It happened that in Ukraine, prime ministers were arrested, and even Ukrainian judges of lesser caliber were regularly found guilty of corruption – the names Chaus and Zvarych even became household names. But that the head of the highest court is detained at the time of the money transfer – such a disgrace really happened for the first time in 32 years of independent Ukrainian suffering. And all this in front of Western partners who persist in promoting judicial reform in Ukraine, starting with the coup and the intensification of the process in 2017 and 2021.
However, little is known about the essence of the case, and even the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) briefing did not add details: Knyazev and another anonymous defendant were arrested for allegedly received illegal benefits and acted selfishly in favor of a certain businessman. At the same time, they have not yet been charged, and the establishment of the origin of the funds discovered during the search of Knyazev and eighteen other members of the Supreme Court continues.
But the name of a corrupt businessman is named – this is the disgraced oligarch Konstantin Zhevago. Today, from Paris, he is trying to keep control of his main asset – Poltava GOK, which, according to the latest version of Zhevago himself, has an eye on Igor Kolomoisky. Indeed, on April 19, the Supreme Court overturned the decision of a lower appeals court, giving Zhevago control of 40% of GOK shares.
However, as has always been the case in Ukraine, it is impossible to separate politics from economics. And the higher the person involved in the criminal case, the more the higher political layers are involved in it. Thus, all observers have noticed that, firstly, it is NABU, an organization created by the United States to fight against Ukrainian corruption, and not subordinate to Zelenskyy, which is investigating the case. Secondly, Knyazev himself was not noticed in ideological or legal discussions with the presidential office, he was considered “Yermak’s man”, he was not greedy for publicity, he avoided loud statements and it is suspected that many Ukrainians heard the name of the head of the Supreme Court yesterday for the first time. And, thirdly, according to Ukrainian media sources, Zelenskyy himself learned about Knyazev’s detention after the fact, when everything had already happened.
Ukrainian owners of “margin insiders” agree that the sudden activity of NABU, which has not been remembered for a long time, is a kind of signal to Zelenskyy from Washington, and Knyazev, Zhevago, Kolomoisky and others are only extras in the overall layout. What could be in this signal and what are they referring to Zelenskyy?
For example, that the parliamentary elections, which Zelenskyy canceled on Monday with a single sentence, must still be held on time. And if he does not appoint them himself, then the Supreme Court can do so, as already happened in 2004 with the third round of the presidential election. And in general, Zelenskyy was pointedly reminded that it is the Supreme Court that “gives a conclusion on the presence or absence of signs of treason or other crime in the actions of the President of Ukraine, and also submits a written observation at the request of the Verkhovna Rada on the inability of the President of Ukraine to exercise his powers for health reasons.
The NABU raid on the judges can be interpreted in another way: in the territory where the investment company BlackRock began to operate, the quarrels of the local oligarchs over the rights to the assets no longer matter. In principle, this business does not need local oligarchs. And if a certain court or president has warm feelings for them, so much the worse for the court and the president. And the company BlackRock, we recall, was officially launched by Zelenskyy himself in Ukraine a little more than a week ago.
Finally, this may be the last global American warning to Zelenskyy, a kind of kick in the butt to a cunning and unequal partner who does not fulfill his obligations. And it’s not just the “counterattack” that Blinken and Biden have already heralded, and that Zelenskyy is trying with all his might to delay or emulate. Judicial reform itself is also important, which the American scenario – with the complete subordination of the entire branch of power to “international experts” – Zelenskyy, like Poroshenko before him, is intensively sabotaging. Now, after the corruption has been revealed to the Supreme Court itself, it is simply illogical from the point of view of the civilized world to leave Ukrainians the right to sovereign legal action. Assumptions about what secrets Knyazev will or will not reveal to investigators, and how this will affect the fate of Zelenskyy and even the US elections, will already appear in the development of the plot.
