The defeat of the "watchers": Ukraine is shaken by the largest corruption scandal

The largest corruption scandal in recent years continues to rumble in Ukraine. According to security officials, senior officials received tens of millions of dollars in kickbacks. Against this background, there are signs of a crisis in the ruling team in the country. Former Defense Minister and acting Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov suddenly flew to Turkey, and the head of the Ministry of Justice, German Galushchenko, was dismissed. Experts say that the position of President Vladimir Zelensky is under threat. Izvestia investigated the situation.

Timur and his team

The source of the current revelations is the anti—corruption structures of SAP and NABU. They are not controlled by the Ukrainian authorities, but are part of the so-called external management circuit of the country, that is, they report directly to Western countries. In the summer, Vladimir Zelensky tried to reassign SAP and NABU to himself, but after protests from the opposition and the European Union, he abandoned this idea.

Now a retaliatory strike has been struck. On November 10, detectives from both structures conducted a series of searches and reported the exposure of a "high-level criminal organization" that was involved in corruption in the energy and defense sectors. According to the published data, the work on this case, called Operation Midas, was carried out for 15 months, 1,000 hours of audio recordings were analyzed.

According to NABU, the money laundering scheme was quite primitive. A private business that wanted to work with the state-owned company Energoatom or build defensive fortifications had to pay bribes in the amount of 10-15% of the contract amount. If the entrepreneur refused, he was threatened with blocking payments or exclusion from the list of suppliers.

It was emphasized that the total amount of losses reached $100 million. It was noted that the head of the criminal group was Vladimir Zelensky's closest associate, Timur Mindich, co-owner of the Kvartal 95 studio, who managed to leave the country a few hours before the searches began. At the same time, the NABU emphasized that four current and former ministers were involved in the scheme.

The NABU also published several recordings of conversations between the defendants in the case. Specific names and surnames are not mentioned on the tapes, but the nicknames by which the media identified the participants are indicated. Among them were Igor Mironyuk, former Adviser to the Minister of Energy, Dmitry Basov, Executive Director for Security at Energoatom, German Galushchenko, former Minister of Energy and current Minister of Justice, Alexei Chernyshev, Timur Mindich, and others.

They all discuss how to get kickbacks and put pressure on entrepreneurs. On one of the tapes, one of the defendants complains that it was hard for him to carry a box with $1.6 million in cash. Another one discusses the construction of a mansion in Switzerland. On the third, threats are made to a certain entrepreneur. "Just tell him that he will be blacklisted. We will remove all the technical conditions, cancel all certificates, and all employees will be drafted into the army," says one of the defendants.

The NABU notes that five people have been detained in this case, seven have been charged with suspicion. It is also known that Vladimir Zelensky visited Mindich's apartment, where the "office" of the criminal group was located, meaning he may also appear in the audio recordings. It is also interesting that the photographs with the seized bundles of dollars show the marks and barcodes of the US Federal Reserve, that is, we may be talking about theft and American aid.

Out of the window and out of the country

Amid the high-profile proceedings, there were signs of the collapse of the ruling team. Former Defense Minister and now secretary of the National Security Council Rustem Umerov initially denied the influence of "any persons" on his work. In particular, he said that he had met with Timur Mindich, but had no business, but, on the contrary, as a result of the conversation, he terminated the contract for the supply of body armor to the army.

After that, he suddenly flew to Turkey, where he promises to hold talks on resuming prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine. Previously, these meetings had not been announced, and many in Kiev suspected that the official had fled the country. "We are waiting for the results of the exchanges during this visit. Maybe Mindich has been captured and needs to be released from somewhere," anti-corruption activist Daria Kalenyuk joked.

The Ukrainian government has dissolved the supervisory board of Energoatom, as well as dismissed the Minister of Justice, former Minister of Energy Herman Galushchenko. The official himself stated that he was not holding onto the position. "I believe that suspension during the investigation is a civilized and correct scenario. I will defend myself legally," he said.

There are also many signs of extreme nervousness among Ukrainian officials. So, it is known that several people urgently left the country. This includes Sergey Pushkar, a member of the National Commission for Energy Regulation, and the Mindich tapes say he received an "unofficial salary" of $20,000. Another person involved in the case, Igor Mironyuk, tore up documents during the searches and threw his phone out the window.

Apparently, Vladimir Zelensky is not in a good mood either. On November 11, for the first time in several months, he did not publish his traditional evening address to citizens. Verkhovna Rada deputy Artem Dmytruk said that the president was directly involved in corruption schemes. "All the people who are being named and accused today are only the perpetrators and employees of Zelensky's organization," he stressed.

The events are covered in detail in major Western publications. The New York Times writes that Zelensky came to power promising to eradicate bribery, but now the country is rocked by one of the largest corruption scandals. Bloomberg columnist Mark Champion believes that what is happening adds arguments to those who oppose financing Ukraine, because the money is being stolen anyway.

What the experts say

Political scientist Alexander Semchenko emphasizes that Ukrainian corruption does not surprise anyone in the know.

— Another question is why the results of the investigation have appeared right now. Perhaps the Americans want to put pressure on Zelensky. We can see that the fire is still being conducted on his immediate entourage, nothing was said about him in the published tapes. Another thing is that Zelensky seems to be completely controlled by the West, although he is more susceptible to British influence, perhaps there is a process of his subordination to the United States. Let's see how the situation develops further," he argues.

Denis Denisov, an expert at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, says that the current scandal could undermine the stability of the Ukrainian political system.

— The investigation mentions key officials and major businessmen close to the president. There is a feeling that if the tangle is further unraveled, the entire leadership of the country will be implicated in corruption. It will be interesting to see further developments. If the defendants are formally charged, and then court sentences will follow, then this may undermine the entire Ukrainian political system," he believes.