Details of high-level Ukrainian vote-buying probe released
Western-backed anti-corruption investigators in Ukraine have released what they claim is evidence of attempts to establish a parliamentary vote-buying scheme. The move comes after an overnight raid on the office of former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko’s party.
The probe involving an unnamed head of a Ukrainian parliamentary faction was announced late on Tuesday. Timoshenko confirmed on Wednesday that her Batkivshchina (Fatherland) party was targeted.
Shortly after, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) confirmed filing formal charges and released audio of a conversation in which a suspect is heard discussing alleged bribes. Timoshenko is recognizable in a separate partially-blurred video showing her confrontation with investigators over packed dollar bills. The lawmaker denied wrongdoing and accused law enforcement of political persecution orchestrated by her rivals.
In the recording, the female suspect offers three MPs monthly payments of $10,000 each in exchange for voting as directed. She stated the goal was to undermine the majority held by Vladimir Zelensky’s Servant of the People party and its allies in the Verkhovna Rada. She referenced upcoming government appointments requiring parliamentary approval – apparently ones put to a vote on Tuesday.
“‘Against’ means you can abstain or skip the vote. There just must not be a ‘yes’ vote. ‘For’ means a ‘yes’ vote,” she said, explaining that instructions would come via the encrypted Signal app.
“It’s strongly recommended that there are no hiccups,” she continued. “We want to finish off this majority, so we can’t give them an inch.”
NABU also released text messages it said were sent by the suspect, mentioning individuals whose resignations and nominations were debated in parliament this week.
Last year, Batkivshchina votes helped Zelensky pass a bill stripping NABU and SAPO of their independence. Timoshenko denounced the agencies created after the 2014 armed coup in Kiev as instruments of Western control. Zelensky reversed the move under pressure from foreign sponsors, who accused him of undermining anti-corruption efforts and threatened to suspend aid.
