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Bric-a-Brac



Presidential spokeswoman Yulia Mendel (above) pushing journalist Serhiy Andrushko from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service. She also pushed RFE/RL's Kyiv correspondent Christopher Miller on September 13. The Ukraine Union of Journalists has demanded a public apology and her promise to not put her hands on any more members of the media. She reminds me of a conniving person like Trump aide Kellyanne Conway. I think she also needs to go. It is becoming apparent that Zelenskyy has not surrounded himself with the best people.
 
Zelensky has appointed Oksana Blazhyvska to the High Council of Justice. She is the daughter of a top prosecutor who worked for Viktor Pshonk, who served as Prosecutor General for ex-President Viktor Yanukovych. Blazhyvska has violated professional ethics and integrity standards and asset declaration rules, according to the AutoMaidan anti-corruption watchdog, the Anti-Corruption Action Center, the DEJURE legal think tank and Transparency International Ukraine. Her sister, Natalia Blazhyvska, also got a career boost from her discredited father and is currently a justice of the Supreme Court.

Oksana Blazhyvska’s assets do not match her income, according to an investigation by AutoMaidan’s PROSUD judiciary oversight project. This tells us that she is hiding assets, or not declaring known assets.

Zelenskyy missed the mark here by appointing a person of dubious ethical standards. He should have appointed Judge Larysa Golnyk, a ferocious judicial reformer.

Two other candidates for the High Council of Justice have been identified by several anti-corruption watchdogs as not meeting integrity standards. Anzhelika Krusyan, a former prosecutor, has links to Serhiy Kivalov, a former ally of Yanukovych. She is a top executive at Kivalov’s Odesa Legal Academy, and her assets do not match her income, according to anti-corruption watchdogs. Another candidate, Judge Mykhailo Kobal, has issued questionable rulings, including those in favor of Yanukovych’s Education Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk. The High Council of Justice has found that he violated procedural norms.

Another fail by Zelenskyy.
 
The Ukraine SBI (State Bureau of Investigation) has opened criminal proceedings into the alleged abuse of power by former Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko.

Lutsenko has been named in a preliminary conspiracy with a number of former MPs (Members of Parliament) and other persons that promoted the illegal gambling business.

Lutsenko is the former chief prosecutor who was being courted by Rudy Guiliani to dig up dirt on the Bidens.

Yesterday Lutsenko left Ukraine for the United Kingdom for a month and a half “to take English lessons.”

I told y'all that Lutsenko was corrupt and dirty.
 
Had a nice conversation with a MP (Member of Parliament) from the majority Servant of the People's Party about how they organize legislation etc. In Ukraine’s mixed electoral system, half of all Members of Parliament are elected by the plurality/majoritarian voting system and the other half are elected through the proportional representation system. The majoritarians are more autonomous and can even withdraw from the party, unlike their counterparts. Being so large (254 MPs) the hierarchy has apportioned 15 Groups of 15-20 MPs under a "Group Leader". This Group Leader is in daily communication with his/her 15-20 MPs via a Group Chat Room in WhatsApp. Information flows both down and up. Group Leaders also help MPs to hire assistants and craft legislation. Only 50 MPs of SOTP bloc are authorized to speak with the media, appear on TV/radio shows etc. Every week, Servant of the People holds a large party meeting. Special guests typically include the President, the Prime Minister, Cabinet ministers and members of the Presidential Office. Andriy Bohdan, head of the Presidential Office is always present. "Button-pushing" is strictly prohibited in the SOTP bloc and a law will be passed soon to legally forbid this practice. Button-pushing means voting for legislation by pushing the appropriate button (yes/no/abstain) of a missing MP in the next seat or seats.


Examples of "button pushing" during the previous convocation (8th) of the Verkhovna Rada.

Initially, SOTP party MPs followed the program without question. Especially the less independent proportional representatives. It was feared by some that this convocation of the Verkhovna Rada would become a presidential rubber-stamp parliament like what exists in Russia. Recently however, the majoritarian MPs have found a spine and are actually reading and considering legislation before voting on it. MPs recently voted down legislation crafted by the Presidents Office that would have allowed an investigation into a MP to continue virtually indefinitely.
 
According the the The Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture, Ukraine plans to finalize a list of 800 enterprises available for privatization in the near future.

The Verkhovna Rada passed the law No.1054-1 which allows the privatization of all enterprises in this sector except for strategic ones.
 



