Jury selection begins in Sheremet case
The trial of three defendants suspected of being involved in the high-profile killing of journalist Pavel Sheremet has started in Kyiv with the selection of jurors. The Shevchenko district court on September 4 selected jurors with the participation of defendants Andriy Antonenko, Yana Duhar, and Yulia Kuzmenko, and their legal teams. The court decided to remove two potential members of the jury from the panel due to conflicts of interest and possible bias. The jury will be fully established at the next hearing, scheduled for September 28. Sheremet, a Belarusian-born Russian citizen who had made Kyiv his permanent home, was leaving his apartment to head to the studio where he hosted a morning radio program when an improvised explosive device planted under his vehicle exploded on July 20, 2016, killing him. Mr. Antonenko, Ms. Duhar and Ms. Kuzmenko were arrested in December as suspects in the case. Ms. Duhar was later released and curfew restrictions were imposed on her, while Ms. Kuzmenko was transferred to house arrest in August. Mr. Antonenko remains in a detention center. All three took part in military operations in different capacities in Ukraine’s east, where government forces are fighting against Russia-backed separatists. They deny any involvement in Sheremet’s killing. Analysts said the murder underscored concerns of a climate of impunity for attacks on journalists and others who challenge the authorities, while the government has faced persistent criticism over a perceived lack of progress in solving the case. In January, the Ukrainian Prosecutor-General’s Office said additional evidence was needed for the case to go to trial. Sheremet’s mother, Lyudmila Sheremet, told RFE/RL in December that she does not know if the suspects are guilty or not, but that she is afraid “that innocent people may be hurt” as officials try to show they’re making headway in the case. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Pompeo on Chinese investment in Ukraine
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has spoken with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about U.S. concerns over China’s attempt to purchase a Ukrainian engine manufacturer, the State Department said on August 29. Mr. Pompeo raised concerns over “malign” Chinese investment in Ukraine, including Beijing’s efforts to acquire the Motor Sich engine manufacturer, in a telephone call on August 26 with Mr. Zelenskyy, spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement. The United States has previously lobbied against the possible sale of the strategic company and its advanced technology to China. The acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine said late last year that there were U.S. companies studying the possible purchase of Motor Sich, one of the world’s top makers of aircraft engines for the defense industry. “There are some serious American and other companies interested in Motor Sich,” William Taylor said in an interview on December 26, 2019, with Ukrainian media outlets prior to leaving his post on January 2. He did not disclose the names of the American companies. Motor Sich is privately owned by its chief executive, Vyacheslav Bohuslayev. He reportedly has agreed to sell the bulk of his shares to Chinese companies, but the deal has yet to receive Ukrainian government approval. Ms. Ortagus said Messrs. Pompeo and Zelenskyy also discussed the situation in Belarus, Ukraine’s efforts to combat COVID-19, attempts to reach a diplomatic resolution to Russia’s aggression in eastern Ukraine and the restoration of Ukrainian sovereignty in Crimea. Mr. Pompeo also congratulated Ukraine on the country’s Independence Day on August 24 and emphasized that the United States will continue to stand with the Ukrainian people “in order to advance the rule of law, foster economic growth, attract foreign investment and eliminate endemic corruption that constrains Ukraine’s potential.” (RFE/RL)
Ukraine tightens COVID-19 lockdown
The Ukrainian government has tightened lockdown measures, including closing its borders to foreigners, in an effort to contain the country’s coronavirus outbreak. The border closure that took effect on August 28 was expected, but was moved up a day during an emergency session of the Verkhovna Rada. In addition, current quarantine measures were extended by two months, until October 31, and the division of the country into zones based on risk level will be maintained. “The increase in cases in recent weeks has forced us to act more decisively,” Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal explained on August 27. Foreigners who have permission to work in Ukraine and those transiting the country for less than a two-day stay will be allowed to enter. Foreign students and military personnel will also be allowed entry, as will members of foreign delegations and employees of international organizations. As of August 28, Ukraine had registered just under 114,500 coronavirus infections, with more than 2,450 deaths. It experienced a one-day high of new infections on August 27-28 with 2,438 cases. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Medvedchuk’s family selling oil to U.S.
