The appointment of Ruslan Kravchenko as Ukraine’s Prosecutor General coincided with intensified pressure on anti-corruption bodies and the emergence of the controversial draft law No 12414, under which the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) become dependent on the Prosecutor General’s decisions.

Source: Ukrainska Pravda article Who implemented the special operation to destroy the independence of Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies, and how?

Details: As reported by Ukrainska Pravda, 35-year-old Kravchenko was appointed at a time when the President’s Office already knew that Deputy Prime Minister for National Unity Oleksii Chernyshov was allegedly served with a notice of suspicion after searches conducted by NABU and SAPO in May.

Quote: "It was at the time when Chernyshov was already abroad and was not going to return that Kravchenko’s final meeting with the state leadership at the President’s Office took place.

The first project discussed with Kravchenko was… destruction of the independence of the anti-corruption system. ‘Think of how to do it,’ – in such a soft, but quite direct form was the task given to the youngest Prosecutor General in the history of Ukraine."

Details: Ukrainska Pravda sources name the head of the Office of the President, Andrii Yermak, as the initiator of this process. Data suggests that Kravchenko himself agreed during the meeting that he would “handle” the project proposed to him.

The sources reported that it was the Chernyshov case that could become a catalyst for actions on the part of the president’s apparatus. Sources familiar with the search materials say that personal photos with the president and his children were found on the minister’s phone. This fact, according to law enforcement officers, became an argument for determining the risks in the case.

On the day of Kravchenko’s appointment, sources in law enforcement agencies spread information that one of his first steps would be to transfer Chernyshov’s case from the jurisdiction of NABU to a body controlled by the President’s Office.

Kravchenko publicly denied this. But, as representatives of anti-corruption structures note, control over NABU and SAPO through a change in legislation could allow him to manage the case from within instead of trying to transfer it.

Ukrainska Pravda journalists also saw signs of possible political motivation in the case of Robert Horvat, MP from the Dovira (“Trust”) parliamentary group. As Ukrainska Pravda was told by SAPO, Horvat previously reached a deal with the investigation in the case of land acquisition in Zakarpattia Oblast (Transcarpathia). However, shortly after Kravchenko’s appointment, the MP refused to sign the agreement, saying that “Klymenko [head of SAPO – ed.] will soon be sacked.”

On 22 July, Horvat voted both for draft law No 12414 and for the appointment of Kravchenko. Ukrainska Pravda states that nine more MPs from Dovira did so with him. Sources in the Verkhovna Rada associate this with political agreements: loyalty in votes in exchange for influencing the course of investigations.

Despite the fact that Kravchenko publicly stated that he only learned about the new changes regarding NABU and SAPO from Telegram channels after the vote, sources in the anti-corruption community question this assertion.

Background:

On 21 July, employees of the Security Service of Ukraine and the Prosecutor General’s Office conducted approximately 80 searches targeting 19 employees of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau in various oblasts of Ukraine.The NABU detectives have been charged with treason, illegal trade with Russia, and corruption in the interests of oligarchs. Meanwhile, the State Bureau of Investigations has stepped up its efforts looking into materials on road accidents involving NABU employees that occurred several years ago.On 22 July, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) voted in favour of draft law No. 12414, making NABU and SAPO dependent on the decisions of the prosecutor general. Zelenskyy signed it into law that evening.The heads of NABU and SAPO urged President Volodymyr Zelenskyy not to sign draft law No. 12414, saying it would effectively destroy the independence of these institutions.Protests were held in many cities across Ukraine after the law was passed.After that, Zelenskyy pledged to submit a draft law to the Verkhovna Rada that will “empower the law enforcement system” and preserve “all provisions necessary for the independence of anti-corruption institutions”.

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