If President Volodymyr Zelensky says he is all about reforms, you might as well not believe him.
A massive blow to Ukraine’s democracy took place on Sept. 1 when the country’s High Council of Justice, the judiciary’s highest governing body, unanimously said that it found nothing wrong with outright obstruction of justice by Ukraine’s arguably most influential and most tainted judge — Pavlo Vovk — as well as by several other top judges.
Effectively, it works like this: The president exerts control over who is on the council, which is charged with appointing and disciplining judges. The council’s recent action shields from harm Vovk and his court, notorious for issuing rulings in favor of the government, the powerful and the rich.
Now, Zelensky is fully complicit in this judicial corruption, which has weakened the nation and its economy immensely.
The evidence couldn’t be more clear against them as the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine published recordings implicating members of the High Council of Justice in the alleged criminal schemes of Vovk, head of the Kyiv Administrative District Court, and six other judges of his court.
This happened only six days after the Kyiv Post met with the council’s chairman Andrii Ovsiienko for an interview, during which, Ovsiienko said he wanted to be remembered for being “just and decent,” how from an early age he had a sharp sense of justice. So much for that.
Either Ovsiienko is completely delusional or he was telling complete lies straight to our faces.
In the NABU recordings, Vovk mentioned the involvement of Ovsiienko and other council members in his alleged bargains with the council.Ovsiienko claimed he never took bribes.
What is even more alarming is how Zelensky hasn’t made a single statement about the NABU recordings. If Zelensky really wants to attract international investors and build Ukraine’s economy — as he was saying in the promotional video he released on Ukraine’s Independence Day — perhaps the easiest and most effective way of doing that would be by condemning Vovk and his team of corrupt judges and the decision of the council. This could start a wave of reforms in Ukraine’s justice system, one of the most corrupt ones and yet foundational for Ukraine’s success.
The stakes are very high, and both Ukrainians as well as the international community should be extremely concerned about this. These are judges who have the power to mete out justice in cases related to the banking sector, where at least $20 billion was stolen from the Ukrainian people, or which determine Ukraine’s future collaboration with its top creditors and international supporters.
These are all real cases and have a direct impact on whether Ukrainians survive or not, on whether they can celebrate the victory of justice in their country or be engulfed by even deeper cynicism and poverty.