The family of a sanctioned Ukrainian politician with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin has been selling refined oil products to the United States through an intermediary, the latest example of a Kremlin friend finding legal ways around Washington’s financial restrictions. The Novoshakhtinsky oil refinery in Russia, which is owned by the wife of Viktor Medvedchuk, who heads a political council of a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine, has been selling some of its output this year to an arm of ExxonMobil via a Swiss-registered trader, an investigation by Schemes, a joint program of RFE/RL and Ukrainian public broadcaster UA:First. Mr. Medvedchuk, who picked Mr. Putin to be the godfather of his daughter, was put under sanctions by the United States in March 2014 following the ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych for his role in undermining democracy in the country. The United States called Mr. Medvedchuk a Putin “proxy” inside Ukraine. The U.S. sanctions freeze any assets, including cash, that Mr. Medvedchuk has within the United States and forbids any U.S. individual or entity from conducting transactions with him. The Novoshakhtinsky oil refinery, which is located near the Russian city of Rostov, close to the border with Ukraine, has supplied its products to ExxonMobil at least six times in 2020, according to U.S. import data obtained by Schemes. The products are shipped by tanker from the Black Sea to Houston, Texas. Novoshakhtinsky is majority-owned by Oksana Marchenko, a Ukrainian TV star and Mr. Medvedchuk’s wife. Government officials and politicians from the former Soviet Union often put their assets in the name of their wives, children and other family members to protect or hide them. The Medvedchuk family purchased several Russian companies, including a controlling stake in the refinery, in early 2018 for an undisclosed sum. Mr. Medvedchuk said later he oversees the family business but admitted that he put its ownership in his wife’s name to avoid U.S. sanctions. “My wife, Oksana Marchenko, is not in business. She owns a business. And I run the business. Why can’t I own a business? Because my lovely Americans imposed sanctions on me,” he said in a 2018 interview with one of his TV channels after the purchase of the refinery. ExxonMobil does not buy the oil directly from the Medvedchuk family-owned refinery, but rather through NewCoal Trading, a Swiss-based trading firm. NewCoal is considered to be associated with the family of Russian parliamentarian Gleb Khor, who was born in eastern Ukraine, according to Russian investigative journalist Mikhail Maglov. Though the value of the contracts with NewCoal are not disclosed, Schemes estimates that ExxonMobil may have purchased about $150 million worth of oil products from Novoshakhtinsky this year based on the volume supplied and market prices. Neither Novoshakhtinsky nor Ms. Marchenko are sanctioned by the United States. “OFAC [Office of Foreign Assets Control] must have reason to believe that [Medvedchuk’s] wife is operating the company on his behalf and legally document that standard in order to block property,” said Brian O’Toole, a fellow at the Washington-based Atlantic Council and a former OFAC senior advisor. “It’s the threshold in the law that underpins OFAC’s authorities,” he said. However, he said OFAC could decide to look into the transactions if the Swiss broker is nothing more than a middleman for the Medvedchuk family to avoid sanctions, Mr. O’Toole said. “This certainly is shady and skirts the boundaries of sanctions intent,” he said of the transactions. A spokesperson for the U.S. Treasury told RFE/RL in a statement that it takes allegations of sanctions violations seriously but doesn’t comment on whether sanctions should apply in individual cases. ExxonMobil declined to comment on its purchase of petroleum products that originate from Novoshakhtinsky, but told Schemes: “It is the policy of ExxonMobil and its affiliates to comply with all governmental laws, rules and regulations applicable to its operations within and outside the United States and to conduct those operations to the highest ethical standards. ExxonMobil also expects its suppliers, vendors and contractors to comply with laws, rules and regulations applicable to their businesses,” it told Schemes. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, with reporting by Todd Prince in Washington)
Special anti-corruption prosecutor resigns
