The appointments of Andriy Kostin as the new Chief of Public Prosecutor’s Office and Oleksander Klimenko as Head of Anti-Corruption Close the Crisis of a Department to Investigate War Crimes and Convince the EU of Government’s Transparency
In just twenty-four hours, the government of Volodímir Zelensky has reorganized its fiscal leadership, an important part of its organizational chart, injured since last week when the president fired the previous Attorney General, Irina Venediktova, for allegedly collaborating with Russia of dozens of employees of your department. The nomination of his successor, Andriy Kostin, approved by parliament on Wednesday, is now joined by the new head of the specialized anti-corruption bureau, Oleksander Klimenko, as reported this morning by the head of the presidential cabinet, Andriy Yermak. The two positions are essential in the midst of war to advance the investigation of war crimes. In addition, the election of Yermak is essential to meet the transparency and anti-corruption requirements imposed by the European Union to continue the process of Kyiv’s accession to the Community Area and the delivery of hundreds of millions of euros in aid.
“Kostin approved[Klimenko’s]appointment immediately after he was given access to the post of Attorney General,” Yermak said, before assuring the election was conducted by a “fair” vote by a majority of deputies. Zelensky’s adviser acknowledges that the prosecution has a “big mission” ahead of it, which is “to bring Russian criminals to justice”. An investigation led by Irina Venediktova to her surprising dismissal. At the age of 43, the former Attorney General became the first woman to hold the position in March 2020. Aiming at unraveling corruption crimes, the Russian invasion in February changed her office’s priorities and went on to lead war crimes documentation. Venediktova had become popular because she went from city to city in all conflict zones in Ukraine in search of testimonies and evidence to legally prove the human rights attacks by the Russian army. The lawyer and law professor collected some 15,000 cases, including murders, rapes, looting and torture, and announced in late May that her department had identified at least 80 war criminals.
Irina Venediktova was suddenly sacked from her post with the head of intelligence services (SBU), Ivan Bakanov, in a process Zelensky himself described as “self-purifying” to apparently fight the infiltration of “traitors” into his cabinet. The president assured that both had “inadequately performed their duties with the resulting cost of life” by failing to realize that more than 60 employees of their offices were “working against our state” from the areas invaded by Russia. According to Zelensky, members of the local security forces also had a relationship with the Kremlin’s spy service.
The new Attorney General, Andriy Kostin, studied law at the University of Odessa, one of the cities worst hit by Russian artillery. After graduating in 1995, he worked as a lawyer at various law firms. Politically, he has served as a deputy to the ruling party, Servant of the People, since 2019. Although he had once run for office to head the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, his nomination was barred, among other things, for violating the principle of political neutrality required by the position by being a member of the ruling party.
Oleksandr Klymenko, for his part, comes to this prosecutor’s office after a long career as an anti-corruption detective. He has investigated well-known cases in Europe, such as that of former Party of Regions politician Oleksandr Onishchenko, who left Ukraine in 2016 after he was accused of corruption and money laundering, or that of Roman Nasirov, head of the state tax administration who was arrested under a charge of embezzlement in 2017. The appointment of the new anti-corruption prosecutor reassures Volodímir Zelenski: the pressure over a complex as well as a target of interests had extended the race excessively, to the extremes of the EU, the United States and the G -7 last year handed over their unease about the delay in the nomination to the Ukrainian president.
Source: La Verdad
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