Following 17
days of 24/7 protests outside the Odessa Regional Prosecutor’s
Office, eventually the Acting Prosecutor General dismissed Nikolai Stoyanov
from the role of Odessa Regional Prosecutor to which he had illegally been
appointed.
That it took 17 days for the Acting Prosecutor General to count the number
of days that Mr Stoyanov had held senior office during the Yanukovych years and
was thus barred from public office under the “Lustration Law” is of course
neither believable not acceptable, particularly when Mr Stoyanov appears on the
Justice Ministry list of “the lustrated”.
Indeed, as the Prosecutor General’s Office circled
its wagons, it took President Poroshenko to directly intervene and request the Acting
Prosecutor General abide by the law – eventually resulting in the dismissal
from post of Mr Stayanov a few days ago. Perhaps the forthcoming Prosecutor
General Lutsenko would have acted without presidential interjection – perhaps not.
Regardless, the outcome is a victory for the protesters and the rule
of law – eventually. A clear defeat for some vested interests.
This battle between the local constituency and the law against certain
vested interests has played out against the backdrop of the Panama Papers and Mayor
Trukhanov’s name appearing therein.
Mayor Trukhanov
As stated on the day the Panama Papers were published – “Mayor
Trukhanov will have a far more difficult task in explaining away the data
leaked that surrounds him than President Poroshenko will. Therefore it is
unlikely that Mayor Trukhanov will try to explain it away and will simply carry
on regardless as none of what has been released changes the existing
perceptions about him – despite the revelations surrounding him being (prima
facie) a red rag to the Governor Saakashvili bull.
For Mayor Trukhanov the question will be whether
previously bottled criminal investigation genies can or will remain bottled –
or indeed whether new investigations now begin.
There is also the issue of how to mitigate the
“Vichy” perception of a Mayor whose Russian passport details, and thus
citizenship, are no longer something known only to the few but were a commonly
a belief of the masses, and have become commonly known to the masses.
Neither nationalists nor patriots are likely to let that matter drop.”
As predicted, the Mayor’s reaction follows the usual pattern of those with
skeletons in the closet, or perhaps a different (some would say more
appropriate) idiom, a reaction that does not want any buried bodies disturbing
by those who now believe they know where they are hidden.
Following the classic Homo Sovieticus protocol, at first the issue was
simply ignored – but it did”t go away.
It was then denied in a very short and terse statements – but it didn’t go
away.
Thereafter the predictable production of a certificate from the Russian
Consulate in Odessa duly stating that Gennady Trukhanov was not a Russian
citizen – but the issue didn’t go away.
In fact such a swiftly produced certificate from the Russian Consulate only
added fuel to the rumour that Mayor Trukhanov has extremely close relations
with the Russian FSB.
To be blunt, which 1990’s underworld figures that have survived and
flourished didn’t have close relations with the Secret Services of both Russia
and/or Ukraine? It was, and remains, a very smudged line between organised
crime and the security services to put matters charitably/diplomatically.
That the Russian Security Services would have an interest in a
relationship with a senior underworld, and subsequent political figure in a
major transit hub is a given. Especially so when the elite of the
criminal underworld of Odessa have solid ties to those of Russia.
The production of the certificate from the Russian Consulate then brought
forth further leaks of documents reinforcing the claims that Mayor Turkhanov
holds Russian citizenship.
This issue has still not gone away, and as stated on the day the Panama
Papers were released, the 20 or so offshore companies, the inferred large scale
tax avoidance, and mafia linkage disclosed/inferred – all of which were already
known by some, or held as solid belief to be the case among much of the local
constituency anyway – would be far less of a problem than the documents
corroborating the known by some, and widely and strongly held belief among the
constituency, that he held Russian citizenship.
There was no societal shock at the contents of any of the disclosures.
The issue at hand is not only that of rule of law when it comes to dual
nationality forbidden by Ukraine, but also that of perceived loyalties.
“There is also the issue of how to mitigate the
“Vichy” perception of a Mayor whose Russian passport details, and thus citizenship,
are no longer something known only to the few but were a commonly a belief of
the masses, and have become commonly known to the masses. Neither
nationalists nor patriots are likely to let that matter drop.”
To be blunt, organised crime generally has only one loyalty – to its
business’ ability to make money regardless of how, who with or where. It
comes a little more difficult when a person allegedly involved in nefarious
matters become high profile and powerful politicians when supposedly holding
the passport of a nation fighting a war against the State in which they hold
office.
Lo, it has come to pass, having defeated the schemes and plotting of the
Prosecutor General’s Office in Odessa, the protesters eye has now turned to
Mayor Trukhanov. The protesters have already been outside City Hall for a
few days.
Petitions to the President to remove Mayor Trukhanov are already collecting
thousands of signatures – 25,000 being the required target to force
Presidential consideration.
