Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s Movement of New Forces on April 25 held a protest against President Petro Poroshenko and said it had formally started the procedure of Poroshenko’s impeachment.
The dozens of demonstrators who gathered in front of the Presidential Administration were also protesting against an alleged corrupt deal between Poroshenko and former President Viktor Yanukovych’s ecology minister, Mykola Zlochevsky.
The deal was mentioned in an alleged recording of a conversation between Poroshenko and Zlochevsky published by fugitive lawmaker Olekandr Onyshchenko on April 18.
The Presidential Administration responded to the recording by saying on April 19 that “fakes do not require comments.”
“Yanukovych’s minister Zlochevsky has given a $10 million bribe and 50 percent of the income from a natural gas business to Poroshenko in exchange for law enforcers’ inaction – (Zlochevsky) has been taken off the wanted list, and Poroshenko ally (and Prosecutor General Yuriy) Lutsenko closed all criminal cases against him,” the Movement of New Forces said in a statement. “These are the simple facts, and there’s an obvious crime here.”
In the alleged recording, Onyshchenko is heard speaking with someone alleged to be Poroshenko.
“(Zlochevsky) is ready to conclude contracts with Naftogaz and other state companies and give you 50 percent of the company and split the profits 50/50,” Onyshchenko says.
“Are you aware that Kolya (Zlochevsky) has already supplied over $10 million to your firm?”
The person alleged to be Poroshenko replies “yes.”
Onyshchenko then adds that a specific bill drastically cut royalty tax payments for certain firms that cooperate with Shell and ExxonMobil, and Zlochevsky is ready to invest in such a company, split the profits with Poroshenko, and save on royalty tax payments.
Olha Halabala, a top official of the Movement of New Forces, said at the April 25 rally that the party had received an official explanation from the Verkhovna Rada on April 17 that a separate law on impeachment is not necessary to oust a president, and the collection of the signatures of at least 226 lawmakers is needed to initiate impeachment.
Ukraine’s Constitution stipulates that the president can be impeached, but there is no separate law governing the procedure.
Yuriy Derevyanko, a member of the Verkhovna Rada and another top official of Saakashvili’s party, said at the protest that he had initiated the collection of signatures by signing a motion for impeachment.
Apart from the Zlochevsky recording, other grounds for impeachment include investigations by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a Kyiv Post partner, into Poroshenko’s foreign offshore firms and possible tax evasion, Derevyanko said. Poroshenko denies the accusations.
He also listed a criminal case on the Rotterdam+ coal pricing formula as one of the grounds for impeachment. The formula, which has allowed tycoon Rinat Akhmetov’s DTEK energy group to benefit from high coal and power prices, was introduced in 2016 by the energy regulator headed by Dmytro Vovk, a presidential protégé.
Another justification for impeachment is an embezzlement case involving Kyiv’s Rybalsky Kuznya shipyard, which is owned by Poroshenko and his top ally and lawmaker Igor Kononenko, according to Derevyanko.
Moreover, Poroshenko owns the Lipetsk confectionary in Russia, which until 2017 paid taxes to the Russian budget – taxes which were used to finance the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine, Derveyanko said. He also mentioned media reports on Poroshenko’s alleged undeclared grain and starch businesses in Russia.
Derevyanko also referred to Poroshenko’s allegedly illegal acquisition of land plots in Kyiv’s high-end Tsarskoye Selo district and in Kyiv’s suburb of Kozyn, as well as the use of $1.5 billion confiscated from tycoon Serhiy Kurchenko’s firms to fund agricultural subsidies for Poroshenko allies Yuriy Kosiuk and Oleh Bakhmatiuk.
Derevyanko also said the Verkhovna Rada should investigate Onyshchenko’s claim that he gave a $6 million bribe to support Poroshenko in the 2014 parliamentary election, and as a result, Central Election Commission Chief Mykhailo Okhendovsky had cleared his candidacy to become a member of parliament despite his violation of residency rules.
Parliament should also investigate Poroshenko’s alleged joint businesses with tycoon Kostyantyn Grigorishin, Derevyanko said. In one of the Onyshchenko recordings, ex-People’s Front lawmaker Mykola Martynenko said that Poroshenko and Grigorishin had “decided to divvy up the entire energy industry.”
Poroshenko denies all accusations of corruption and wrongdoing.
Saakashvili, a vehement critic of Poroshenko, was deported from Ukraine to Poland by Border Guards without a court warrant on Feb. 12. Under Ukrainian law, forced deportation is only possible if authorized by a court. Saakashvili’s detention and expulsion violated numerous laws, lawyers for Saakashvili and independent attorneys said. The authorities deny accusations of wrongdoing, claiming that Saakashvili’s deportation was legal.
The National Police on April 14 opened a criminal case into what Saakashvili’s lawyers believe to be his kidnapping by Border Guards and unlawful expulsion from Ukraine on Feb. 12.
Thousands have attended six major rallies for Poroshenko’s impeachment and resignation since December as part of a movement co-organized by Saakashvili. The biggest rally, numbering about 20,000, took place on Dec. 10.
