Ukraine moves to defang US-backed anti-corruption agency

Opponents say move is boldest in series of recent steps to centralise power around President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Ukraine’s parliament on Tuesday approved legislation that would effectively strip independence from the National Anticorruption Bureau, which was established in 2015 under pressure from the US and other Western countries. Picture: AFP

Three years into the war with Russia, Ukraine’s government has moved to hamstring the country’s anti-corruption agency, the most dramatic in a series of recent steps that opponents say are aimed at concentrating power around Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and silencing critics of his administration.

Ukraine’s parliament on Tuesday approved legislation that would effectively strip independence from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, known as NABU, which was established in 2015 under pressure from the US and other Western countries.

Under the proposed law, Ukraine’s prosecutor general — who is appointed by the president — would be handed sweeping powers over NABU and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor. Zelensky, whose party controls parliament, must sign the law before it can take effect.

“What’s happening is the demolition of the anti-corruption infrastructure in Ukraine,” said Daria Kaleniuk, co-founder of the nongovernmental Anticorruption Action Center, who helped establish NABU, after the 2014 revolution toppled a pro-Russian leader. She added that, in recent months, the US seems to have dropped its emphasis on anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine, which has freed the government’s hand to defang NABU.

Zelensky’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment on Tuesday, nor did his Servant of the People party.

The attack on anti-corruption institutions risks undermining Western support for Ukraine, which has been essential in its fight against the Russian invasion and its goal of one day joining the European Union. Ambassadors from the Group of Seven countries in Kyiv said after meeting with officials from the anti-corruption office on Tuesday that they “have serious concerns and intend to discuss these developments with government leaders.”

Zelensky ascended to the presidency in 2019 on an anti-corruption platform. But as the war has ground on, he has drawn growing fire at home and abroad for what critics say is a heavy-handed approach to political threats. Earlier this year, former president Petro Poroshenko, Zelensky’s run-off opponent in 2019 and a continuing critic of the president, had his assets frozen and was banned from leaving the country by Ukraine’s security services.

The proposed law is the latest move against anti-corruption institutions and activists in Ukraine. Earlier this month, Vitaliy Shabunin, a co-founder of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, was charged with fraud and evading military service. Shabunin has said the charges are bogus, and other activists warned that they were designed to send a message: Those who investigate corruption in Zelensky’s office will be punished.

Then on Monday, investigators conducted a series of searches in relation to at least 15 NABU employees. The Security Service of Ukraine announced that it had detained Ruslan Maghamedrasulov, the head of one of the NABU’s detective units, for conducting business in Russia.

The setting up of independent anti-corruption offices was one of the centrepieces of Ukraine’s judicial reforms, which are critical to Ukraine’s bid to join the EU. Picture: Andrew Medichini / AFP

Most of the staffers are being investigated for traffic accidents, NABU said. At a press conference on Tuesday, Semen Kryvonos, NABU’s director, said that the proposed law had been pushed, in part, by officials who were being actively investigated by his agency.

“This pressure campaign is a direct response to the effectiveness of our investigations, including those targeting high-ranking officials and members of parliament,” Kryvonos said. “This decision endangers not only the functioning of anti-corruption institutions but also Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations.”

The setting up of independent anti-corruption offices was one of the centrepieces of Ukraine’s judicial reforms, seen as critical to efforts to improve the rule of law in the country. Those reform efforts are critical to Ukraine’s bid to join the EU.

“These institutions are crucial to Ukraine’s reform agenda and must operate in an independent way to fight corruption and maintain public trust,” said a spokesman for the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, about the arrests. “Ukraine’s accession will require a strong capacity to combat corruption and to ensure institutional resilience.”

NABU was originally established at the behest of Western allies, who were preparing to lend billions to prop up Ukraine’s new government in 2014 but wanted to know the funds wouldn’t end up in officials’ pockets. The agency was launched in 2015 with technical support from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It soon made waves, detaining high-profile targets.

Anti-corruption activists say that the crackdown on NABU was likely a reaction to the agency’s investigation of Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov. In June, NABU filed a motion to suspend Chernyshov from office.

Earlier this month, Zelensky’s cabinet refused to approved Oleksandr Tsyvinsky, a detective with NABU, as head of the Economic Security Bureau, which investigates economic crimes. Tsyvinsky had been independently selected, and rejecting him was against the law, Kaleniuk said. She said there was little public response from the West, which signalled to Zelensky that he could go further.

The passage of the proposed law on Tuesday led to a public outcry across Ukraine. Opposition party officials complained that it hadn’t been passed according to proper procedure and tried unsuccessfully to block the podium during the vote. After it passed, many Ukrainians began denouncing it on social media, in an effort to persuade Zelensky not to sign it.

Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv and a frequent critic of Zelensky, said the proposed law “definitely does not bring it closer to democracy, the rule of law and legality — to those values for which our soldiers are dying today.” The authors, he added, were “dragging Ukraine into authoritarianism.”

Wall Street Journal