In 2016, the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko became involved in the world of scandal with “the Panama papers,” and first published by electronic Declaration shocked the whole country.
Segodnaya recalls five of the most resonant political scandals of the past year.
The resignation of the Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk and members of the Cabinet of Ministers
Arseniy Yatsenyuk and members of the Cabinet. Photo: O. Ivashchenko
16 February 2016 the Verkhovna Rada for several hours considered the report on the work at that time Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk and the Cabinet of Ministers. In the result, the deputies rejected the report of the government, and his work was recognized unsatisfactory. However, in order to send Yatsenyuk together with his subordinates to resign, votes in the session hall did.
And, despite the fact that on the eve of this report, President Petro Poroshenko asked the Cabinet to resign Yatsenyuk in his post stayed. However, to keep up to this point all his Cabinet, he has failed – in early February about wanting to leave, said the Minister of economic development aivaras Abromavicius. The reason for this, he called the intensification of blocking the system and important reforms in Ukraine.
Aivaras Abromavicius said about the resignation of the Minister of economic development. Video: Youtube/Today.ua
“It is not just the lack of support or political will – active actions designed to paralyze our reformatory work, – he said – I refuse to work in such a system. My team and I are ready to serve for the resumption of the old and creation of new schemes in the interests of certain political and business players.”
And the next day after a loud statement Abromavicius to resign changed his mind, the Minister of health in the Cabinet of Yatsenyuk is Alexander Kvitashvili, said the statement, written in the summer of 2015. Recall Kvitashvili decided to leave the post after numerous allegations of unsatisfactory work, however, the Parliament failed to dismiss him even with four attempts.
History of the Cabinet Yatsenyuk ended in April, when the traditional address to the Ukrainian people he declared that leaves the post of Prime Minister.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk said that resigns from the post of Prime Minister of Ukraine. Video: Youtube/Arseniy Yatsenyuk
“The political crisis in the country is artificial. The desire to change one person blinded politicians, and paralyzed their will to the process of change in the country”, – said Yatsenyuk, stressing that a new government should be a priority for Ukraine’s leadership.
In place of the Yatsenyuk government came to the Cabinet headed by ex-speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Groysman and the political force “Narodnyi Front” in the parliamentary coalition.
The scandal with Panamanian offshore companies
The President Of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. Photo: Mikhail Palinchak
On 3 April, the international consortium of investigative journalists at the same time in 80 countries and has published papers Panamanian law company Mossack Fonseca, which was engaged in registration of offshore companies. The so-called “Panama” documents received after the leak is 11.5 million internal documents of the company. These documents expose current and former heads of States, politicians and famous people in tax evasion, money laundering, and the avoidance of responsibility.
One of the defendants in the scandal was the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. According to journalists, it was founded by three offshore companies for asset management, including confectionery Corporation Roshen, but has not made this information on your assets Declaration. At the same time, Poroshenko and his advisers assure us that the offshore companies were not created with the purpose of tax evasion or any other obligations. According to the President, offshore in the British virgin Islands was a necessity for the transmission of “Roshen” in a blind trust to the Bank of Rothschild.
“Rothschild accepted the Ukrainian assets. Therefore, lawyers have prepared a special structure, which we have translated all assets publicly. And they put them in a blind trust, to be separated from my political action for while I’m President. This is absolutely normal practice. This is not to minimize taxes, not a secret or anything. And this is the main difference from all these political figures of the Panama list,” – said Petro Poroshenko.
In addition to Poroshenko in the published documents of the Panamanian firm Mossack&Fonseca, in particular, are: a son fled to Russia ex-Prime Minister Alexei Azarov, the son of automobile magnate Tariel Vasadze Vakhtang, ex-MP from the OU Alexander Klimenko (the namesake of fugitive ex-Minister of incomes and fees), the wife of Yury Ivanyushchenko, businessmen Dmitry Firtash, Garik Korogodsky, Andrey Palchevsky, the former head of “Naftogaz” during Tymoshenko, Oleh Dubyna, the mayor of Odessa, Trukhanov and the former head of AP Boris Lozhkin. Note that the communication with the offshore counterpart Boris Lozhkin refers to the period when he was actively engaged in business that was a common practice.
At the beginning of December was a report issued by the International consortium of investigative journalism (ICIJ), which stated that Ukraine was one of seven countries where the authorities are not conducting an investigation after the publication of “the Panama document”.
The political consequences of the publication “the Panama archive” led in Iceland, Armenia, Spain, Austria and Uruguay. So, after the publication of the materials the resignation of the Ministers, the heads of state banks and other senior government officials. In addition, the publication of these documents made it possible to return or arrest about $ 110 million in corrupt funds — nearly $ 90 million of them were arrested in Colombia, $ 20 million in Mexico.
Electronic Declaration
One of the most resonant events of 2016 become released e-Declaration. The people of Ukraine was shocked by the wealth of officials and politicians, millions of cash, luxury items, homes, cars, and acres of land.
