The non-faction people's deputy of Ukraine Andriy Derkach made a series of audio recordings during the press conference, presumably with the participation of former head of state Petro Poroshenko and two representatives of the US presidential administration Barack Obama - vice president Joe Biden and secretary of state John Kerry.

“We will unveil recordings of telephone conversations with voices similar to those of Petro Poroshenko and Joseph Biden, testifying to the facts of international corruption and state treason at the highest state level,” Derkach said at the beginning of the press conference.

According to him, the recordings of conversations that took place from the end of 2015 and throughout 2016 were received from “investigative journalists”, and the recordings themselves, according to them, were made personally by the fifth president of Ukraine. Derkach stressed that these audio recordings testify to "the manual control of Ukraine in the personal interests of Biden at the hands of Poroshenko and members of the supervisory boards of state enterprises."

“We handed over all the hours-long records we have at our disposal, together with a statement about high treason, as well as facts of international corruption to the office of the prosecutor general to register criminal proceedings,” the Ukrainian people's deputy stressed, calling one of the records “a direct fact of external management.”

In addition, he said that Verkhovna Rada Speaker Dmitry Razumkov is blocking the creation of a temporary parliamentary commission of inquiry to investigate international corruption.

“If, after this press conference, Razumkov doesn’t bring a vote for the commission into the room, we will sue him. You can’t hide a corruption piano in the bushes, especially if it’s a whole corruption orchestra named after Poroshenko-Biden. The external governance of the state must be stopped, ”Derkach said.

Audio recordings

To begin with, a recording of the conversation on December 3, 2015 with the participation of Kerry and Poroshenko was demonstrated. During it, Kerry, who served as head of the Department of State, asks the Ukrainian leader to resolve the issue of replacing Attorney General Viktor Shokin. Recall he conducted an investigation into the corruption schemes of the oil and gas company Burisma, whose board of directors included Joe Biden's son Hunter.

On the next record, held on February 16, 2016, a personal conversation between Poroshenko and Biden is already taking place. During it, the President of Ukraine reported that he had completed the second step to comply with the obligations undertaken. So, the head of state said that, “despite the absence of any allegations of corruption and data regarding any illegal actions” by Shokin, he specifically asked him to resign.

Biden reacted positively to this step, saying: "Excellent."

  • Joe Biden
  • Reuters
  • © Valentyn Ogirenko

During the next audio recording, Biden spoke about the final terms for providing Ukraine with $ 1 billion in cash.

“In case you have a new government and a new attorney general, I will be ready to publicly sign obligations of one billion dollars,” said a man whose voice resembles Biden.

In response, Poroshenko emphasized that this was “very strong motivation” and he would propose Yury Lutsenko, the leader of his faction, to this post, and also exclude the possibility that any “politically motivated candidate” would occupy this position.

Then in May, two conversations took place, during which Poroshenko, in particular, informed Biden that he had raised utility tariffs by 100%, while the International Monetary Fund demanded only 75%.

He also asked that “some particular person from Washington or another country” be attached to Yury Lutsenko, already appointed to the post of Prosecutor General of Ukraine, who will become an adviser for that.

In addition, Poroshenko and Biden during the conversation touched on several more topics. In particular, the Ukrainian president was asked to nationalize Privatbank before Donald Trump comes to power in the United States.

“The decision-making center on the future of the country is not in Ukraine”

A RT source in the Batkivshchyna party expressed doubt that the published records would turn into serious problems for Petro Poroshenko, since the current president of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, would not risk going against a man who received Western support.

“In any country other than Ukraine, such films would cause a huge scandal and become the subject of a thorough investigation. But not in Ukraine. The authorities are not embarrassed to say that you need to accept a land tax or sell the plant in order to get an IMF loan. At the same time, the US launched an investigation against oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, who was trying to influence Zelensky. Apparently, he did not take into account the example of another oligarch Dmitry Firtash, who is sitting in Austria. The decision-making center on the future of the country is not located in Ukraine and the local elites were reminded of this, ”the party representative explained.

In turn, the party “Voice” believe that the publication of films will affect Joe Biden’s position in the race for the presidency of the United States. 

“All Ukraine knew that Poroshenko did not act in the interests of his country. And nothing. There are no protests, even the angry statements of politicians are few. Only a few try to urge society to realize what is happening. This suggests that the films did not show anything new - the Ukrainian elites have long known about the external management. Many oligarchs and businessmen are now more worried about their future, and the future of the country does not concern them at all. This causes fear, because now it will be impossible to get rid of external control. Apparently, Ukraine has such a fate, ”the source said.

As political analyst Ivan Mezuho noted, the publication of audio recordings with the participation of senior officials of Ukraine and the United States confirms that Kiev from 2014 to 2019 was influenced by the West.

“This information may well get an active discussion in the American media and bring Biden to the dock. In many respects, this will depend on whether such materials will be published further and how the Trump team will respond to this information event. In general, Poroshenko himself formed the corruption vertical of power in Ukraine, and the assumption that he personally can be tied up by some corruption schemes, including with foreign politicians, has the right to life, ”the expert said in an interview with RT.

According to Grigory Yarygin, associate professor at the Department of American Studies at St. Petersburg State University, the appearance of such incriminating data in the US pre-election period was expected.

“Obviously, the factor of Burisma and the activities of Biden’s son in Ukraine will not leave the agenda of the attack on this candidate until the very moment of the election. This will be one of the directions through which Trump will put pressure on Biden. For Americans, corruption allegations, if they have at least some reason, are a serious political vulnerability. When such accusations appear, many politicians immediately leave the election campaign, ”the source said.