Last Friday I reported about a fight between the Zelenski regime on the one side and some oligarchs and U.S. aligned non-government-organizations on the other side.
An intense information operation has been launched to remove Ukraine's (former) President Vladimir Zelenski from office. Behind it are a cabal of Ukrainian opposition figures in coordination which western media and parts of the Trump administration.
The current campaign follows a earlier one which was directed against Zelenski's main advisor and head of the office of the president Andrei Yermak.
Pieces in western media had attacked the Zelenski regime with accusations that it was seeking control over the independent anti-corruption institutions which had been established after the Maidan coup. Anti-corruption investigation had lately been moving in on some persons near to Zelenski himself.
Excursus:
In most countries one will find on vertical judicial construct in the form of the police doing criminal investigations, prosecutors directing the police while building court cases against perpetrators and a hierarchy of courts to judge about those.
After the U.S. directed Maidan coup in 2014 the U.S. government, in form of then Vice-President Joe Biden, set out to gain complete control over Ukraine.
It insisted on creating a second, completely separate legal vertical in Ukraine focused solely corruption.
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The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) investigates cases of corruption especially of officials in higher position. The Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Office (SAPO) assembled cases to go to court. The High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine is judging over them.
The vertical was designed to be independent of the Ukrainian government and state. A special Civil Oversight Council – not the parliament - is nominally in control of it. But the effective control was always with the U.S. embassy in Kiev through the various anti-corruption NGOs and media it was financing in Ukraine.
In 2020 the Constitutional Court of Ukraine judged that much of Ukraine's 2014 anti-corruption reform and the new vertical formed through it were unconstitutional. This led to a constitutional crisis which is still unresolved.
Over time the anti-corruption vertical had turned out to be as corrupt as the politicians and high level officials it was designed to keep under control.
End-excursus
Zelenski's opposition was using the anti-corruption complex, the attached NGOs and media to keep some pressure on the government.
Last week's public-relation attack by the opposition against Zelenski, via the Financial Times and other media, was supposed to gain it support from U.S. and European governments. However throughout the weekend no western support in form of public statements etc was received.
The Zelenski regime interpreted this as a green light to take down the last institution in Ukraine which is not under its direct control.
On Monday it launched its all out assault:
Ukraine's independent anti-corruption institutions have had a rough Monday.
The Prosecutor General's Office, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), and the State Investigation Bureau conducted at least 70 searches in premises connected to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), which investigates top-level corruption.
The opened probes target at least 15 NABU employees. Most of the cases involve traffic accidents, while some of the NABU employees are also accused of having links to Russia.
The Security Service also searched the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO), which prosecutes corruption.
The sweeping searches, which involve a variety of cases, are seen as an attempt by authorities to bring independent anti-corruption institutions under government control.
"The special operation has all signs of an attempt to dismantle the anti-corruption infrastructure," Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, told the Kyiv Independent. "We are witnessing a decade of anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine being dismantled. This is a 180-degree turn away from European integration."
The Anti-Corruption Action Center's head, Vitaliy Shabunin, was himself charged on July 11 with evading military service and fraud.
Today the Ukrainian parliament voted to put the whole 'independent' anti-corruption complex under direct government control:
Ukraine’s parliament has backed a push by Kyiv’s presidential office for greater control over the country’s independent anti-corruption bodies, in a move that critics warn would hand President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s circle more influence over investigations.
Lawmakers voted on Tuesday in favour of legislation that would, in effect, eliminate the independence of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (Nabu) and its partner organisation the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (Sapo), according to four lawmakers and officials familiar who spoke with the Financial Times during the vote.
The parliament also voted in favour of rushing the law to the president for his signature.
The NABU and SAPO are now under the control of the Prosecutor General who is appointed directly by the president.
These powers include authority over Sapo, access to case files and the ability to reassign or redirect Nabu investigations, NABU said on Tuesday.
Several MPs from opposition parties, including the former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, spoke in favour of the legislation, according to lawmakers. Tymoshenko accused Ukraine’s western partners of trying to control Kyiv through Nabu and Sapo.
The blitz against the anti-corruption organizations (accusations and searches on Monday, new law dismantling them on Tuesday) by the Zelenski regime was designed to surprise those who might have an interest in keeping some independent institutions in Ukraine. It is now too late to oppose it.
It also prevents NABU and SAPO from bringing up cases of corruption against Zelenski's operators as well as against the president himself.