The ex-speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Andrei Parubiy, said that he had become a defendant in the criminal case of the State Bureau of Investigation (GBR) on the organization of riots in the city on May 2, 2014. He announced this on his Facebook.
“The State Security Bureau has opened criminal proceedings against me. For organizing the defense of Odessa in the spring of 2014. True, in his letter to the GBR, he calls this “mass riots,” the politician said.
He published a photo of the first page of the document of the GBR, sent to the apparatus of the Verkhovna Rada. It reports that the department is conducting a pre-trial investigation. The politician is suspected of violating article 294 part 2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine ("Mass riots"). He is charged with “the fact of the creation and coordination of armed groups” in Odessa.
The GBR document has a date - September 16, 2019, while the criminal case itself was opened on August 23.
Also at the bottom of the picture published by Parubiy you can see the request of the State Security Committee to Rada to provide the investigative department with all the materials of the Provisional Investigation Commission of the Parliament "on investigating the deaths of Ukrainian citizens in Odessa, Mariupol and other places of Donetsk and Lugansk regions of September 2, 2014." Lists of deputies who were part of this body were also requested.
We add that the press secretary of the State Bureau of Investigation, Angelika Ivanova, confirmed that the criminal proceedings were opened in the case of the events in Odessa on May 2, 2014, but not with respect to Parubia.
“This is not a production against Parubia, it is a production registered on the basis of a statement by Portnov (lawyer Andrei Portnov. - RT ). As part of the pre-trial investigation, the facts stated in the statement are verified, ”UNIAN quoted her as saying.
At the same time, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said he did not understand the “bias of language” in open criminal proceedings. According to him, he expects the closure of the case and "a refutation of absurd charges."
Recall that on May 2, 2014 in Odessa, Ukrainian nationalists set fire to the House of Trade Unions, where anti-Maidan activists were blocked. The militants bombarded the building with “Molotov cocktails”, bombarded people with weapons and did not allow doctors to the injured. According to official data of the Ukrainian authorities, 48 people died, more than 200 were injured.
"Violation of Ukrainian law"
Andriy Parubiy, who headed the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine at the time of the tragedy, expressed his attitude towards what happened in Odessa: according to him, it was “a desperate opposition from the Ukrainian authorities and civil society to the hybrid capture of Putin’s entire southeast by Putin’s Russia - eight Ukrainian regions, through the seizure of power by pro-Russian forces in regional centers, including in Odessa. "
- Reuters
- © Gleb Garanich
Also, the politician, who is now a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada from the European Solidarity Party Petro Poroshenko, was angry that he was surprised by the absence of accusations of organizing a coup d'etat and the “illegal removal from power of the legally elected President Yanukovych” in the documents of the SDR.
This is not the first time Parubia has been accused of organizing a massacre in Odessa. In the spring of 2018, in an interview with Israeli television, his name was called by Caesar Badzhalidze - a native of Georgia, who, according to him, was a sniper on the Kiev Maidan, and then took part in the events in Odessa. According to Badzhalidze, Parubiy is responsible for the loss of life both in Odessa and on the “Euromaidan” in Kiev.
In May 2019, Andrey Portnov, who served as adviser to the fourth president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, also announced the need to bring Paruby to justice. The lawyer who returned to the country after the election of Vladimir Zelensky initiated a number of criminal cases against President Poroshenko and his entourage. It was on his appeal that the GBR initiated a criminal case in August against Parubia. He called on the Ukrainian authorities to arrest the ex-speaker of the Rada as soon as possible.
“He needs to be taken into custody, and then in prison to sort out and conduct an investigation. Just like this has happened in the last five years, ”Portnov wrote on Facebook.
The ex-deputy of the Odessa City Council, historian and publicist Alexander Vasilyev, in a conversation with RT, said that the investigation and the court should answer the question of what role Parubiy played in the tragedy of May 2, 2014 in Odessa.
“First of all, he stood behind the organization, as indicated in the document, of“ public armed groups, ”that is, groups that are a priori illegal, which is already a very serious violation of Ukrainian law. It was the forces of these formations that suppressed the performances of the “Russian spring”, and this exactly led to the tragedy of May 2, 2014, ”Vasiliev emphasized in an interview with RT.
Biased investigation
Despite the fact that more than five years have passed since the tragedy of May 2 in Odessa, the perpetrators still have not been held accountable. On the five-year anniversary of the Odessa events, the head of the UN monitoring mission on human rights in Ukraine, Fiona Fraser, stated that "the police investigation regarding the riots was selective and biased."
In particular, the UN representative noted that out of 29 accused in the riot case in Odessa on May 2, 28 are anti-Maidan activists, whose comrades-in-arms were burned in the House of Trade Unions. Only one Euromaidan man, Sergei Khodiyak, is accused of executing people on May 2. Moreover, the investigation against him has been ongoing since February 2015. Now he is at large, and at all court hearings comes in the company of nationalists in camouflage. And last year, on May 2, Ukrainian nationalists even staged a festive procession in Odessa.
