President Volodymyr Zelensky on Oct. 10 denied having ties to Odesa Mayor Gennady Trukhanov and obstructing any criminal investigations into the controversial city boss.
Trukhanov has been charged in corruption cases and is at the center of scandals involving his Russian citizenship and alleged former membership in a mafia gang.
He has been accused of turning Odesa into his personal fiefdom, profiteering through municipal contracts as well as land sales while destroying its historic architectural heritage and natural landscapes. The mayor has denied all accusations of wrongdoing.
Trukhanov is a member of the pro-Russian Doveryai Delam (Trust the Deeds) party, which has expressed support for Zelensky. Some members of the For the Future group in the Verkhovna Rada, which has backed Zelensky’s initiatives, are also linked to Trukhanov.
Zelensky has not publicly criticized the mayor despite all the controversies and is suspected of entering into a political alliance with him, just like his predecessor Petro Poroshenko did.
Tied or not?
Zelensky said at a news conference that he got acquainted with Trukhanov a long time ago because Odesa City Hall helped to organize a festival for his Kvartal 95 comedy show in Odesa.
Zelensky added he had met Trukhanov at the Presidential Administration and had discussed the Odesa seaport, roads, sewage and the condition of buildings in the city.
“I’d like (Trukhanov) to change his approach to Odesa,” Zelensky said. “I’d like them to get rid of crime in Odesa. If we don’t see this, we’ll do our best to replace all (top officials) there.”
He denied having any allegiance to Trukhanov.
“We’re not friends and we don’t celebrate anything together,” Zelensky said. “I don’t have any relations with him.”
Criminal cases
Zelensky went on to say that all criminal cases against Trukhanov must be investigated “according to the law.”
“All criminal cases that will be investigated must be investigated according to the law,” he said. “Believe me, I’m not sabotaging any of them.”
Odesa’s Malinovsky District Court on July 9 acquitted Trukhanov in an Hr 185 million embezzlement case. Anti-corruption activists in Odesa attributed the decision to Trukhanov’s political influence on the courts and judicial corruption, while the mayor denied the accusations of wrongdoing.
Trukhanov is accused of organizing a city council vote to buy the old Krayan factory administrative building for Hr 185 million ($7.04 million) in September 2016, when it had at the beginning of the year been bought by another firm for only Hr 4 million ($152,000), suggesting the deal was a scheme to embezzle money from the city.
In March the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, or NABU, also charged Trukhanov with failing to declare assets worth Hr 51 million owned by his wife Tetiana Koltunova. In June the case was sent to a court.
Trukhanov had also been investigated over alleged illicit enrichment. However, that case was closed in March after the Constitutional Court canceled the illicit enrichment law.
The mayor has also been investigated in other embezzlement cases.
Attacks on civil society
Zelensky said he had told Trukhanov to stop “the persecution of civil society” – a reference to numerous attacks on civic activists in Odesa that Trukhanov’s critics blame on him. Trukhanov denies the accusations.
“I told him that (civic activists) are being persecuted and that they must stop doing that,” he said. “And he’s saying that there is no evidence for that. We’ve got to have evidence in this case.”
There have been assaults and murder attempts on at least 14 activists in Odesa over the past two years.
Elections
Zelensky also hinted that early mayoral elections would not be held in Odesa. Scheduled elections are planned for 2020 in the city.
“(Trukhanov) says ‘the people elected me’,” he said. “Currently I can’t hold local elections. (And I told him) that he should understand the people’s attitude towards him. And that attitude will be a reaction to Trukhanov during the mayoral elections.”
Ruslan Stefanchuk, Zelensky’s representative in the Verkhovna Rada, said in July that Zelensky’s team was considering holding early local elections, arguing that Ukraine needs a complete re-boot of government at all levels.
“Everything depends on local elections for which we must start preparing,” Zelensky said in an apparent reference to the scheduled 2020 elections. “If Odesa’s residents want change and want to elect another mayor, then they’ve got to choose one.”
Trukhanov controversies
There is evidence that Trukhanov had Russian citizenship up until 2017, which he denies. Dual citizenship is banned in Ukraine.
The site of Russia’s Federal Tax Service shows that Trukhanov used to be a Russian citizen. In 2017, Russia’s Sergiyev Posad Court annulled his citizenship due to alleged procedural violations he made while obtaining it.
Trukhanov is also controversial because he and his ally Alexander Angert were members of a mafia gang in the 1990s, according to an Italian police dossier. Moreover, documents published by Slidstvo.info show that Trukhanov owns a hidden network of offshore firms controlling companies that have received city contracts.
