“Zelensky wants to become the only decision-making center”
Prosecutor General of Ukraine Irina Venediktova said that her department will investigate about 200 criminal proceedings against a certain large entrepreneur, whom she does not yet call “a rebel, a delinquent or an oligarch.” Despite the fact that the name was not named, it is obvious to everyone that we are talking about Rinat Akhmetov, whom Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky suspected of an attempted coup the day before.
Photo: ru.wikipedia.orgKomul.
According to Venediktova, 200 criminal proceedings are only the result of a superficial assessment of the situation. The Prosecutor General of Ukraine is convinced that if you dig around, you can find even more reasons to go to court. Presumably, we are talking about almost all of Akhmetov’s large enterprises in the coal industry and energy. The approximate amount of damage caused to the state is UAH 1 billion (about $36.59 million). Venediktova promised to take the most high-profile criminal cases under personal control.
“The general trend of investigating criminal proceedings in Ukraine suggests that most of the 200 cases that Venediktova told about will not reach court. Everything will depend on how real the imputed crimes are, how well the evidence is collected, whether there are any procedural violations. In general, to collect 200 criminal proceedings for a largeholding is not difficult. We are not talking about major crimes, but about all violations that have ever been recorded at any level – from district to all-Ukrainian. This may be a violation of safety regulations, sale of equipment, abuse of official position, and so on,” explains former press secretary of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Oleksiy Bebel to MK.
The head of the Ukrainian Politics Foundation, Konstantin Bondarenko, told MK that Zelensky’s team is trying to force Akhmetov to peace. “In particular, Venediktova is trying to organize as many threats as possible for the oligarch. But they look at it with an undisguised smile. Akhmetov has excellent lawyers, and it will be quite difficult to bring cases to a guilty verdict. Nevertheless, Zelensky is not burning bridges and is already conducting, or preparing to negotiate. Everyone understands perfectly well that their war will be waged until complete destruction, and in its course Ukraine can be destroyed. After all, Akhmetov is 30% of the Ukrainian economy.”
According to Bondarenko, Zelensky is trying to become the only decision-making center in Ukraine. “Everyone should act according to his rules. In fact, we are talking about building such a system, which Putin began to build in Russia in the early 2000s and Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus in the 1990s. We sing a song to the madness of the brave,” the political scientist noted.
Bondarenko reminds that Akhmetov is not just a person who moved from Donetsk to Kiev. “His lobbying connections in the United States are much stronger than Zelensky’s. For example, the President of Ukraine had to ask Akhmetov to arrange a meeting with Biden. In addition, Akhmetov finances the Atlantic Council, a powerful think tank in Eastern Europe and the entire post-Soviet space, which has a very strong influence on decision-making in the US State Department. Akhmetov is a major taxpayer in the United States, not to mention his connections in the UK and other countries,” says Bondarenko.
According to the expert, Zelensky is advised to do with Akhmetov the way Putin did with Khodorkovsky or Berezovsky at the time, but the Ukrainian oligarch took into account the experience of his Russian colleagues. However, the rest of the Ukrainian oligarchs have not yet intervened in this conflict, expecting that they will be swept through.
Ukrainian political analyst Alexey Yakubin believes that the Office of the President of Ukraine is constantly raising the stakes in the fight against Akhmetov. “Venediktova hinted that she could initiate hundreds of criminal cases against Akhmetov if he did not negotiate with Zelensky. At the same time, she mentioned the energy sector. As you know, in Ukraine 75% of energy generation is in private hands, and for the most partthe parts are in Akhmetov’s hands. Today, one of the most acute problems in the country is the shortage of coal for the winter, and the question arises: what did Akhmetov do to avoid this problem? Thus, the next step of Zelensky’s team may raise the issue of the introduction of a temporary administration at the energy facilities of the oligarch. In fact, it will be nationalization,” Yakubin told MK.