Oleg Sukhov: Reformer and anti-reformer of the week

By Oleg Sukhov.

Published July 28, 2016 at 11:37 pm

Volunteer assisting the military Roman Sinitsyn and judge of Kyiv's Pechersk Court Oksana Tsarevich.

Photo by Courtesy

Roman Sinitsyn, reformer of the week

Roman Sinitsyn, a volunteer assisting the military, has helped to reshape and revive the army and expel corrupt and dishonest officials from the police.

Sinitsyn is a co-founder of the Narodny Tyl (People’s Home Front) volunteer group and an ex-member of a police vetting commission.

Last week he wrote that Viktor Rybak, chief of police in Novomoskovsk in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, owned 11 hectares of land and a separate land plot worth $50,000. He is scheduled to be vetted, and Ivan Varchenko, an advisor to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, is against firing him, Sinitsyn wrote.

He has also exposed attempts to pass through vetting controversial police officers accused of organizing pro-government thugs in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast during the EuroMaidan Revolution, and efforts by Avakov’s advisors to expel civil society members from vetting commissions in the region. Moreover, he has uncovered efforts by police officers to evade vetting there.

In June, Sinitsyn and the AutoMaidan car-based protest group said they were withdrawing from the police vetting process because Avakov and his advisors were killing the reform. They said Avakov had deprived civil society of influence over vetting commissions and was packing them with his henchmen. Avakov denies the accusations.

Oksana Tsarevich, anti-reformer of the week

Oksana Tsarevich, a judge of Kyiv’s Pechersk Court, has become a symbol of lawlessness in Ukraine.

The High Council of Justice was scheduled on July 21 to consider firing her but postponed the issue when she claimed she was sick – a trick often used by judges to prevent their dismissal. The council may consider the issue again on Aug. 4.

A Vinnytsya court is currently hearing a case in which Tsarevich is accused of issuing unlawful rulings against EuroMaidan demonstrators. However, Ukrainian authorities have failed to put her under arrest, and even an electronic tagging bracelet was taken off her last year.

In March, Tsarevich passed exams to be appointed as a judge for life, but the High Qualification Commission postponed a decision on vetting her.

Both the High Council of Justice and the High Qualification Commission have been accused of exempting some judges from dismissal in exchange for their loyalty to the government.

Tsarevich has also issued rulings against Yulia Tymoshenko, leader of the Batkyvshchyna Party, and Yury Lutsenko, who is currently prosecutor general, in cases that have been recognized by the European Court of Human Rights and Ukrainian courts as unlawful and politically motivated.