Recently, several Ukrainian online media outlets have published articles analyzing the business and reputational qualities of the main candidates for the post of Prosecutor General of Ukraine, UNN informs.
Citing his own sources in the Office of the President and the Office of the Prosecutor General, the author of the Fakty article, which was later published on other resources, identifies three of them: Ruslan Kravchenko, head of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration, his colleague from Odesa Oblast, Oleh Kiper, and Iryna Mudra, deputy head of the Presidential Office.
The list of names, however, is not limited to the journalist's vision of their professional and personal strengths and weaknesses.
In his opinion, there are many more of the latter.
Kravchenko seems to have failed to prove himself as head of the RMA, while Mudra's "liabilities" include her lack of independence and love of luxury, as well as a high-profile scandal involving her civilian husband Pavlo Polarush, who, while drunk , threatened a military officer with a weapon. Kiper is also involved in scandals involving vacations abroad during martial law and corruption deals in the field of agricultural exports in Odesa region.
From all of this, the author concludes that, first, the situation requires the immediate appointment of a new Prosecutor General, and, second, a non-public competition for this position among the above-mentioned persons is a "choice without a choice.
As you can see, the conclusions contradict each other. Or there is a client hiding somewhere behind the scenes who would not want any of these three specialists to be appointed.
There are also contradictions in the article's argumentation.
Kravchenko demonstrated effective management at least by bringing the region to the first place in terms of economic stability of regions, according to the data of the Business Capital publication, and also by putting dishonest contractors in their place quite firmly. Such a practice will not be superfluous in the case of possible work in the PGO.
Mudra is actively working in the international arena, which refutes the thesis that it is "not independent".
Oleg Kiper has just stopped the export of illegal grain in Odesa region.
Given this, the claims against these individuals appear far-fetched and are only intended to sow some doubt about their candidacies.
But the President's Office has a realistic assessment of the situation, so it is impossible to influence a serious personnel decision with such small "injections.
So, the objective of this information counter-campaign is somewhat different. Let's assume that it is a banal desire to stall for time so that the Prosecutor General's office remains vacant for as long as possible. And thus win a few more weeks for a certain cash flow to work properly.
Perhaps in the gambling business or customs fraud.
The prosecutorial system, which Ukrainian society expects the new head of the agency to radically clean up, has managed to find many areas for shadow enrichment over the decades.
It may be a mere coincidence, but former Deputy Prosecutor General Dmytro Verbytskyi, whose investigation led to the resignation of Andriy Kostin, has become much more active in the media.
Moreover, he positions himself not only as a fighter against gamblingbut also almost as a personal enemy of oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky.
One reasonable conclusion can be drawn from all these not-so-clean maneuvers - the issue of appointing a new Prosecutor General is indeed ripe. And his main duty in this position, in addition to the obvious destruction of "schemes" under the prosecutor's "roof," is to ensure the reform of the entire system, to prevent the PGO from being used as a place of personal enrichment.