One of the cases in which former Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko dragged his feet. The murder of Kherson political activist Kateryna Handziuk who was attacked with sulfuric acid on 31 July 2018 and died from her injuries on 4 November 2018. The Deputy Mayor of Kherson was eventually arrested as a part of the five person murder conspiracy.
 


In Independence Square, Kyiv, thousands joined a protest rally today against the Steinmeier Formula and potential concessions to Russia on the Donbas conflict resolution.

Although his poll popularity still hovers around 72%, I'm beginning to think that President Zelenskyy is losing a good proportion of Ukrainian citizens on his Donbas peace initiative because he has not explained to the people what he is doing, in what chronological order, and what are his "red-lines". What he probably should do is hold a well-publicized and televised town-hall to speak to the nation and then field questions from citizens and media alike. This issue could split Ukrainian society and initiate another Maidan revolution if it is not resolved. Poroshenko is already harping on this publicly.
 

It also turns out that as a former official in the corrupt government of pro-Russia and convicted of treason president Viktor Yanukovych, Bohdan should not be legally able to again hold a government position due to the Lustration Law (no pro-Russia officials can hold public office in Ukraine). Zelenskyy/Bohdan have temporarily maneuvered around this by creating a new high government office not listed in the Lustration Law. Zelenskyy passed over a Supreme Court candidate (Larysa Holnyk) who brought this to the public's attention. It seems that Bohdan has also paid a visit with the Supreme Court candidate that was selected by Zelenskyy. By coincidence (not at all), the SC will hear arguments on whether the 2014 Lustration Law is constitutional.
 
278 MP's in Parliament passed bill No. 0906 which changes some military ranks to conform to NATO standards. The bill also authorizes changing the name of regiment to brigade and accordingly, the regiment commander will now be the brigade commander. As of today, there are the following army ranks of ordinary, sergeant and petty officers: common soldier; senior soldier; junior sergeant; sergeant; foreman; warrant officer; senior warrant officer. The bill changes these ranks into recruit; soldier; senior soldier; junior sergeant; sergeant; senior sergeant; first sergeant; staff sergeant; master sergeant; senior master sergeant; and chief master sergeant. It is also proposed to change naval ranks: there will be no more midshipmen, but there will be chief foreman, master foreman, senior master foreman, and chief master foreman. To date Ukraine has changed 600 items in the military to be NATO compliant.

 
When I was staying in Kyiv, it was in a pretty nice neighborhood. So I endeavored one day to find the "rough side of town". Kyiv is subdivided into distinct neighborhoods. Walking down the street I asked a number of people I passed where such a place could be, the dangerous section of Kyiv? Many people mentioned Troieshchyna, a large neighborhood of Kyiv located on the city's northern left-bank. So I boarded a trolley bus and off I went. Disembarking, I looked around. Large apartment buildings with lots of green space. About 5 young teens were walking towards me so I said hello and inquired where could I find the Gopnik's (a slang derogatory term used to describe a street punk) in Troieshchyna. They had a good laugh and explained there are really no Gopnik's here. We walked for a bit talking and kicking it (they didn't meet many Americans) and said I could probably find Gopnik's in the neighboring Borshchahivka neighborhood. Back on the trolley bus and in no time was deposited in the Borshchahivka neighborhood. This looked very middle class with nice buildings and inviting parks. I asked an elderly walking couple where the dangerous part of Borshchahivka might be. They looked at me like I was from Mars and she said that there are no dangerous places in Borshchahivka. Okay. I kept walking and came across about four middle age housewives gathered around a fenced-off big hole in the sidewalk shooting the ****. Obviously, something below the sidewalk had to be repaired, probably a broken pipe. I asked them about dangerous places in Borshchahivka. They laughed and said the most dangerous place is right here ... this open pit. We laughed and off I went across the street into a park. Very busy. People grilling and having picnics. I stopped at a group of about ten young people roasting marshmallows and asked the question. Voila! About half of the ten here could speak English. The most dangerous place in Borshchahivka? There is no dangerous place here, you might want to try neighboring Troieshchyna. Waving goodbye I said Spasibo and started the journey back to my upscale neighborhood.

Don't get me wrong. Bad things can and do happen in Kyiv just like everywhere else. But there are no "bad neighborhoods". Things might be different in other cities. I know in Odesa there are certain areas (I wouldn't call them seedy) with gambling houses, strip joints and brothels, but the city (and local crime bosses) watch very closely because they don't want foreign tourists and sailors (Odesa is a port city) afraid to visit such establishments to spend money and enjoy themselves.
 
