Forgotten problems

The revelations of the serial killer Leonid Roitman nicknamed Lionia the Long have in fact exploded the Ukrainian web space. The former criminal told TV journalist Seva Kaplan in his US studio about who is who in Ukrainian politics and big business, what they did in the 1990s, and who provides them with cover.

The Ukrainian media have not yet reacted to this sensational online material (“The Killer from Yaponchik, the Money from Yatseniuk” in http://politica-ua.com), although it is undeniable that “the Roitman interview” is a no less explosive material than “the Melnychenko tapes.”

Ukrainian society has failed to draw the necessary conclusions from “the Melnychenko tapes.” For which we are still to pay a high price.

Will “the Roitman interview” produce a more practical result than hundreds of comments and thousands of “expansions” in social websites or will it also end up in the wastebasket of forgotten issues? It is also the quality of our future that depends on the answer to this, and not only this, question.

Den and some investigative journalists have drawn up a list of what we call “forgotten problems.” The following commentaries are on the unsolved cases and their impact on the quality of Ukrainian politics and the future of this country.

“THE MURDER OF SHCHERBAN IS THE No.1 CASE”

Liubomyr FERENS, journalist, Slidstvo.Info:

“I think the still unsolved murder of the Donetsk businessman Yevhen Shcherban is the most topical high-profile case. It leaves very many questions open. The perpetrators are in prison, but the organizer is still to be detected. Why? There are speculations galore about this case. It was presumed during Viktor Yanukovych’s presidency that ex-premiers Pavlo Lazarenko and Yulia Tymoshenko might have ordered the murder of Shcherban. And silence today…

“The solution of this case will give answers to many thorny questions of the present. This case radically changed the course of Ukrainian history and the correlation of forces in Ukrainian politics. The coming to power of the so-called Donetsk clique was delayed for a decade. Deprived of Shcherban, this clique has only changed for the worse since then. But for this murder, there would perhaps be a totally different situation in Ukraine today – with politicians of a different quality and vector in power. Moreover, Donetsk and the Donbas themselves might be different. So, in my opinion, the murder of Shcherban is the No.1 case.

“I would also single out such important political cases as the death of Viacheslav Chornovil in a road accident, the murder of the National Bank chief Vadym Hetman and the journalist Heorhii Gongadze, and a strange ‘suicide’ of Yurii Kravchenko.

“Today, we can also see a redistribution of resources and influences. But it is not yet clear of what scale and nature it will be. For example, Prime Minister Arsenii Yatseniuk has said 450 privatization cases will be revised. Is very interesting to know which facilities will be involved in this process and who will eventually own them. So far, we cannot speak of any proven facts, but I think we will see it very soon. All we have to do is closely watch the government’s actions. A lot will also depend on the State Property Fund chairman’s actions.

“One of the ‘obscure’ cases which the new government has to handle is the shooting of Euromaidan protesters. Almost a year has passed, but those guilty of those killings have not been named. We know the perpetrators’ names, but we are far from knowing at least the ‘middle-level’ key figures. Why? Riot police officers stick to the rules and never do anything without a command. Who ordered them to shoot? Who ordered using the tonfa (a device that looks like a stick with a handle, based on a steel rod) rather than rubber truncheons to break up a crowd of students? A Berkut policeman could not have made this decision by himself. This matter worries many experts here in Ukraine and in the international organizations that are studying this case. They met me, as I conducted a journalistic inquiry into this case, and asked me why, in my opinion, this case was not investigated judicially. The authorities consider it a rhetorical question, but it is not such in reality. The same applies to coordination of actions in the counter-terrorism operation. It is about not only ‘the Ilovaisk pocket,’ but also the aircraft downed near the Luhansk airport, and numerous ambushes. The blame is usually put on the middle-level command at most, while the top brass are not answering for their ‘mistakes.’ Why?”

“EVEN YANUKOVYCH WAS TOUGHER TO HIS POLITICAL OPPONENTS”

Natalka SEDLETSKA, investigative journalist, author and presenter of the TV program “Schemes: Corruption in Detail,” a joint project of Radio Liberty and the First National Channel:

“‘Boiko’s rigs’ is an example of Naftohaz abuses in the Yanukovych era. Numerous journalistic investigations have exposed in detail the way the management of this state-run oil and gas company carried the money out of the enterprise, made purchases accompanied by huge kickbacks, and abused office. After the revolution, the Naftohaz ex-chairman Yevhen Bakulin was pompously apprehended, but the court soon released him, and he was elected to the Ukrainian parliament, as was Yurii Boko, ex-minister for fuel and energy, in whose ‘honor’ a documented deal on the purchase of drill rigs (‘Boiko’s rigs’) was called, while prosecutors are still unable to find the guilty.

