed Mykolayiv governor by Yanukovych in March 2010, a few days after he become president.

Kruglov was PM Azarov's deputy when the latter ran the State Tax Administration.

p.s. It seems that the controversial Boris Berezovsky's untimely death was suicide. This man, according to some reports, had been one of the main sponsors of the Orange Revolution, 'investing' up to $40 or $50 million into the campaign.

True to form, Yushchenko, as president, did not  allow him to even enter Ukraine after his victory... what a shitbag....

Sure, BB had plans to use Ukraine in his fight to bring down Putin. Nevertheless, he deserved to be treated better by the duplicitous Yushchenko.

Kuchma and Lazarenko 'did in' Shcherban?

Forbes.ua run the second part of an interview with one of the late Yevhen Shcherban's closest business associates from the early nineties, Yuriy Dedukh.

He accuses president Kuchma and Pavlo Lazarenko of commissioning the assassination of Yevhen Shcherban..but says Shcherban he 'had no beef' with Tymoshenko..

He claims Volodymyr Shcherban, who recently testified in pre-trial hearings in the case,  was 'in on the hit' and even 'phoned people in the USA to inform them about plans to 'do in' Yevhen Shcherban.

Volodymyr Shcherban left Ukraine after the killing, only to return after two years....and be appointed regional governor of Sumy oblast.

Didukh says: "Volodya Shcherban 'sold' Zhenya [Shcherban]." [the appointment as governor being the reward for this..]

According to Dedukh, 'Special forces' did the dirty deed...Yevhen Kushnir, another Donetsk businessman/gangster was framed for the Shcherban killing and for many others. [It is unlikely a profession hitman would ever arrange such a spectacular killing as that which took place at Donetsk airport in November 1996 - a high-security, hig risk environment.]

Dedukh claims the murder of Paul Tatum, a US citizen which took place in Moscow on the same day as Shcherban's killing, was coincidental - they were not linked. [Hmmm..]

Some of Dedukh's answers are clearly evasive - he does not give any hint who may have tried to kill him [and Shcherban's son] a year after his father's Shcherban's killing..But he does say that criminal investigators tipped him off that it may have been Rinat Akhmetov, but then when he later met Akhmetov personally, Akhmetov complained that these same criminal investigators told him Dedukh had fingered Akhmetov for the assassination attempt, in other words criminal investigators were trying to artificially set up a serious conflict between them.

People such as Dedukh do not give up such information out of altruism. It is quite possible that some very rich people are embarrassed by the raking over of the Shcherban murder....and narratives such as Dedukh's perhaps help the mud to stick elsewhere.. but a lot of unanswered questions still remain..

And the case against Tymoshenko is looking ever weaker, strengthening the view that she is the victim of 'selective use of justice'.

Money paid to Shcherban's killer came from bank owned by PoRs member?

The 'Ukrainska Pravda' interview with Hennadiy Moskal, which I mentioned in my previous blog has been mentioned by the 'Ostrov.org' site.

Here is a precis of what they pick out of the interview:

One of the pieces of 'hard evidence' which, according to prosecutor's, connect Tymoshenko to the murder of Yevhen Scherban, are bank statements that supposedly prove his killers had received money from the  bank accounts of ex-premier Pavlo Lazarenko and Yulia Tymoshenko.

Gennady Moskal, a former police general, says that according to his informers the payment statements revealed so far are incomplete and do not show the entire chain of cash transfers.

According to Moskal, there are documents that some investigators took awat with them when they left their employment. These documents show a very different picture.

"The monies were paid out from the internal income of one of Ukraine's commercial structures ... I do not want to reveal the bank the initial payment was transferred from..and the money then went further.. then further," - said the deputy.

When asked which this bank it was, Mr. Moskal said evasively: "A Ukrainian bank." He noted that the bank belongs to: "The one who today is in the Party of Regions."

OK, the authorities will claim this is disorientation...but one thing is for sure. Bank statements are retained and do exist. There were very big amounts of cash being transferred all over the place...some by large corporations and institutions.

There are paper trails...company accounts out there. Hundreds of investigators worked on solving the failed assassination attempt on Pavlo Lazarenko and the killing of Yevhen Shcherban immediately after these events took place.  Moskal says the country's security services are now 'very leaky'..More information will certainly enter the public domain soon and the Shcherban murder case will be even less credible that it is now.

p.s. a former close business partner of Yevhen Shcherban's, Vladimir Karatun, says, in a Forbes.ua interview, that "IUD was created to work in conjunction with UESU"

He says IUD could not, on their own, supply gas to the Donetsk oblast.

"..an agreement was reached according to which IUD and UESU would supply gas to all industrial enterprises engaged in the Donetsk region"

He also states the murdered Shcherban knew Ahat Bragin well, and he had a "close, tight, good relationship" with Rinat Akhmetov.

