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Eastern Europe
March 1, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 17
Poroshenko's team hit by defence industry corruption scandal
bne IntelliNews
President Petro Poroshenko’s rivals in the up- coming presidential election are accusing him of “profiting from blood” after an investigation re- vealed that the son of the president’s close busi- ness partner has been selling arms to separatist rebels in the breakaway eastern region of Donbas, it was a revealed in a report broadcast on Ukrain- ian TV on February 26.
Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who leads the influential Batkivshchyna or All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" party, started a formal im- peachment process against President Petro Po- roshenko on February 27, accusing him of treason.
"We believe that what was done and what was disclosed by investigative journalists fall under Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine State treason," Tymoshenko said referring to the laws that cover treason.
A BIHUS.info report revealed that "top officials of the defence industry" were receiving kickbacks
for obtaining contraband military vehicle parts at inflated prices. However, the president was not di- rectly implicated in the accusations of wrong doing.
However, the process cannot be completed be- fore the March 31 presidential elections in which both politicians are standing and the move is an election gambit. Moreover Tymoshenko’s fraction doesn't have enough seats and so is unlikely to secure an impeachment vote.
Award-winning investigative reporter Denys Bihus aired the results of an investigation on Ukrainian television citing documents and private messages from an anonymous leaker that described a fraud
The son of Ukraine's Oleg Gladkovsky, First Deputy Secretary of National Security and Defence Council has been implicated in a scandal that could end President Poroshenko's chances of re-election in March
by a group allegedly including Ihor Hladkovskiy (aka Gladkovsky), the 22-year-old son of Oleh Hlad- kovskiy, who is formerly worked closely with Po- roshenko and has been the First Deputy Secretary of National Security and Defence Council (NSCD).
Hladkovskiy senior immediately resigned his post on February 27 as the scandal swept the coun-
try that could spell the end to Poroshenko’s re- election hopes. Despite the ties between the men, Poroshenko himself has not been personally im- plicated in the schemes to sell weapons that are widely seen as Kremlin-proxies and who are fight- ing the Ukrainian army. More than 10,000 Ukrain- ian service men have been killed in the four-year long undeclared proxy war against Russia.
“Just wonder if this will be a terminal blow for Po- roshenko’s campaign. [Rivals Yulia Tymoshenko] and Zelenskiy will milk this one to the full,” Tim Ash, senior sovereign strategist at BlueBay As- set Management, said in an emailed note. “And assume given the focus of [oligarch Ihor] Kolo- moisky’s media channels they will look to reveal lots more kompromat. All sides have a lot to lose in this campaign, I guess it is going to be an ugly and dirty campaign. The gloves just came off.
With the presidential election only a month away Poroshenko’s main rivals leapt on the case to lambaste the president.
With a record 44 candidate registered for the poll, the race is seen as a three-way affair between
the incumbent president, ex-MP Tymoshenko and comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Tymoshenko has ac- cused Poroshenko and his inner circle of "state trea- son" and called for his immediate impeachment.”