Larysa Golnik – reformer of the week
Larysa Golnik, a judge of Poltava’s October Court, is one of Ukraine’s few honest judges and a brave whistleblower.
Golnik, who was interviewed for Hromadske television’s Slidstvo.info show on March 12, published a video featuring Poltava Mayor Oleksandr Mamai and his former deputy Dmytro Trikhna unsuccessfully trying to bribe her.
Golnik got suspended and said that Oleksandr Strukov, the chairman of the October Court, was pressuring her and even assaulted her, which Strukov denies. Strukov is still on the job. The Council of Judges, the High Council of Justice and the High Qualification Commission have failed to react.
A Poltava court is considering a case against Trikhna, but Mamai is merely a witness in the case. The trial has seen no progress whatsoever since 2014 – allegedly because of Mamai’s political influence.
Another whistleblower, Judge Serhiy Bondarenko of Cherkasy Oblast’s Court of Appeal, has released a recording of the court’s chairman, Volodymyr Babenko, pressuring him to make an unlawful decision. The judiciary’s governing bodies failed to react, and Babenko is still on his job and is not being criminally prosecuted. Other judges, including Lyudmila Synetska, complained earlier this month about illegal pressure being put on judges by the authorities during the prosecution of EuroMaidan protesters in 2013 to 2014.
The High Council of Justice has been dragging its feet on firing under the lustration law judges who persecuted EuroMaidan protesters. Since September, it has recommended for dismissal just four judges who issued rulings against protesters out of 300 without finally firing them.
The council has also refused to fire some controversial jugdes who cracked down on EuroMaidan activists. These include Bogdan Sanin, who triggered the revolution by banning EuroMaidan rallies from Dec. 1 through Dec. 7, 2013; Mykola Chaus, who fled last year after being caught with a bribe, and Viktor Kytsyuk.
– Oleg Sukhov
Vyacheslav Abroskin – anti-reformer of the week
Vyacheslav Abroskin, the chief of Donetsk Oblast’s police and a deputy chief of the National Police, took part in the March 13 crackdown on activists blocking trade with Russian-occupied territories in the Donbas.
The promotion of Abroskin, a representative of the anti-reformist old guard, to a deputy chief of the National Police on March 11 is seen as a sign of the failure of police reform.
Abroskin allegedly tried to serve the Russian occupation authorities as a police official in Crimea in 2014 before moving to mainland Ukraine, according to Sevastopol-based media. However, he denies this.
Abroskin on March 16 wrote on Facebook that he supported the proposal of People’s Front lawmaker Yevgeny Deidei to beat Batkivshchyna lawmaker Igor Lutsenko with a baseball bat for his criticism of the police.
Meanwhile, police officer Yuriy Goluban – one of Abroskin’s subordinates who entered the Verkhona Rada on March 15 in violation of parliamentary procedure – admitted on March 17 that he had met with Russian-backed separatist leader Oleksandr Khodakovsky when the war with Russia started in April to May 2014. He also admitted that he had been a subordinate of Khodakovsky when they both worked at the Security Service of Ukraine in Donetsk before the 2013-2014 EuroMaidan Revolution.
Khodakovsky had said before that Goluban had fought for the separatists, though Goluban denies this.
Meanwhile, in January Andriy Biletsky, a lawmaker and leader of the Azov nationalist regiment, accused the National Guard’s leadership of large-scale corruption and covering up officials with pro-Russian leanings.
He said that Oleksandr Holyakov, a top National Guard official, had organized Kryvy Rih’s AntiMaidan, a pro-Russian group that pledged allegiance to then President Viktor Yanukovych and assaulted EuroMaidan protesters.
Another top National Guard official, Yury Kolmyk, has supported Russian aggression against Ukraine on social networks, according to Biletsky and the Obozrevatel news site. National Guard Captain Yury Zaderin has also supported the Kremlin on social networks, Biletsky said. The National Guard said it would investigate the claims.
Khodakovsky, who cracked down on EuroMaidan activists in Kyiv in 2014, also said that Oleksandr Ustymenko, who had organized an attack on the Trade Union building in Kyiv that led to EuroMaidan protesters’ deaths, was still a top Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) official. Journalist Yury Butusov said in 2015 that another participant of the crackdown on the Trade Union building, Valery Shaitanov, was also still a top SBU official.
— Oleg Sukhov
