Reformer of the Week – Svitlana Zalishchuk
Svitlana Zalishchuk, a reformist lawmaker from the Bloc of President Petro Poroshenko, on April 26 lambasted Odesa Mayor Gennady Trukhanov and the city council for alleged corruption, which they deny.
Zalishchuk, who spoke at a city council meeting, said that Odesa’s authorities had assigned land plots on the seashore in a non-transparent procedure. They also sold a property for Hr 4 million and then bought it back for Hr 185 million, Zalishchuk added.
Several activists were beaten and thrown out of City Hall for protesting against the land allocations.
The Odesa city council, including Trukhanov’s party, on April 26 effectively canceled decommunization, giving many streets their Soviet names back and dropping street names given in honor of Ukrainian soldiers killed in the war zone.
According to an Italian police dossier obtained by the Slidstvo.info investigative show, Trukhanov was a member of a criminal gang in Odesa headed by alleged mafia boss Alexander Angert in the 1990s. Documents published by Slidstvo.info also show that Trukhanov owns a hidden network of offshore firms that controls firms getting municipal contracts.
According to documents published by ex-Odesa Mayor Eduard Gurvits, ex-lawmaker Yegor Firsov and Slidtsvo.info, Trukhanov also has Russian citizenship, which is banned by Ukrainian law for officials.
Trukhanov denies all accusations of wrongdoing.
Critics argue that corrupt and pro-Russian officials are making a comeback in Odesa Oblast, while corruption schemes are being restored at the police, prosecution service and customs after the resignation of Governor Mikheil Saakashvili in November.
Oleksandr Dovzhenko, who is subject to the lustration law on the dismissal of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s top officials, was appointed on May 3 as head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) branch in Odesa. He was a close ally of Yanukovych’s SBU chief Oleksandr Yakymenko, who is suspected of murdering EuroMaidan protesters, financing Kremlin-backed separatists and ties to Russian intelligence agencies.
Ex-Kyiv Police Chief Oleksandr Tereshchuk, who is also subject to lustration, on May 5 was officially appointed as a deputy governor of Odesa Oblast. Tereshchuk has been criticized for cracking down on EuroMaidan protesters.
Anti-reformer of the week –Kostyantyn Kulik
Prosecutor Kostyantyn Kulik has been charged by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau with unlawful enrichment worth Hr 2 million ($80,000).
In 2016 Ukrainian courts released Kulik, then the chief prosecutor for the war zone, without bail and reinstated him in his job.
Instead of suspending or firing him, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has praised Kulik as an exemplary employee and on April 14 appointed him as a deputy chief at the international cooperation department of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
Kulik spearheaded a controversial criminal case that allowed a court in March to confiscate $1.5 billion allegedly stolen by allies of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych. Some legal experts see this as show trial — conducted secretly within just two weeks, with numerous violations of due process and the law — and a public relations stunt for Lutsenko.
Critics say that Lutsenko’s failure to fire Kulik and other controversial officials is yet more proof of the failure of prosecutorial reform — as if any more proof is needed.
Prosecutors on April 27 elected their self-regulating bodies. Lutsenko’s opponents argue that these bodies, which will have a right to authorize or veto any appointment or dismissal, will entrench the current prosecutorial regime and bury any attempts at reform.