Strange then that Akhmetov invited Tymoshenko and even warmly greeting her, when the Donbas Arena football stadium was opened a few years ago. Would he have done this had he suspected her of ordering the killing of his close business associate, Yevhen Shcherban?

Witnesses in Yevhen Shcherban pre-trial hearings may have been involved in his murder?

One of my favourite characters in Ukrainian politics is a high-profile opposition politician with unrivalled experience in the country's crime-fighting agencies, Hennadiy Moskal. This straight-talking man is respected and perhaps feared, because knows 'everything about everyone'...

He recently gave an extensive and revealing interview to 'Ukrainska Pravda'.

His comments to the killing of Yevhen Shcherban in November 1996 are worthy of serious consideration.

He gives short shrift to the first two witnesses who gave evidence in the pre-trial hearings into this sensational murder case . As I've posted previously, the first witness, Maryinkov had close business interests with highly placed criminal investigators - he was also the 'armourer' for a criminal gang. His so-called evidence cannot be treated seriously.

The second, Zaitsev, is similarly unreliable - he had a host of criminal cases hanging over his head.

Prosecutors are trying to lump Lazarenko and Tymoshenko 'into one whole'. Moskal rightly explains she was a just a smart businesswoman, whilst he was a powerful regional politician and a highly placed state official - PM, no less. There was a total mismatch in terms of the power each could wield.


These two witnesses Maryinkov and Zaitsev claim they were ordered to remain silent by previous prosecutor-generals about Tymoshenko's now-alleged involvement in the Yevhen Shcherban murder - hence for over a decade and a half her name never figured in any investigation - until now.

If this is true then surely these prosecutors from the mid nineties and early noughties should be brought to account for allegedly suppressing evidence and interfering with the investigation into one of the highest profile murders in the country's history, says Moskal.

Tymoshenko was a hostile opposition leader for many years prior to the Orange Revolution...if there was a case against her, this would have been the time when it would have surfaced.

Moskal also claims that from his sources, the third witness at the pre-trial hearing, Volodymyr Shcherban, governor of Donetsk oblast at the time when Yehven Scherban was murdered, was the prime suspect in the attempted assassination of Pavlo Lazarenko in July 1996. Lazarenko had been appointed PM by president Kuchma just a few weeks prior to this.

Lazarenko was being driven to Kyiv's airport on his way to Donetsk when his car was blown up. He survived and flew to the city later that day, his clothes allegedly still covered in blood...

Moskal claims that once Lazarenko was out of favour Kuchma 'pulled the plug' on the massive investigation on the attempt on Lazarenko's life.

In his evidence, witness Volodymyr Shcherban revealed that a few days before Yevhen Scherban's death, he and his namesake met up. Yevhen told Volydymyr that someone was trying to kill him. As regional governor, Volodymyr would have had immediate access to the head of police, security services, prosecutors...even a hot-line to the president himself. But what did Volodymyr say to the victim - the most important businessman in Ukraine at that time? He said: "Why don't you just fly to America, until all this blows over..." perhaps even knowing that Yevhen would do no such thing. Why did the regional governor not tighten security around Yevhen Shcherban, or at least order a watchful eye to be placed over him?

As I have stated many times, after his death Yevhen Shcherban's assets were very quickly 'divvied up' between his so-called friends and business associates. In the case of Volodymyr Shcherban in a matter of days....

p.s. Moskal's official website here

[More to follow on this interview later]

PoR deputies as cynical as ever [updated]

The cynicism of PoR parliamentary deputies is breathtaking.

After many weeks of struggle by the opposition, kicking and screaming PoR deputies finally agreed to stop the 20 year-old anti-constitutional practice of multiple voting in the parliamentary plenum chamber.

But as soon as they get back what do they do? They carry on doing it. In one of many instances recorded, yesterday Tetyana Bakhtyeyeva voted for former minister for infrastructure, the minister responsible for Euro 2012, thuggish Boris Kolesnikov.

True to form, when opposition MPs assistants challenged Kolesnikov about this he tried to assault one of them, grabbing one of them by his jacket lapels.  

Other Regionals whose cards "voted" without their holders being present included Serhiy Kivalov, and Pavlo Lebedev.

The former is head of the parliamentary committee on judiciary matters, no less. He also holds a whole host a high positions connected with legal affairs.

The latter is the current minister of defence.

Yulia Tymoshenko's legal councillor, Serhiy Vlasenko was unceremoniously kicked out of parliament a few days ago for allegedly having one a** on two chairs, which even provoked an extraordinary debate in the European Parliament. This despite Vlasenko's claims that he had informed appropriate authorities he no longer worked in the legal profession.

