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Eastern Europe
March 2, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 21
last year, on Monday the courtroom was host
to an extraordinary scene when dozens of Rada deputies turned up to offer personal guarantees to ensure Nasirov’s release.
“NABU and its investigations represent an existential threat to most of those in government,” says Tim Ash, head of strategy at Bluebay Asset Management.
As last year drew to an end a flurry of attacks rained down on NABU and its leadership in just
a few weeks, two of which prompted a public outcry: the arrest by Ukraine’s Prosecutor General of several of NABU’s undercover agents, whose identity were revealed by the prosecutor (thus blowing their covers), and an attempt by the Ukrainian parliament in early December to vote
a new law that would allow the parliament to dismiss the director of the NABU.
The biggest success the pro-corruption lobby in parliament won was the dismissal of the highly respected head of the legislative's anti-corruption committee, Egor Sobolev, on December 7,
which was widely seen as parliamentarians striking a blow against NABU and its work.
“I expected resistance,” Sytnyk said with a sigh, “but I did not think it would be that intense.
I also expected some political will, even if it was just pragmatic. But the authorities do not take any independent steps. Every new progress is made 'under the knife' of the civil society and international partners.”
The December crisis was averted thanks to pressure from Ukraine’s civil society and frantic calls by Western embassies warning of potential consequences if NABU was placed under parliamentary control. But paradoxically, it also helped to put the issue of the anti-corruption court in the spotlight. “I think the law will be voted, as it’s become such a major issue for the West,” Vladimir Fesenko, a Ukrainian political scientist, told bne IntelliNews.
The other step Sytnyk claims is needed to en- hance the NABU’s efficiency would be to allow the bureau to do its own wiretapping – some- thing it can currently only do through the SBU, Ukraine’s security service. But the director isn’t holding his breath.
“This can only happen if a new law is voted,” Sytnyk says. “But that’s the problem: when there’s a bill to pressure NABU, then the parliament works very quickly, but when it's about making the NABU more effective, it has a lot more trouble getting the law voted.”