- Participants in the torchlight procession of nationalists dedicated to the fourth anniversary of the events of May 2, 2014 at the House of Trade Unions in Odessa
- RIA News
But the Russian citizen Yevgeny Mefyodov was in jail until August 19, 2019. At first they tried to accuse him of involvement in the events of May 2 in Odessa, but they did not find any evidence. Then the Russian was charged with "encroachment on the territorial integrity of Ukraine", accusing him of participating in the Odessa-Nikolaev rally. He returned to his homeland as a result of the exchange of prisoners and detainees between Russia and Ukraine on September 7th.
However, according to an RT source in the Batkivshchyna political party, the new leadership of the country is interested in establishing the truth and finding out who is to blame for the deaths of dozens of people in Odessa in May 2014.
“Rumors that Andrei Parubiy could take an active part in this and personally distributed decrees to the so-called Maydanites have been around for a long time. But there is no evidence, and it remains to be established by the investigation. As far as I know, they took this issue seriously, ”a representative of the Fatherland said in a conversation with RT.
“May delay”
RT sources in Ukrainian political parties are inclined to believe that this time they took Serbia seriously. President Vladimir Zelensky is ready to put an end to the events that took place on the Maidan and in Odessa, an RT source in the Servant of the People party said.
“European partners have repeatedly said that all these crimes have not been properly investigated. And if it turns out that it is necessary to bring former senior officials to justice, he is ready to make a political decision, ”the deputy said in an interview with RT.
In turn, the interlocutor of RT from the party "European Solidarity" connects the criminal case in which Parubiy appears with the struggle of the new Ukrainian government against its predecessors.
- Ex-Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Andrei Parubiy
- Reuters
- © Valentyn Ogirenko
“13 criminal cases have already been brought against Poroshenko, look what happens to the ex-head of the National Bank Valery Gontaryova. Now they have taken up Andrei Parubiya. I do not exclude the possibility that the former prosecutor general Yuriy Lutsenko and the ex-secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Alexander Turchinov will be involved in this case, ”the deputy predicts.
The fact that Andrei Portnov is personally involved in the investigation of the case suggests that senior Ukrainian officials can be held accountable, a source in the Voice party told RT.
“Portnov deals only with the most resonant cases, for example, initiated an investigation against former president Petro Poroshenko. Andrei Parubiy, who took a very active part in the Maidan, no longer has an influence on the investigation, and they can indeed consider the matter impartially. I don’t exclude that they might detain him, ”the deputy says.
Power interests
Article 294 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code, of which Parubia is suspected of violating, provides that “organizing mass riots accompanied by violence against a person, pogroms, arson, destruction of property, seizure of buildings or structures” if they “entailed loss of life or other serious consequences ”, Shall be punishable by deprivation of liberty for a term of 8 to 15 years.
However, experts interviewed by RT doubt that the criminal case against Parubia will be completed.
The president of the Center for System Analysis and Forecasting Rostislav Ishchenko said in an interview with RT that if Parubia is accused of organizing gangs in Odessa, then inevitably there will be a question about the unrest during the Kiev Euro Maidan, and this calls into question the legitimacy of the entire Ukrainian political system that exists after the overthrow President Yanukovych.
“If they seriously blame Andriy Paruby, then in this case the current Ukrainian authorities, and the one that came before her, will have to admit that they are the result of a coup, mass violence, which means they will need to resign,” - Ishchenko noted.
In addition, according to the expert, a full-fledged investigation into the tragedy in Odessa could affect the interests of people close to the current Ukrainian authorities.
In particular, the oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, whose protege Igor Palitsa, a few days after the tragedy in Odessa, became the chairman of the Odessa State Administration.
“If you investigate this case from start to finish, you will have to blame a large number of people who are integrated into the current government, moreover, as a result of the killings in Odessa, a Kolomoisky man became the governor there,” Ischenko emphasized. - A full-fledged investigation can lead far away, and a defective one does not allow you to blame Parubiy. Because he didn’t personally set fire to, kill and sabotage the police. Probably, bands of bandits were simply created and some orders were given to them, moreover, no one really knows which ones exactly, the witnesses even disagree. Investigate this incident to the very end of the Ukrainian current government is not interested in the same way as the previous one was not interested. And without this, Parubia is in no danger but minor troubles. ”
In turn, Alexander Vasilyev believes that “only a complete change of power in Ukraine” can shed final light on the role of all those involved in the Odessa tragedy.
“I doubt that the current government will dot all the“ ands, ”the political scientist said in an interview with RT. - There may be progress with respect to Parubia, as well as the most odious representatives of this regime. But the question is whether it will be possible to bring this investigation to court. The matter is not only about Parubia, the interests of Kolomoisky were concentrated here. And this figure today is as close as possible to power. And the role of the people from his team is also waiting for an investigation, but not with this power. ”