 
 
Rogue Valley said:
Show us in the 2014 and 2019 elections which Ukraine voting districts were won by far-right candidates.

I'll give you until tomorrow morning and then I'll post the data.
Click to expand...

As promised .....



The 2014 election above. The solitary yellow-dot to the left-edge (near Poland) is the only district in all of Ukraine that voted for the far-right/nationalist candidate Oleh Tyahnybok.
One of his assistants sat in Parliament until 2016 and then resigned. This seat remained vacant until the 2019 election.




The 2019 election above. Anatoliy Hrytsenko (Gritsenko) failed to capture any voting districts. Oleh Lyashko (who served 4 years in prison for embezzlement) lost his parliamentary seat.

Now it's your turn. Kindly show us the Nazis/Bandara's/far-right/nationalists in the Ukraine government.
 

Song Mocking Ex-Central Bank Chief Sparks Outrage In Ukraine

This looks terrible for Zelenskyy as it should. His television production company Kvartal 95 comedian Yevhen Koshoviy and the famed Hryhoriy Veryovka Folk Choir sang a traditional Ukrainian folk song (The Flaming Pine Is Burning) with the words changed to mock the burning down of former National Bank head Valeria Hontareva's home in Kyiv a few months ago . Hontareva nationalized PrivatBank in 2016 due to an audit that could not account for a missing $5.5 billion. The bank belonged to oligarch and Zelenskyy friend Igor Kolomoisky who is trying to get it back through the courts. A Molotov Cocktail ignited the home of Hontareva and at almost the same time she was struck by a hit and run driver in London (never apprehended).

The directer of the Hryhoriy Veryovka Folk Choir, Zenoviy Korinets, said he regrets the participation of the Choir. It is things like this that are beginning to change the perception of Ukrainians towards Zelenskyy. This has every appearance that Zelenskyy is in bed with oligarchs and has sent that message to foreign investors who are complaining. Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk is trying to walk-back the damage done here.
 
Head of President's Office Andriy Bohdan met with ambassadors of the G7 countries, at which the PO representatives for the 1st time unambiguously stated that there were no grounds for the return of the state-owned PrivatBank to its former shareholders. This is in addition to the pressure from the IMF.
 


G7 Ambassadors giving Zelenskyy Chief of Staff Andrey Bohdan (right) an ultimatum per PrivatBank.
 
Rogue Valley said:


G7 Ambassadors giving Zelenskyy Chief of Staff Andrey Bohdan (right) an ultimatum per PrivatBank.
Click to expand...

No Grounds To Return PrivatBank To Ex-Owners, Ukrainian President Says




Ukraine oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskiy, the previous owner of PrivatBank, also owns the television network that aired president Zelenskyy's hit television show "Servant of the People". After winning the election, Zelenskyy appointed many employees of his TV production company, Kvartal 95, to high positions within his government. Many of these individuals also worked closely (or previously) with Kolomoyskiy's television network. Zelenskyy's Chief of Staff, Andrei Bohdan, was once Kolomoyskiy's top lawyer. Thanks to investigative reporting, it came to light that high officials in Zelenskyy's government, including Andrei Bohdan, were secretly negotiating with Kolomoyskiy on a pay-off figure so PrivatBank could be returned to Kolomoyskiy. If the past is any indicator, this pay-off would be pennies on the dollar. The scheme was exposed in newspapers and the IMF (which is Ukraine's main lender) said uh uh. That isn't going to happen. Yesterday officials from the G7 also warned the Zelenskyy government that the old way of corruption in Ukraine has to end, now.

Today we get the headline above. Zelenskyy has apparently received the message loud and clear. Kolomoyskiy is going to be pissed his pal can't/won't deliver.
 


A protest poster depicting Zelenskyy and Bohdan as subordinate to the oligarch Kolomoisky.
 

The Dnipro Hotel in the city of Dnipro (1,000,506). For sale.

The state of Ukraine is going ahead with privatization. The first five state-owned enterprises are up for sale - Dnipro Hotel, SE Chaika, SE Centerservice, Technobud and the Ukrainian Telecommunication Networks. The market will determine their price. Western investors are encouraged to submit bids. Russians are disallowed. 500 state-owned enterprises will be on the market by the end of the year. In all 1,000 state-owned enterprises will be put on the open market in the next 2-3 years. Another 1,260 will be either merged or liquidated. Of the original 3,600, the state will maintain ownership of 1,340 enterprises.
 