“Or take the privatization of large state-run facilities. As many numerous journalistic investigations revealed, facilities were largely sold in the times of Yanukovych at underrated prices without due account of the antimonopoly law. The ex-president’s inner circle embezzled a lot of state money and bought state-run facilities for this very money. And I still don’t understand why large facilities are not being nationalized on a wide scale in order to be fairly re-privatized. For example, many experts argued that Akhmetov had bought Kyivenerho and Ukrtelecom for a song and failed to meet the privatization conditions to boot. I think prosecutors could show a strong will and get these assets returned through legal action and then sold at a market price.

“Now about the Family’s money. Viktor Yanukovych’s inner circle, the so-called Family, which included his son who became an oligarch within 2-3 years, some friendly ministers, and such brand-new puppet oligarchs as, for example, Serhii Kurchenko, have not returned even a fraction of the property and money they stole. Their wealth rests on the money made as part of major corruption-based schemes with ex-president’s full assistance. Why is this money still not back in Ukraine’s budget?

“The Kliuiev brothers and solar energy business. According to professional and full-scale journalistic investigation, Serhii and Andrii Kliuiev built their solar energy empire via the following scheme: a) they lobbied the ‘green tariff’ law which made (and still makes) it possible to sell household energy at prices that are dozens of times higher than in the case of nuclear power; b) they in fact hold a monopoly on this right and successfully compete with potential rivals; c) they received from the state, at a non-market price, a factory that manufactures solar battery materials. In other words, it is the full cycle of a corrupt business. Besides, while Andrii Kliuiev has run away, his brother, co-owner of this business, has again been elected to parliament and granted immunity.

“Oleksandr Yefremov and biddings in Luhansk oblast. Journalistic investigations have proved that the family members of Yefremov, head of the Party of Regions’ faction in parliament, used to make hundreds of millions of hryvnias on bidding procedures at state-run coal mines in Luhansk oblast, ‘Yefremov’s patrimony.’ There are innumerable facts of the use of pressure and administrative resource there. After the revolution, Yefremov was free to attend parliamentary sessions. He was never called to account and has now vanished from the informational space. I’m afraid he was also allowed to run away quietly.

“We must break the political solidarity circle, when politicians (publicly, opponents) make under-the-rug deals and are granted immunity in case of a power change. Even Yanukovych was tougher to his political opponents – in one or two years after his coming to power, Tymoshenko was in prison and the former heads of Naftohaz (Didenko), the customs (Makarenko), deputy minister Ivashchenko, and many others were arrested. It seemed that the post-Maidan government would put inside all the henchmen of Yanukovych quickly and resolutely. Instead, not a single (!) case against the former top leadership of this country has gone to court.

“Secondly, the impoundment of accounts, assets, and property – and the subsequent return of them to the budget and utilization by the people – is a serious source of revenues for the Ukrainian government which complains of a difficult economic situation in the country. Bring back your loot from abroad and give it to the army, make hospitals out of the manors and palaces that the former high-placed officials erected at the expense of kickbacks and bribes! No steps like this have been taken so far.

“Thirdly, the fair and much-publicized investigations of big deals will have an edifying effect – we must eradicate the never-ending feeling of impunity for crimes in our politicians and officials.”

THOSE INVOLVED IN THE LIVELA AND “BOIKO’S RIGS” CASES ARE MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT

Maksym SAVCHUK, journalist, “Schemes,” a joint project of Radio Liberty and the First National Channel:

“Instead of helping to bring corrupt dealers to justice, the post-revolutionary authorities themselves are, as we can see, more and more bogging down into corruption scandals.

“The misdeeds, which investigating journalists exposed long ago and named all the participants, have not been brought to court for some reason. Volodymyr Zubyk, who was implicated in the Livela company case, is a member of parliament again. This company used to import fuel without customs clearance, and, as a result, the budget ran short of hundreds of millions of hryvnias. The Prosecutor General Yarema first (!) heard about this case from me two weeks ago. Nobody was interrogated, and the case was never investigated.

“There is also a shameful situation about the notorious ‘Boiko’s rigs.’ Meanwhile, Boiko is a step away from parliament and immunity. Boiko is only a witness in this case. And even if a charge is leveled against him, the Opposition Bloc will accuse the government of persecution. Therefore, this case seems to be a dead duck.”

Yurii BUTUSOV, editor, Tsenzor.Net:

“I don’t know a single case that was solved one way or another. All that I wrote about the state apparatus remains topical. You can look up Dzerkalo tyzhnia – none of its investigations led to convictions. Ukrspyrt is still litigating with me. Bandits and embezzlers are frittering away this sector.”

Artem SHEVCHENKO, journalist, Espreso TV:

“I think it is very important now for journalists to investigate the events that brought about and are occurring in the war [in eastern Ukraine]. For example, why were separatists, who were seizing administrative buildings, successfully put down in Kharkiv but not in Donetsk and Luhansk? Or take the gravest tragedies of this war: who is to blame for the downing of an IL 76 with Dnipropetrovsk paratroopers on board near the Luhansk airfield in June; why did the 51st Brigade stupidly suffered heavy losses near Volnovakha in mid-May; who is to blame for the Ilovaisk encirclement? It is extremely important to answer these questions. And our new weekly program on Espreso TV will try to do this.”