The head of Ukraine’s Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office says he has resigned after five years in the post. Nazar Kholodnytsky made the announcement in a Facebook post on August 21, saying he had quit of his own free will. “Today I can say with confidence that the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine will fulfill their mission,” Mr. Kholodnytsky wrote. “I thank my team for their dedication, honesty and integrity – we do our job with dignity.” He also said that his office has “systematically faced political attempts to encroach on our independence and manipulate the results of our work.” Mr. Kholodnytsky posted a copy of Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova’s August 21 order to dismiss him “in connection with the application for voluntary dismissal.” Mr. Kholodnytsky, the first head of anti-corruption investigations at the prosecution service in Ukraine, has been embroiled in a scandal over allegations that he helped officials suspected of corruption evade prosecution. In July 2018, Ukraine’s Qualification and Disciplinary Commission of Prosecutors rejected a request by the Prosecutor General’s Office to fire Mr. Kholodnytsky and ruled that he should be reprimanded. In June, Ukrainian officials said they were offered $6 million in bribes to end a criminal investigation into the head of a gas company where the son of former U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden served on the board. Mr. Kholodnytsky, however, said that neither of the Bidens was connected to the alleged bribe attempt. The Burisma natural gas company was at the center of a scandal leading to U.S. President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial earlier this year. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Suspects detained in attack against RFE/RL
Ukraine’s Internal Affairs Ministry says it has detained two suspects for questioning about a recent arson attack in Kyiv that targeted a car used by investigative journalists from RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service. The attacker’s “clothes, incendiary devices and other evidence” have been seized, and searches were continuing on August 26 as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into the attack, Internal Affairs Minister Arsen Avakov said in a Twitter statement. Internal Affairs Ministry spokesman Artem Shevchenko told RFE/RL that one of the detainees was a resident of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region and the other was from Kyiv. Mr. Shevchenko also said on August 26 that two other suspects were being sought in the case. Media watchdogs have been calling on Ukrainian authorities to investigate complaints of intimidation and attacks against journalists from the Skhemy (Schemes) program, a joint investigative project by RFE/RL and UA: Pershy television, after one of their cars was torched in Kyiv on August 17. Investigators have concluded that the fire was caused by “an external ignition source.” No one was hurt in the incident, but the International and European federations of journalists said on August 18 that a campaign of harassment and intimidation, including surveillance and arson attacks, were aimed at “muzzling” the journalists’ investigations. “It is essential that investigative journalists can freely and critically report on corruption and wrongdoing of state officials,” said General Secretary Anthony Bellanger of the International Federation of Journalists. “Surveillance and the attack against this team are worrisome blows against press freedom that can’t go unpunished,” Mr. Bellanger said. “We stand in solidarity with the victimized journalists and call on the authorities to protect them from these attacks.” The Committee to Protect Journalists has urged Ukrainian authorities to find the perpetrators of the arson attack and “hold them to account.” Schemes reporters were recently working on a story revealing how the transport of high-level state officials breaks traffic rules. During the production of the program, the journalists repeatedly voiced concerns about being under surveillance. Schemes reporter Mykhaylo Tkach said earlier in August that he found what he thought were signs of hidden-microphone surveillance in his apartment. “Authorities also must thoroughly investigate the surveillance allegations” made by Mr. Tkach, according to Gulnoza Said, the CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “By reporting on corruption, investigative journalists at ‘Schemes’ are doing an important service for the public, and the authorities should ensure their safety,” Ms. Said added. RFE/RL acting President Daisy Sindelar has expressed concern about the arson attack. While no one was injured, Ms. Sindelar said, “this incident appears aimed at intimidating RFE/RL’s reporters and contributing to a threatening environment for journalists across Ukraine.” She noted: “Schemes is an award-winning investigative team whose work is vital to the public interest of all Ukrainians,” adding, “We urge Ukrainian authorities to ensure that our colleagues can work safely and without fear.” (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)