On October 25-26 president Zelenskyy secretly flew to the government held part of the town of Zolote (Gold) in Luhansk oblast. The town of 14,000 is split roughly in half, with some positions only 100 meters apart. Zelenskyy ostensibly came here to ask the residents what they thought of an initiative whereby both sides would pull back at least a mile from the town. What this was instead was a propaganda opportunity. Zelenskyy was filmed almost nonstop during his stay in Zolote, but no one on his team let the opposition to disengagement know that he was coming, so the video (released in Ukraine) is one-sided. But Zelenskyy did take the opportunity to try and bully about a dozen military veterans of the right-leaning Azov battalion that had come to Zolote over a month ago in protest of the proposed disengagement here. This did not go well. The veterans insisted that the Russians cannot be trusted, and Zelenskyy pulled weight and rank on them. This part of the video wasn't well received across Ukraine as people thought Zelenskyy should be more polite to military veterans. The citizens of Zolote who oppose disengagement also complained that they were not notified that the president was coming to their town.

I think Zelenskyy needs to be very careful here. His campaign promise does not have more gravitas than political and military realities. Even Ukrainians (a majority) in favor of an end to the war insist that peace is desired, but not capitulation.
 

Andriy Portnov vs. Schemes

Former Ukrainian parliamentarian Andriy Portnov (above) is threatening to dox journalists from the anti-corruption outlet Schemes. He has already doxed one of the outlet's drivers on Telegram, releasing personal information. Portnov formerly served as chief of staff to President Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted from power and fled to Russia in February 2014. Schemes is investigating corruption by Portnov during that period and extending into his time as MP.
 

(foreground) SBU investigators and (background) Kateryna Gandziuk.

Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) will be investigating possible police misconduct/cover-up regarding the horrific murder of Kherson activist Kateryna Gandziuk last year which shocked the entire nation. The SBU has identified a number of individuals who might have been involved in ordering the murder and promised to give updates on the investigation. Gandziuk was an anti-corruption activist and a whistle-blowing Kherson municipal official who worked as an adviser to the mayor of Kherson (290,000), a city located 550 kilometers south of Kyiv. She was attacked with sulfuric acid at the age of 33 in her hometown of Kherson in July 2018 and died three agonizing months later in a Kyiv hospital. The SBU took over the neglect case on Oct. 30, stating that the officers who led the investigation for the first three months after the attack could have neglected their duty. Gandziuk refused to cooperate with Kherson police, suspecting they could be connected to the attack, but testified to Kyiv investigators. Law enforcement managed to bring those who carried out the attack to court in June, and five former volunteer Ukrainian military fighters received jail sentences between three to six and a half years. However, the authorities haven’t found those who ordered the murder. A top suspect is Vladyslav Manger, a powerful Kherson Oblast official. The SBU officials say they are investigating Gandziuk’s murder in five criminal proceedings.

SBU investigates police neglect in Gandziuk murder
 

Iryna Stepanivna Lutsenko

The wife of former Ukraine Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has resigned her seat in parliament for health reasons. Lutsenko, is the former Ukraine prosecutor who tried to save his job by lying to Rudy Giuliani concerning Joe and Hunter Biden. He was fired by new president Volodmyr Zelenskyy anyway and has recanted his fabrications about the Bidens. Lutsenko is currently in London (beyond the reach of Ukrainian law enforcement) supposedly taking English lessons.
 


Something I thought I would never see. Odesa mayor Gennady Trukhanov (above) has been indicted for asset declaration violations. The Primorsky Court of Odesa has transferred the case to the Supreme Anticorruption Court in Kyiv. Every year in Ukraine, elected officials must declare their assets in a comprehensive declaration. This includes everything of value. Not only the politicians assets must be declared, but also for the spouse, the children, and any other relative/person holding property for the elected official. According to the indictment, Trukhanov did not declare an apartment, two parking spaces, a boathouse, a dacha, uninhabited real estate, two cars, as well as shares in companies and interest on deposits in banks. The total amount of undeclared assets in the form of property and other assets exceeds UAH 50 million. It is well known that Trukhanov is corrupt and it was revealed in the Panama Papers that he has offshore accounts. It is also rumored that he has a secret Russian passport just in case he has to get out of Dodge in a hurry.
 

Ukraine Launches Probe Into Ex-Lawmaker Who Threatened, Released Data On RFE/RL Staff


Portnov is trying to dissuade Schemes from investigating the corruption and criminality (including his part) of the Viktor Yanukovych regime.

Investigate and if enough evidence is gathered, fully prosecute this slime-ball.
 
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