Parliament Speaker Dmytro Razumkov admits a deliberate violation of the Rules of Procedure of the Verkhovna Rada during the second reading of the bill on oligarchs in order to block the de-oligarchization process.
“What has been done today makes it possible to appeal to the Constitutional Court to block this process again. It seems to me that … this was done deliberately in order to create conditions for further blocking the de-oligarchization process,” he said in the Savik Shuster’s program Freedom of Speech on the air of the Ukraina TV channel on Sept. 25 evening.
Razumkov is convinced that a special procedure for considering the bill was proposed to mislead the deputies.
“It was a free activity of colleagues who launched this process. I am deeply convinced that it was aimed at misleading the deputies,” said the speaker.
He stressed that the actions of the organizers of the process confirm his words – neither the First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk [presiding at the plenary session], nor Fedir Venislavsky (the Servant of the People faction), who proposed using the special procedure, voted for it.
“It’s because everyone understands that sooner or later, one must answer,” Razumkov stressed.
He also noted that it is unlikely that the deputies will be responsible for violating the rules – “The committee is responsible for this, … the speaker, … the chairman.”
Razumkov also said that he would vote for the law on de-oligarchization, since his amendment [No. 398] was taken into account (Razumkov could not vote, as he is on sick leave due to coronavirus disease).
According to the 398th amendment, the decision on recognizing a person with significant economic or political weight in public life [oligarch] is made by the head of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) after the appeal of the Commission on counteracting the excessive impact of persons with significant economic or political weight in public life.
At the same time, in the 406th amendment, the decision on recognition as an oligarch is made by the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine on the basis of a submission from the Cabinet of Ministers, a member of the NSDC, the National Bank, the Security Service or the Antimonopoly Committee.
As reported, bill No. 5599 was considered at the second reading according to a special procedure and only 13 amendments were introduced, approved by the relevant parliamentary committee (on national security). All other amendments were considered automatically rejected, which was reported by Stefanchuk every time a vote was taken.
Earlier, leader of the Holos faction Yaroslav Zheleznyak said that the bill on de-oligarchization requires re-voting due to legal errors and collisions, in particular, due to the contradiction between the 398th and 406th amendments.