When Lebedev "votes" in parliament and at the same time unconstitutionally holds a position in the cabinet of ministers this does not seem to count. Selective use of justice or what?

In Ukraine the law exists only  to crush the ruling party's enemies.

I imagine most European leaders when they watch such antics are thinking: "How can we disentangle ourselves from these habitual petty thieves, cheapskate swindlers and liars with minimum loss of face?

p.s. Forbes.ua run the first part of an interesting interview with Yuriy Didukh - a business partner of Yevhen Shcherban's, who was of course, murdered at Donetsk airport in November 1996. Yulia Tymoshenko will probably be tried for this crime at some point in the future.

Dedukh [or Didukh] has featured in F.N. in previous blogs

In the Forbes interview Dedukh claims the swath of killings of Donetsk businessmen commenced just after Leonid Kuchma became president in 1994. He claims it was president Kuchma [and Pavlo Lazarenko] and special forces under his control who were responsible for them, and it was they who organized the murder of his business partner Yevhen Shcherban.

Akhat Bragin's murder was part of this 'zachystka'.

Maybe more on this later from your blogger when another portion of the interview is published.....

No explanation so far for the attempt on Pavlo Lazarenko's life shortly after he became PM though...or why Kuchma did not finish off the job in Donetsk but rather promoted Yanukovych?...And there certainly were many high-profile killing before 1994 too of course.

The relationship between organised crime and law enforcement agencies was considered to be symbiotic in the early and mid nineties in the Donbas region, so special forces may well have been involved in many of the high profile killings. Virtually no perpetrators were ever caught or charged.

Before entering politics Kuchma had been design engineer at the high-tech Yuzhmash, building space rockets. He later held the position of the company's general director - hardly a criminal background. Contrast this with the murky past and 'black holes' in the biographies of the Shcherban's, Bragin's and Yanukovych's of this world.

And, ultimately. who eventually benefited from these killings when everything settled down?

"The Truth is a precious thing and must be protected by a bodyguard of lies" -- Sir Winston Churchill

p.p.s. Regionals are still cheating in parliament - playing musical chairs - voting for their colleagues. If they were children they would have their wrists slapped - as grown ups the deserve a hefty kick up the a**. What a disgrace...

                         

Cui bono?

The influential 'Frankfurter Allgemeine' have run a story - 'Yulia Tymoshenko - the dark side of power' on the background to the Shcherban murder trial.

Their [google-translated] conclusion which I've tidied up:

"Political" dividend went to Yanukovych

In contrast, after Schtscherban's death the biggest part of his business, "went to representatives of the current government." 

So Rinat Akhmetov, the head of the football club Shakhtar Donetsk, and now the richest man by far in Ukraine could only make his ascent in Donbas after the end of Schtscherban. 

His former political agent, the current President Yanukovych, could only in 1997 become governor [of Donbas], after Schtscherban was no longer alive. Thus, according to Tymoshenko's defender, the "economic dividend" of the bloody deed, after 1996, went to Akhmetov and the "political dividend" went to Yanukovych.

Later, when this duo had consolidated power in the Donbas, several accomplices to the murder died under unclear circumstances - one of them in a prison in Donetsk. 

Serhiy Vlasenko [Tymoshenko's lawyer] points out that at that time not only was Yanukovych governor there, but the current chief prosecutor in the case, the prosecutor general, Viktor Pschonka and his deputy  Renat Kuzmin had key positions in Donetsk judiciary.


p.s. Even president Yanukovych's top legal advisor on judicial reform, Andriy Portnov, perhaps out of sheer embarrassment, says the evidence presented so far in pre-trial hearings, all of which is based on hearsay from the mouths of the long-departed, is worthless.

The case is turning out to be a big 'own goal' [maybe not an inappropriate metaphor] for Yanukovych, his cronies, and the entire Ukrainian system of law enforcement. And this is before the European Court of Human Rights pass their judgement on the previous trials of Tymoshenko and Lutsenko...

p.p.s. Nice photo taken, I believe, during the opening of the Shakhtar Donetsk stadium - from an article entitled: 'Innocent victim of the regime..'

Reforms? What reforms?

Excellent sobering analysis from The Centre for Eastern Studies in Warsaw:

"From stabilisation to stagnation. Viktor Yanukovych's reforms"

p.s. like most commentators they fail to factor in the possibility that presidential elections in 2015 may be scrubbed.

p.p.s. Ukraine's oligarchs are going to 'take a haircut' in Cyprus?

Who is living in cloud cuckoo land?

An emergency debate on Ukraine took place in the European Parliament in Strasburg late on Wednesday night.

The debate had been directly prompted by the recent termination by Ukraine's Supreme Administrative Court of the mandates of two Verkhovna Rada deputies, including one belonging to Yulia Tymoshenko's defence councillor, Serhiy Vlasenko.

