Zelenskyy’s anti-corruption plan sparks cover-up fears

kyiv: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy move to equating wartime corruption with treason is provoking a backlash from officials and watchdogs, who warn the scheme could hamper Ukraine’s main anti-corruption forces.

Two senior officials who followed the proposal, who were granted anonymity to speak candidly, say concerns are growing within Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies that Zelenskyy’s plan will remove major corruption cases from their oversight and will pass to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). which falls under the command of the president.

The SBU could potentially have the power to bury corruption cases involving top officials. The move, officials say, could jeopardize Ukraine’s anti-corruption infrastructure, and anti-corruption watchdogs are sounding the alarm.

By equating corruption with treason, Zelenskyy’s office is manipulating the public’s desire for justice, saying Vitaly Shabunin, director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center (Antac), a Ukrainian non-governmental organization that monitors corruption. In reality, Shabunin added, Zelenskyy’s office pursues other goals: protecting high-level officials from corruption charges and obtaining tools to destroy his opponents.

“The SBU will investigate the same cases as the NABU (the National Anti-Corruption Office of Ukraine), which means that evidence in ‘sensitive’ cases for the president’s office will be destroyed. After (deputy director of the president’s office, Oleg) Tatarov’s case was transferred from NABU to SBU — was buried there… Now the office wants to put it into practice,” warned Shabunin.

As journalists and anti-corruption bodies begin to uncover more alleged corruption schemes during the first months of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion, which began in February 2022, Zelenskyy believes those days were so harsh that officials should be less strict.

“February and March 2022 was a struggle for the existence of Ukraine. If I see the corruption cases from that time, I demand solid proof. If there is any (evidence), the culprits should be punished by a court, not by public opinion,” Zelenskyy said in a televised interview. “As for my idea of ​​equating corruption with treason of the state during times of war, I think it will be a very serious instrument so that they don’t even think about it (corruption).”

In practice, it will mean the collapse of the anti-corruption system, Antac said in a statement.

“According to sources at the Anti-Corruption Center, the bill will give the right to investigate major corruption to the SBU, a security service controlled by the office of the president,” Antac said in a statement. Current and former senior officials of the SBU have been named by the Ukrainian media as someone close to Zelenskyy’s office, a accusation that was dismissed by Zelenskyy’s right-hand man, Andriy Yermak, calling it “conspiracy theories.”

Zelenskyy moved to start the process of changing the law after another wartime corruption case was uncovered last week, in which two high-ranking Ukrainian officials were named as suspects in an embezzlement scheme involving the obtaining humanitarian aid.

“I don’t know if the Ukrainian parliamentarians will support my idea, but I will definitely propose it… We have to implement systemic changes. This is the way to fight corruption,” Zelenskyy said.

He added that his office will present the bill to the Ukrainian parliament within a week.

“I have set a task, and lawmakers in Ukraine will be offered my proposals on equating corruption with high treason in wartime,” Zelenskyy said late Sunday. “I understand that such a weapon cannot work constantly in society, but in wartime I think it will help.”

Corruption scandals in the Zelenskyy administration have drawn increased attention as the country pushes to start European Union membership talks.

The deadline for Ukraine’s seven-step progress is approaching in October and the country has, so far, met only two steps, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna said during a conference in Kiev to beginning of this month. Still, Stefanishyna said, the partners recognized the tremendous progress Ukraine made during the war and she still hopes accession talks will start in December.

Although Zelenskyy has not personally been implicated in the scandal, some 77 percent of Ukrainians believe he is responsible for ongoing corruption in local government and military administrations, according to a survey by think tank Ilko Kucheriv Initiatives Foundation. Democratic. published at the beginning of August.

Zelenskyy’s allies have hit back at any suggestion that he is to blame, amid repeated scandals that have rocked the government in 2023 in the humanitarian aid and military recruitment and procurement sectors. And they support the president’s decision to equate wartime corruption with treason.

Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of Zelenskyy’s office, told POLITICO that the president’s initiatives will strengthen the anti-corruption infrastructure and its effectiveness.

“The president is initiating this discussion to put a clear ‘equality’ sign in the mass consciousness between wartime corruption and treason. Strengthening the punishment for corruption offenses and eliminating the possibility of releasing those accused of corruption on bail is a demonstration of the seriousness of their intentions,” Podolyak stated.