Name: Oleksandr Lemenov
Age: 29
Education: Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University
Profession: anti-corruption expert
Did you know? Lemenov’s hobby is running marathons.
Oleksandr Lemenov is one of Ukraine’s leading anti-corruption activists and law enforcement experts. He has also provided corporate legal consulting services. He once thought of joining government but decided that civil society needed him more.
Lemenov was born in Bila Tserkva, a Kyiv Oblast city of 230,000 people located 80 kilometers south of the capital.
He graduated from Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University with a law degree in 2012. He also gained a degree in international law, human rights and economics from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland in 2014, and a master’s of business administration and public administration degree from the MIM-Kyiv Business School in 2017.
He started out as an anti-corruption crusader in 2012, when he joined the Chesno civil society watchdog.
“Back in 2012, I realized that (then President Viktor) Yanukovych had completely buried jurisprudence,” Lemenov said. “There was no rule of law. I’m categorically against bribery and influence peddling.”
The EuroMaidan Revolution, which ousted Yanukovych in 2014, triggered an upsurge in civic activity, and Lemenov became a law enforcement expert at the newly-created Reanimation Package of Reforms.
In 2015, he founded StateWatch, a nongovernmental organization that monitors the performance of law enforcement agencies and defense procurement. The NGO also provides legal instruction.
One of Lemenov’s priorities is the State Investigation Bureau, a yet-to-be-launched body that is expected to take all investigations away from the Prosecutor General’s Office. Earlier this year, Lemenov became the chairman of a commission to recruit bureau investigators.
However, the bureau’s leadership dragged its feet on appointing the investigators for months until they were finally hired in November, and the bureau’s launch has been rife with scandal and political intrigue.
Lemenov said the selection of the bureau’s leadership had been rigged in favor of government loyalists. The bureau denies such accusations.
Lemenov is frustrated with the pace of post-EuroMaidan changes. The distrusted and discredited law enforcement system remains almost intact.
“In fact, no reform has taken place,” he said. “There have only been some isolated attempts by civil society with foreign partners’ help to get things moving.”
He argues that the only chance for genuine change ll come when “the political elite is completely replaced” — hopefully through elections.
