It was also a direct attack on Ukrainian democracy.
I am, though, concerned at the
widespread naivety of Ukrainian journalists who report on the promised
“investigation” by President Petro Poroshenko and General Prosecutor Yuriy
Lutsenko. Their promises don’t fool me but there still seems to be widespread
naivety about the capabilities of Ukraine’s courts and prosecutors to
“investigate” anything. And, if Russia is behind the murder, the Security
Service of Ukraine (SBU) is not any better at “investigating” – especially as it seems
there are Russian spies in the structure.
Are we not still waiting for a
full investigation of the murder of Gongadze who was murdered 16 years ago?
Remember how President Viktor Yushchenko promised in his first month in power in
a speech he gave to theParliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE) that: “I would like to assure you that the investigation
of Gongadze
murder case will be ·completed. All cases related
to instances of violence against
journalists will be investigated. Those guilty will be brought to trial.”
Well Yushchenko, what
happened?
Did you forget to do this when you got home?
Were your bees more
important than your honour and commitment to the rule of law?
Those responsible for
the failure to act on his pledge to PACE include Yushchenko, Secretary of the
National Security and Defence Council Petro Poroshenko, SBU Chairman
Oleksandr Turchynov and General Prosecutor Svyatyslav Piskun.
There are many other
cases that were promised to be “investigated” but never were.
We are still awaiting
the completion of the investigation of Yushchenko’s poisoning, which has made
many people (including this author) suspicious if he was ever poisoned?
After
all, surely if somebody tries to murder you, that will mobilize you to seek
revenge?
But, I have never seen Yushchenko go after his potential poisoners and
instead he let the Donetsk clan control the General Prosecutor’s office through
Oleksandr Medvedko and he helped Viktor Yanukovych to come to power in 2010.
There have been no
criminal convictions of members of the Yanukovych mafia regime and its key
members, such as chief of staff Serhiy Lyovochkin, who appears to have an immunity
deal with Poroshenko.
I have long joked in
talks I have given in the West that the only time investigations lead to
criminal prosecutions and jail sentences are in two ways.
The first is when
criminal Ukrainians are arrested and put on trial in the U.S., Germany and Spain.
The second is when there is political repression in Ukraine, as with the
imprisonment of Yulia Tymoshenko and Lutsenko.
Sadly, therefore, I will be highly
surprised if the promised “investigation” into the disgusting murder of Sheremet
will be any more successful than the thousands of other promised
“investigations” that have never been concluded.
The General Prosecutor’s Office
– which Poroshenko defends to the last and where he has installed three of his own
cronies – is the most unproductive state institution in Ukraine and the biggest
organized criminal gang in Ukraine. There is no other criminal gang that has
20,000 members and extorts a massive budget from the state and huge bribes from
the private sector.
Poroshenko
is responsible for the inability of criminal “investigations” not leading to
criminal convictions under both Presidents Yushchenko and his own presidency. I
hope I am wrong in the case of Sheremet but I doubt it. For Ukraine to
fundamentally change and introduce the rule of law requires a non-Leonid Kuchmaite
president and the closing down of the General Prosecutor’s office. After these
two steps are taken the next step should be to build more jails.
So
much for Poroshenko’s election slogan “We should live in another way!”
