On Tuesday, March 17, at an emergency meeting of the Verkhovna Rada, the Acting Director of the State Bureau of Investigation (GBR), Irina Venediktova, was approved as the Prosecutor General of Ukraine. 269 ​​people's deputies voted for her candidacy, 38 against.

At the same time, before the vote, she said that, in particular, the case against the former president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko will not be dismissed.

“Everything that can be quickly and legally completed will be quickly and legally completed. And then the investigator as an independent person will move completely independently. But move, ”she said.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) opened a case on the fact of political persecution of ex-president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. The lawyers of the oligarch and the head of the European Solidarity party Ilya Novikov and Igor Golovan told journalists about this.

According to them, the NABU will study, among other materials, the recordings of conversations of the ex-director of the State Bureau of Investigation, Roman Pipes, published last year. It follows from them that a number of criminal cases initiated by the department were initiated by third parties.

As Poroshenko’s advocates noted, a statement regarding the Pipe and other workers of the RRG was filed back in the summer of 2019. Lawyers are sure that investigators of the State Security Bureau “actually followed the instructions, the tasks for the political prosecution of Petro Poroshenko, which they were assigned."

  • NABU building
  • © Wikimedia commons / Mr.Rosewater

“People who abused their influence” and should be held accountable, Novikov said.

His colleague Igor Golovan added that government agencies had not previously been enthusiastic in the investigation of this case. In his opinion, this suggests that the "political persecution" of Petro Poroshenko was allegedly organized with the participation of "high government offices", including the office of the current president.

Eternal Defendant

The defense of the former head of state also announced Poroshenko’s “political persecution” in January 2020, commenting on the filing of 14 claims with the Supreme Court of Ukraine for compensation for moral damage for “unlawful inaction” of the investigating authorities.

Poroshenko himself calls the criminal cases launched against him, “the return of political repression” of the time of Viktor Yanukovych. This statement was made by the politician at the end of February before the interrogation held in the GDB.

The ex-president was then called to the bureau of investigation to interrogate in a criminal case on interference with the judicial system. According to lawyer Andrei Portnov, that day Petro Poroshenko could have been given suspicion of involvement in the crime and a preventive measure was chosen. At the same time, referring to sources in the prosecutor’s office, Portnov said that the then prosecutor general, Ruslan Ryaboshapka, had instructed to block the prosecution of Poroshenko. The ex-president did not really receive the status of a suspect following the interrogation and left the GBR.

  • High Council of Justice of Ukraine
  • © hcj.gov.ua

At the same time, draft resolutions on the suspicion and deprivation of parliamentary immunity of Poroshenko were sent to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine in November 2019. This was stated on the website of the GDB. According to the agency, the relevant documents were prepared as part of the pre-trial investigation, which was conducted regarding the possible unlawful influence on the competition for the selection of candidates for the High Council of Justice in March - May 2019. The maximum punishment that the ex-president could face if his guilt was established would be up to five years in prison.

This is not the only criminal case in which Poroshenko appears. According to the decision of the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court, in January 2020, a pre-trial investigation was launched into the appropriation and embezzlement of property, as well as the seizure of property through official abuse.

In total, Petro Poroshenko is a defendant in more than ten criminal cases, but not one of them has been presented with a decision to bring him as a suspect. Also, the question is not raised about the removal of the parliamentary immunity from the politician.

According to the director of the Kiev Center for Political Studies and Conflictology, Mikhail Pogrebinsky, Poroshenko’s transition from witness status to suspect status is not so much a procedural matter as a political issue.

“It depends on the political will of President Vladimir Zelensky. Poroshenko can easily stand trial as a defendant in a number of articles, ”the expert said in an interview with RT.

Pipe Case

Records of the negotiations of the ex-head of the GDB, referred to by the Poroshenko defense, were published on the Internet in November 2019. Back in September, Roman Truba announced that professional listening equipment had been discovered in his office. However, then his department was not able to find out exactly who could establish the “wiretap”. As Trump himself suggested, surveillance could have been linked to investigations of major politicians.

  • Ex-head of the Ukrainian GBR Roman Truba
  • globallookpress.com
  • © Danil Shamkin

A scandal erupted in Ukrainian political circles after the publication of audio recordings, since it followed from them that the investigations into Poroshenko were under the personal control of Andrei Bogdan, then head of the Zelensky office. In addition, in one of the entries, the head of state himself set a number of tasks to initiate investigations before the head of the State Security Committee.

Although the former head of Zelensky’s office appears in the notes, experts doubt that this will negatively affect the current head of state. According to the deputy director of the Institute of CIS countries, Vladimir Zharikhin, the name of the current president of Ukraine will not appear in the framework of the investigation initiated by NABU on the "political persecution" Poroshenko.

“First of all, numerous assumptions will not allow even Bogdan to make serious claims, since his participation is proved only on the basis of unfounded statements from an illegally made audio recording. It has not yet been established that this was the voice of Roman Trumpet. As an element of information warfare, these records can be used, but nothing more. And it is possible that these records were completely falsified, ”the expert said in an interview with RT.

Pogrebinsky adheres to a similar point of view . According to him, there are no grounds for accusing Zelensky of pressure on the GDB.

On December 28, 2019, Roman Truba was dismissed by decree of the President of Ukraine. Irina Venediktova, a lawyer and member of the Party of the People’s Party, was appointed acting head of the GDB, and transferred to the post of Prosecutor General on April 17, 2020.

In February 2020, NABU opened a case against Pipe. The investigation concerns scandalous audio recordings: we are talking about a possible crime under Article 369-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (abuse of influence).

At the same time, there is no reliable evidence of the authenticity of the records, except for the examination carried out by the organization Forensic science services, referred to by Petro Poroshenko's lawyers.

"The place in prison"

A RT source in Petro Poroshenko’s European Solidarity party suggested that all criminal investigations involving a politician were initially doomed to failure.

“Lawyers of Petro Poroshenko use all possible methods to close criminal cases against the fifth president of the country. Given that the current head of state, Vladimir Zelensky, has completely distanced himself from this issue, they have every chance to achieve their goals, ”the representative of European Solidarity said.

  • Vladimir Zelensky
  • Reuters
  • © Valentyn Ogirenko

The opposite point of view is shared by Mikhail Pogrebinsky.

“Poroshenko will not be able to nullify criminal cases and make himself a victim of political repression. He repeatedly stated that he was allegedly the victim of political repression and revenge. But this is not so, of course. The criminal cases of which he is involved are not connected with revenge, but with real crimes, ”the expert is sure.

A similar point of view adheres to the source RT in the party "Voice".

“The environment of Poroshenko believes that they will be able to prove the custom-made nature of the persecution of the fifth president. But I would not be so optimistic. The case, of course, was initiated, but this does not mean at all that it will be brought to an end. So far, it’s like a PR move and Poroshenko’s attempt to justify himself for everything that they suspect him of, ”the source said.

Pogrebinsky also did not rule out that the western patrons of Poroshenko could influence the decision of NABU.

“Some circles in the West are interested in retaining Poroshenko as a player in Ukraine. And NABU is associated with American political circles, primarily with the Democratic Party. Poroshenko takes advantage of this, ”the expert explained.

A similar opinion is shared by Zharikhin, according to whom Poroshenko managed to obtain guarantees of immunity from the United States, which is why he decided to stay in Ukraine after losing the election.

“Now Poroshenko is trying to make himself a victim of political repression, but the population of Ukraine is unlikely to believe him. In fact, public opinion in Ukraine believes that it is his place in prison, and Zelensky owes much of his popularity to promises to hold Poroshenko accountable, ”the expert summed up.