Coal of contention

Minister of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine Yurii Prodan went to the Prosecutor General’s Office on November 10, to be questioned as a witness in the criminal case dealing with procurement of South African coal for this country. Member of the supervisory board of the Institute of Energy Strategies Yurii Korolchuk believes the investigation should provide an answer to the main question: what is the real price of African coal as delivered to the thermal power plants of Ukraine, and what losses will be incurred by Ukraine’s public purse from this transaction?

The expert believes that the decision to effect this purchase was clearly a case of corruption. What has Prodan to do with it? Well, he was the official who needed to approve the contracts. And then, the almost forgotten story of the gas contracts of 2009, which were ruinous for Ukraine, re-emerges, and Prodan had to do with them as well... However, he was never charged with anything. According to Korolchuk, the coal case, which he calls “the Ukrainian Watergate,” was launched solely because of the coalition negotiations...