Taras Kuzio’s Blog

The Ukrainian Elites Continue to Believe That They Are Above the Law

The failure of parliament to vote for Yulia Tymoshenko as Prime Minister through the inability of two deputies to vote because of interference in parliament’s technical equipment will not lead to criminal charges against Party of Regions deputies. Why? Because Ukraine’s elites continue – as they have since Ukraine became an independent state in 1992 – to regard themselves as above the rule of law.

It is not unusual for the president to undermine his own policies. The president in granting state medals to former Prosecutor Mykhailo Potebenko, former Central Election Commission Chairman Sergei Kivalov and the head of the Party of Regions 2007 election campaign Borys Kolesnikov undermined his submission of Tymoshenko’s candidacy to parliament. Ukraine’s elites can openly break the law – as in parliament on Tuesday – without fearing any criminal responsibility (and not only because they possess parliamentary immunity).
A major failing in the presidents three years in office has been his inability to deepen the rule of law in Ukraine. His choice of three prosecutors, including Sviatoslav Piskun on two occasions, are testimony to the presidents inability to improve the rule of law.

Not only was immunity given to former President Leonid Kuchma but to his entire entourage while this was act was crowned by their full rehabilitation through state medals, joint presidential-oligarch community projects and the signing of memorandums and universals. Even former BYuT and Our Ukraine deputy and Justice Minister Serhiy Holovatiy was convinced enough of the Kuchma camps alleged respectability for him to join the Party of Regions.

The organizers of the murder of Georgi Gongadze were either permitted to flee Ukraine, commit double ‘suicide’ or write books in retirement. Meanwhile, the organizers of the presidents own poisoning remain a mystery. Volodymyr Shcherban returned from exile in the USA in autumn 2006 after deciding that he was more likely to be criminally charged in that country than in Ukraine. He was of course absolutely right as only three members of Ukraine’s elites have ever been criminally charged and all abroad.

While senior elites remain above the law Ukrainian citizens continue to feel the wrath of the law. In the Gongadze trial it is lower ranking Militiamen who are being sentenced in a (to the presidents apparent surprise) a closed trial. Although the Supreme Court ruled in December 2004 against massive election fraud only those forced to undertake such actions out of fear of losing their jobs have been sentenced.

On each occasion when we have been told that criminal charges may be pending towards Ukrainian elites (whether Shcherban, Vasyl Tsushko and Party of Regions deputies in parliament on Tuesday) we roll up our eyes with disbelief as we know nothing will happen. We should not be surprised that no charges will again be forthcoming.

If you wish to understand who lies behind Tuesday’s technical problems in Ukraine’s parliament you only need to recall similar interference in the Central Election Commission’s server in the 2004 elections. Perhaps the same organizers are behind both events. Rehabilitating Kivalov gives the green light to those who interfered with his server to continue to undertake such actions with impunity.

For the rule of law to be strengthened in Ukraine the Tymoshenko government should fulfill Yushchenko’s 2004 election manifesto (and that of the Orange Revolution) of ‘Bandits to Prison’. This unfulfilled election promise can then be removed from the president’s shoulders.