Here, for example, MP a record for the amount of cash was the faction Vyacheslav Konstantinovsky. In the hands of the parliamentarian was $ 14.7 million, 6 million 778 thousand UAH and 500 thousand euros. The equivalent of the national currency is almost 395,5 million. Recall that Constantine owns with twin brother a chain of restaurants. Famous businessman that in 2014 sold his Rolls-Royce, 2.5 million UAH of the proceeds donated to a military operation in the East of Ukraine and volunteered to the Donbass.
No cost to register electronic declarations and no weirdness. For example, people’s Deputy from BPP Anatoly Matvienko as real estate pointed out the building of the temple of the Dormition of the Holy virgin in Vinnytsia region with an area of about 41 sq. m. His colleague in Parliament radical Andrey Lozovoy surprised his love of religious sites. He has declared a collection of 72 icons and the cross engolpion with the Holy relics of the XIII century (enkolpion is a small box in the shape of a cross, within which are kept the consecrated communion bread, or the relics of saints). In addition, he contributed to registry, collection of edged weapons of the XIX—XX centuries of the 32 units, as well as a few hours and furniture of the XIX century. Everything Lozovoy reported about 186 bottles of a rare wine.
See also: Apartments, cars and mountains of “cash”: declared that the first persons of Ukraine
A prominent collector and was Minister of internal Affairs Arsen Avakov. He owns a collection of copper, bronze, silver and gold coins (a total of 2 652 thousand pieces), a collection of paintings of the Ukrainian painter Vachagan Norazyan (11 pieces) and a collection of wine label Mouton-Rothschild from different years. Besides, the Avakov, together with his wife, owned more than hundreds of paintings and icons (including lithography and photogravure Pablo Picasso autographed) and a collection of wines from 760 bottles.
The mayor of the Dnieper Boris Filatov, besides the four vehicles, declared by the helicopter cost 800 thousand UAH. However, the highlight his Declaration was “ticket to space”, which cost 1.4 million.
The resignation of the Governor of Odessa region Mikheil Saakashvili
Mikheil Saakashvili. Photo: A. Vereshchagin
In November the ex-President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili during a press conference announced his resignation as head of the Odessa regional state administration. It was emotional – from the mouth of the official accusations against the Ukrainian authorities were flying right and left.
Mikheil Saakashvili resigned from the post of head of the Odessa regional state administration. Video: Youtube/FastViralShow
Overall, my decision to leave Saakashvili explained the inability to reform – in particular, the Governor reminded about the closure of the citizens service Centre in Odessa. This center unofficially considered his brainchild, however, according to Saakashvili, it was closed because of the law that prohibits such agencies to take money from the population, and which significantly reduced the range of services the centre and limited the possibilities of its financing. He stressed and e-Declaration that shortly before that rocked Ukraine.
“To be honest, for me the last straw was the electronic Declaration. When I see these insolent faces – no more words – which both here and throughout Ukraine declare brazenly that they have billions in cash only, and they get social assistance from the state, from those pensioners who just trembling hands to the last penny collected, to perish with hunger,” said Saakashvili.
However, saying the resignation, Saakashvili promised that politics will not go away – it is associated with the new batch of “Hvilya”.
Hope Savchenko
Hope Savchenko. Photo: O. Ivashchenko
After his release from a Russian prison aviatrix and MP, Nadiya Savchenko has embarked on political activities. However, in December she secretly visited Minsk, where he met with the leaders of the self-proclaimed “DNR” and “LNR”.
“What about the meeting in Minsk. Yes, a meeting was held in “Minsk trilateral format” with the presence of the Russian side and by the presence of Plotnitsky and Zakharchenko “DNR” and “LNR”. The meeting was intended to strengthen the “Minsk format” and make it more effective in the near future,” she said.
However, the press Secretary of the Ukrainian representative in the Tripartite contact group, second Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma Darka olifer said that this meeting was held outside the Minsk process.
A few days later in the broadcast Эспрессо.TV Savchenko said that it is wrong to call the leaders of the militants terrorists.
“For me, Zakharchenko and Carpentry are not terrorists. It is necessary to open the articles of war, rules of war and read what terrorism is. No, terrorists they are not. There is a well-defined set of notions of what is considered terrorism. There is a part of the separatists and part of the collaborators. There’s a part of the occupied population,” – said Savchenko.
After that, December 16, Savchenko was expelled from the faction “Fatherland” “for the activity incompatible with the programme guidelines and principles of the party and faction in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine”. The faction reminded that the 2014 parliamentary elections the party “Fatherland” brought Savchenko in the electoral list for her release from Russian captivity, but at the present time, the principles and political beliefs Savchenko and parties are not the same. Later it was excluded from the composition of the delegation of the Ukrainian Parliament in the parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). Now Savchenko intends to lead a new political force RUNE “movement of the Ukrainian people”.
