Valeria Gontareva, former head of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), has slammed a Sept. 4 court decision in Kyiv that ruled she can be forced to attend a State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) interrogation in Ukraine.
The former NBU head currently lives in the U.K. and works at the London School of Economics. It is not clear how the SBI could force Gontareva to leave London to face questioning in Kyiv, and Gontareva is not charged with any offenses.
Gontareva has said she won’t willingly return to Ukraine to face questioning, citing her safety concerns and the country’s flawed and corrupt justice system. She would welcome being interviewed in London, however. “I am ready to be a witness for all NBU resolutions, more than 2,000 during my tenure,” she said.
The SBI seeks to question Gontareva in relation to an investigation into alleged abuse of authority while she led the NBU and played a pivotal role in the 2016 nationalization of PrivatBank, formerly owned by Ukrainian businessmen Ihor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Boholyubov.
“To accuse the NBU board with abuse of its power, based on standard resolutions of the NBU… this is pure political persecution,” Gontareva told the Kyiv Post on Sept. 6 from her London hospital bed where she is being treated for multiple injuries sustained in an Aug. 26 hit-and-run that U.K. police are currently investigating.
“And after that, to call me as the only one witness, knowing that I live in London and do not have access to correspondence sent to my Kyiv address… it is done to create this public buzz, and nothing more,” she added.
Gontareva and her supporters allege that cases brought against her in Kyiv are politically motivated and designed to help one man: Ihor Kolomoisky.
PrivatBank, Ukraine’s largest bank, was privatized in 2016 after investigators discovered the bank had a $5.5-billion hole in its ledger and faced collapse after years of insider lending and fraud, alleged schemes in which Kolomoisky and others are implicated.
Kolomoisky denies the allegations and has sought the return of PrivatBank, mainly through Ukrainian courts, while the bank itself is currently suing its former owners in the U.K. and U.S. for billions in alleged losses.
Gontareva’s role in the forced nationalization of PrivatBank, widely supported by lawmakers and financial experts at the time, has created extreme animosity between herself, Kolomoisky and his supporters.
The former senior economist feels that the Ukrainian oligarch and his supporters have threatened her and that those threats are now evolving into a campaign of physical reprisals against Gontareva and her family.
On Aug. 26, Gontareva was struck by a car on a pedestrian crossing in central London and has said she does not think it was an accident. She later told the Kyiv Post that she believes the whole situation, including her own health, is deteriorating.
Days later, on Sept. 5, a family car belonging to her son and daughter-in-law was torched in Kyiv in an apparent arson attack outside their family home. The vehicle is registered to the wife of Gontareva’s son, who is also named Valeria Gontareva.
Valeria Gontareva, former head of the NBU, has shared photos with the media that show her burned-out family car in Kyiv.
“I am absolutely shocked with yesterday’s incident with my son’s family car,” Gontareva said. “I do not know what to expect next from the Devil,” she added, in reference to Ihor Kolomoisky. She called on the police to undertake a thorough investigation of the apparent arson attack.
“He is even worse than criminals, who never attack the children of their enemies,” she said.
Kolomoisky has declined or not answered multiple calls from the Kyiv Post and did not read or respond to messages requesting comment. There is no evidence that Kolomoisky or his associates are responsible for any attack against the Gontareva family.
On Sept. 5, the neutral NBU took the unusual step of publishing a statement that openly supported Gontareva and decried what it said was increased pressure faced by former and current NBU officials.
“Recent incidents involving Valeria Gontareva and her family in London and Kyiv may indicate that the former NBU Governor has become the target of psychological and physical pressure that pursues a certain goal,” the statement reads.
“The NBU regards this pressure as a real threat to the personal safety” of NBU officials and an attempt to derail its mandate, the statement continued, calling on law enforcement to investigate incidents and protect the NBU and its work.
Gontareva says that police investigations in the U.K. and Ukraine into the incidents are ongoing, as is her own physical recovery: she has multiple bone fractures and other injuries. She does not expect to be able to walk unassisted for between four and six months.
“I am still waiting for the second operation and, after that, there will be a third and maybe fourth,” she said, on the morning of her 12th day in a London hospital.