Amazingly the SBU claims to have carried out a thorough and diligent
investigation into Mayor Trukhanov’s alleged Russian citizenship and has
declared that such citizenship does not exist. This in a matter of days
when the SBU has yet to carry out a thorough and diligent investigation into
2nd May 2014 tragedy in Odessa, numerous clearly illegal high profile property
acts, and obvious high level corruption within Odessa.
Needless to say under such circumstances the SBU “investigation” and
proclaimed outcome has been met with derision, skepticism and cynicism in equal
measure.
If the SBU, Mayor Trukhanov, or those in Kyiv thought a swift (rather than
diligent) inquiry would placate the protesters or draw a line under the issue
they were mistaken.
It may be that the documents are forgeries/fakes. If so, who forged
them and why? Were forged documents created to simply cast aspersions
upon the character of Gennady Trukhanov? To what end when the documents
create no shock within the local constituency, and thus societal reaction was
difficult to predict?
Were they perhaps forged and used to open the 20 something offshore
companies by persons unknown in Mayor Trukhanov’s name without his knowledge or
consent? It would be a brave soul indeed to engage in such an endeavour.
Were they perhaps forged and used by Mr Turkhanov to open the 20 something
offshore companies?
Perhaps they are simply genuine? Readers will have to answer such
questions for themselves (or not), for only experts would know when in
possession of the actual documents.
Mayor Trukhanov, in sticking to Homo Sovieticus handbook clearly has need
of a diversion. “Ignore” as a tactic has failed. “Deny” as a tactic
has failed. “Diversion” is the next step in escalation.
The question is what diversion and/or toward whom? Whom or what else
is loathed in Odessa that would be a worthy and possible target that would
retain societal attention?
Of the Odessa city (in)famous political class there is only one man that
fits the bill – Sergei Kivalov.
Thus, entirely predictably, Mayor Trukhanov has
announced an inquiry into property technically owned by Odessa
International Humanities University (a part of Moscow State University) whose
President is Sergei Kivalov, but the property is well known to have been built
and used for the personal use of Sergei Kivalov.
Quite what the outcome of any such inquiry would achieve is unclear – aside
from the attempt to divert public (and protester) attention away from the Mayor
by offering up an equally (in)famous target for sacrifice at the alter of
public ire. This particular target is perhaps unwise, particularly so
after the premises were put up for sale many months ago by the university (read
Mr Kivalov) after it became clear the true ownership cat was out of the bag
regarding its use and implied tax avoidance issues.
There are many ways to divert public ire toward Mr Kivalov for Mayor
Trukhanov – he will know how much public funds have been misused by Mr
Kivalov’s several educational establishments given grants and funding – yet he
chooses old news and an inquiry that has questionable powers and therefore
questionable consequences for Mr Kivalov.
Thus the Mayor’s attempt at distraction toward Mr Kivalov will not work,
for it is simply insufficient in scale, and also old news. Those that
spent 17 days, 24/7 outside the Prosecutor General’s Office are not about to
turn their sights from Mayor Turkhanov after only a few days toward such a limp
distraction attempt.
Meanwhile the weather gets warmer every day, as do the nights. The
coming days and weeks will become far more comfortable for the protesters than
those colder days and nights outside the PGO over recent weeks.
That the protest has recently
ejected Block Poroshenko, now former MP Igor Firsov prima facie leading
the protester charge will not help Mayor Trukhanov ride out the storm. If
Igor Firsov would not toe the Poroshenko party line and called out the
shenanigans within to the point where he was ejected from the faction and
stripped of his parliamentary mandate, then Igor Firsov is not about to reach
“an agreement” with Mayor Trukhanov.
With Mr Firsov leading of the constituency protester charge also allows
Governor Saakashvili, who is undoubtedly enjoying the Mayor Trukhanov showdown,
time to concentrate upon defending Yulia Marushevska and the Odessa Port
customs project that is no longer suffering from merely intense pressure from
old and vested interests, but now is subjected extreme pressure from old and
vested interests in an effort to break it while the window of political
uncertainty and governance weakness remains. Certainly the level of
engagement between Mr Firsov and Governor Saakashvili is minimal – at least
publicly.
Whatever the case, Mayor Trukhanov, as anticipated when the Panama Papers were
published, will continue to struggle to make this issue disappear. The
Homo Sovieticus doctrine regarding steps for further escalation are likely to
make matters worse rather than better, thus leaving only further diversions of
far greater magnitude than Sergei Kivalov’s property hidden within the
University assets.
There are innumerable scandalous and criminal diversions Mayor Trukhanov
can use as one of two avenues that present themselves. Either those
existing diversions will mean going against the other vested interests within
the city which may have very unintended consequences, or playing the
metaphorical arsonist and then fire fighter, thus creating diversions to then
be seen to be dealing with them effectively. The latter will swiftly be
seen for what they are however.
Fresh from unseating an odious Regional Prosecutor General and forcing the
rule of law to be adhered to, a reader may ponder just how difficult it will be
for the Mayor to quell a successful and determined crowd outside City Hall.
As predicted, this issue did not go away, and will be remain “a problem”
for the foreseeable future.
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