'Kommersant.ua" reports: "All the participants in the debate spoke of a sharp deterioration in the state of democracy in Ukraine, despite agreements reached at the Ukraine-EU summit."  [my bold lettering]

Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Fule, expressing regret at recent events in Kyiv, including the blocking of opposition parliament, said, on the requirements put forward by Brussels: "As long as questions regarding Yulia Tymoshenko and Yuriy Lutsenko are not properly resolved, we can't really talk about the implementation by Ukraine of the readiness criteria for signing the Association Agreement."

In a nutshell, the Ukrainian leadership got their a**es kicked for their highly provocative and unjust action against Vlasenko.

--------------------------

Meanwhile, Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced:

"The debate on the situation in Ukraine in the European Parliament held in Strasbourg on 13 March, was the third in the past 10 months..it reveals the high degree of attention this influential European institution dedicates to our state.

Such constant attention by MPs of the European Union is a logical manifestation of the support by the European Parliament for the aspirations of the Ukrainian people. Accordingly, there are high expectations of the European Parliament by Ukraine.

A key conclusion of the debate was the clear testimony of the willingness of the European Parliament to sign, with Ukraine, the Association Agreement during the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius in November this year.

We greet the realisation of the European Parliament of the importance and relevance of this Agreement to the interests of both Ukraine and the European Union. .."

[Your humble blogger wonders if when Yanukovych and his bozo advisers decided to embark on this harebrained plan to deprive Vlasenko of his parliamentary mandate they ever dreamt it would lead to an emergency debate in the European Parliament....and yet another blunder for hapless foreign minister Kozhara]

p.s. E.P.'s official news site declares : 

If Ukraine is still serious about signing an ambitious association and trade deal with the EU by November, then disturbing news such as the recent removal of two opposition MPs' mandates, is not the way forward, said MEPs in Wednesday's debate with Commissioner Štefan Füle, standing for the EU foreign policy chief.

Recent developments pointed to "old Soviet mechanisms being set in motion" and also a lack of commitment to solving systemic problems of democracy and justice, said MEPs. At the same time, they also criticised the unconstructive response of the opposition, which has blocked the work of the Ukrainian Parliament. 

MEPs reiterated the clear requirements set by the EU Foreign Affairs Council, which Ukraine was expected to meet by May, as a prerequisite for signing the Association Agreement and Deep and Comprehensive Trade agreement with the EU.

It will not be possible to sign these deals, which would be the most advanced ones that the EU has ever negotiated with a third country, unless the Tymoshenko case and other "selective justice" issues are addressed in coming months, they said.  [my bold lettering]

More optimistically, MEPs confirmed that they had heard the messages sent by the Ukrainian Parliament's resolution on EU integration, which was broadly supported by civil society.

MEPs cited the pro-European aspirations of Ukraine's young people and said that the EU should keep its door open to Ukraine, regardless of its President and government.

Some also said that the EU needs to be more patient and suggested that the deals to be signed could actually serve as tools to "fix the country".

More bullsh*t from Yanukovych

Moron Yanukovych claims that: "In no country in Europe, in no country in the world can you do this [i.e. be a parliamentary representative and simultaneously hold another job]

He made this idiotic statement today when unconvincingly trying to justify the disgraceful politically motivated treatment meted out to Yulia Tymoshenko's legal advisor, Serhiy Vlasenko, who was absurdly deprived of his seat in the Verhovna Rada by a law court ruling.

In Yanukovych's opinion, Vlasenko was responsible for the worsening of EU-Ukraine relations.

What Yanukovych said was complete bullshit.

For his information:

"Almost 20% of [British] MPs are earning supplementary incomes through second jobs, with some earning hundreds of thousands of pounds through external positions. The 'Sun on Sunday' reports that Parliament's register of interest shows 119 MPs have jobs outside of Parliament, and that Geoffrey Cox – Conservative MP for Torridge and West Devon – has earned £560,000 since through his work as a barrister since December. 

Only 315 out of 650 MPs registered no external income" [Source]

And

"Dozens of MPs are boosting their taxpayer-funded salaries by tens of thousands of pounds by taking second jobs...new analysis found that as well as drawing their MPs salary of £65,738, many are juggling their political work with jobs in careers such as law, consulting and business and making up to 13 times their annual pay." [Source]

If an MP's second job does not detract from his or her prime duty as an MP there is no problem, provided that the second job bears no relation to the MP's political influence on political decision-making.

All British MPs have to declare their outside financial interests in official registers of interests that are available for public scrutiny, e.g. by journalists.

In Great Britain, Vlasenko's behaviour would be deemed perfectly acceptable - especially as he claims he is receiving no payment for his services as Tymoshenko's legal defender.