It’s exam season at Ukraine’s universities, with sleepless nights and stressful days for students. Except for those, of course, who can have a top politician call their rector.
Photographs of lawmaker Tetyana Bakhteyeva’s desk in the
Verkhovna Rada on June 7, 2013, suggest she was going to lobby for one particular
student’s success at today’s exam.
Bakhteyeva’s to-do list reads as follows: “Need to: 1. Call the rector of
the National School of Judges, Natalia Shuklina. (Her telephone number) 2. Inform her that
Lyudvik Mirzoyan must successfully pass the exams of June 7-8. And other exams,
of July 29-30, too.”
Mirzoyan, who lives in Donetsk, used to be an attorney
for Bakhteyeva in a court case in 2012. Back then, representatives of the UDAR
party accused Bakhteyeva of bribing voters during the parliamentary election
campaign. When commenting on the case for the Day newspaper in 2012, Mirzoyan
mentioned it wasn’t the first time he represented Bakhteyeva in court.
According to Mirzoyan’s page in Vkontakte social
network, he is currently working as an assistant to another lawyer, Serhiy
Osyka. Osyka’s office confirmed that Mirzoyan is an employee.
In the statement released by Bakhteyeva’s press
service the deputy explains that she doesn’t know who put this paper on her
desk and that she didn’t call the rector.
“I’ve only been to the Rada hall for several minutes
today,” Bakhteyeva says in her statement.
Additionally, Bakhteyeva offers a wordy explanation on
how she often receives notes with personal help requests during the parliament
sessions. She didn’t directly say that the scandalous paper was one of such
requests. The paper doesn’t have any address, only “Need to” as a header.
Kyiv Post made numerous attempts to contact Mirzoyan
and Shuklina. However, they did not answer their mobile phones.
After the paper’s photo made it into the news
Mirzoyan’s Vkontakte page was filled with sarcastic and angry comments, and wishes
of good luck at the exam.
“Dude, here’s a question. I want to become a judge,
how much would it cost? Don’t tell me whom to pay, because that I already know,”
wrote Mikhail Illyashik at Mirzoyan’s page.
Kyiv Post
editor Olga Rudenko can be reached at rudenko@kyivpost.com, Kyiv Post intern Artem Babak can be reached at babak@kyivpost.com.
