The Solomensky court of Kiev ordered the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) to institute criminal proceedings against the director of the State Bureau of Investigation (GBR) Roman Truba. This is stated in the materials of the instance. A high-ranking official was convicted of violating article 342 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which provides for punishment for failure to comply with a court decision.
In particular, Pipe is suspected of having refused to open criminal proceedings at the request of the court. It is also indicated that the director of NABU Artyom Sytnik did not enter the relevant information into the Unified Register of Judicial Investigations. In this regard, the plaintiff (his identity is not disclosed in the materials. - RT ) asked the court to oblige the NABU to begin criminal proceedings against the Pipe.
Since June 2019, a criminal case, which is supervised by the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine, has also been investigated against the Director of the State Duma. The official is suspected of non-compliance with the decision of the Kiev District Administrative Court and other “illegal activities”.
"Provoking an interagency struggle"
The State Bureau of Investigation is a new body in the law enforcement system of Ukraine. The agency was established on February 29, 2016, but its formation took about a year and a half. On November 22, 2017, the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed a decree on the appointment of Roman Pipe as the director of the GDB.
The bureau received the functions of the institute of pre-trial investigation, which previously had the General Prosecutor's Office. Such an approach, as stated on the GDB website, “is the standard of an objective and impartial investigation.” The immediate duties of the department’s employees include the suppression and investigation of crimes committed by senior officials.
- Head of the RBG Roman Truba
- © dbr.gov.ua
So, the GDB has the right to initiate proceedings against the president, his advisers and assistants, the head of the cabinet, ministers, people's deputies, the prosecutor general, the chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine, the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, judges, law enforcement officials and colleagues from NABU.
Currently, the State Security Bureau has opened 11 criminal proceedings, which featured ex-president Petro Poroshenko and other dignitaries. True, Attorney General Yuriy Lutsenko claims that the former head of state passes through all the proceedings only as a witness. However, on August 12, the ex-president’s lawyer specified that his client has witness status in only three cases.
The former head of Ukraine several times came for interrogation at the State Security Bureau, but refused to test a lie detector. Poroshenko denies his guilt and claims that the state bureau acts in the interests of the former deputy head of the administration Viktor Yanukovych - lawyer Andrei Portnov - after the appeal of which a number of criminal cases were actually initiated.
A RT source in the European Solidarity party (formerly Petro Poroshenko Bloc. - RT ) believes that the GDB is allegedly under pressure to prosecute Poroshenko. In his opinion, the requirement of the Solomensky court to institute proceedings against the director of the state bureau can serve as evidence of this.
“Roman Truba will either put Poroshenko, or he will be imprisoned,” the source said.
In turn, the director of the GDB claims that his department acts exclusively within the framework of the law. At the end of July, in his Telegram channel, Pipe wrote that Poroshenko had adopted "a strange tactic of information protection."
According to the official, the ex-president is trying to delegitimize the investigation. For example, Poroshenko calls investigators' questions “stupid” and denies the status of a defendant in criminal cases.
“Black will not turn white, even if you confidently declare it,” Poroshenko commented on Pipe behavior.
At the same time, an RT source at the Popular Front believes that the ex-president or his close associates influenced the Kiev Solomensky court. As a result, the court ordered the NABU to institute criminal proceedings against the head of the State Security Committee, who had previously been considered "Poroshenko’s man." The RT interlocutor recalled that it was the ex-president who appointed Pipe the director of the State Bureau of Investigation and is now extremely dissatisfied with his "treason".
“One of the options for saving Poroshenko is to provoke an interagency struggle in Ukraine. As far as I know, NABU does not want to quarrel with the GDB, but Poroshenko is beneficial for the security forces to quarrel among themselves. Mutual proceedings discredit the investigation. And the ex-president hopes that the case against him will begin to crumble, ”the source in the People’s Front explained.
In a RT commentary, the director of the Ukrainian Institute for Analysis and Policy Management, Ruslan Bortnik, noted that Poroshenko retained a serious influence on the judicial and law enforcement systems of Ukraine. According to him, the "appointees" of the ex-president continue to work in the power block, courts and state authorities.
“The decision of the Solomensky court needs to be thoroughly understood. But more often than not, criminal cases brought by lawsuit are used for information pressure and information discrediting of one or another person. In this case, it’s, apparently, Roman Truba, ”Bortnik emphasized.
"Fighters against corruption do not get along with each other"
According to a RT source at NABU, the chaos that reigned in the law enforcement system of Ukraine could prevent the investigation of cases against Poroshenko and his “accomplices”. In recent years, new anti-corruption agencies and departments have appeared in the country, but coordination between them is still not established, which creates conflict situations.
“NABU is authorized to deal with corruption in the highest authorities, including at the level of the presidential administration and the government. But these functions, in fact, duplicates GBR. Bureau employees can not only conduct investigations against high-ranking officials, but also prosecute detectives of anti-corruption bodies, including NABU, ”the source said.
- NABU staff
- © nabu.gov.ua
In turn, Ruslan Bortnik also drew attention to the lack in Ukraine of a systematic approach to combating the abuse of elite representatives. According to his calculations, a total of eight agencies are engaged in anti-corruption activities: the State Security Bureau, the NABU, the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, the General Prosecutor's Office, the Military Prosecutor's Office, the National Police, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Security Service of Ukraine.
“So far, only the corrupt themselves have won the fight against corruption. A huge amount of money is spent on the maintenance of such bodies. According to various estimates, from 3 billion to 10 billion hryvnia annually. At the same time, corruption fighters clearly do not get along with each other. We have already seen the conflict between NABU and the prosecutor general’s office, and then the special anti-corruption prosecutor’s office, ”Bortnik emphasized.
In an interview with RT, the president of the Center for System Analysis and Forecasting Rostislav Ishchenko stressed that the current situation in the law enforcement system of Ukraine is a consequence of US influence. In particular, under the "supervision" of American specialists, the formation of the NABU and the GDB took place. The latter was supposed to be an analogue of the overseas FBI.
“All new anti-corruption bodies were created at the request of the United States, which hoped in this way to control the Ukrainian elite. But the Americans miscalculated. People at the helm of Ukraine of politicians, as well as oligarchs, entered the anti-corruption departments. Law enforcement agencies have become a tool for sharing power and solving mercenary political problems, ”summed Ishchenko.