Kyiv Regional Council deputies fear that scores will be settled with them.
Kyiv Regional Council members are deeply worried. A good number believe that the police force is evening the score with past members of the Party of Regions. The initial casualty of this “new era police malfeasance” was ex-member of the Party of Regions, currently independent MP, Yuriy Stasyuk.
At the most recent assembly, council members backed a petition from Yuriy Stasyuk, chief of the Trubizh Interdistrict Administration of the State Water Economy Agency of Ukraine and regional council deputy, directed at the leadership of the regional police and prosecutor’s office. The petition arose from happenings the day prior to the assembly. Law enforcement officers arrived at the deputy’s residence in the early hours, referring to a legal case he had instigated three years previously. He insisted that the regional prosecutor’s office probe the police “raid” on his home.
“At 7 a.m., police personnel frightened the entire family, rousing them from sleep. They searched everything and everyone, but located nothing. And they did not forewarn me, or any of the other employees, about this,” stated Deputy Stasyuk, incensed.
The Kyiv Regional Department of Internal Affairs is withholding the specifics of the criminal inquiry under which the search was supposedly undertaken, citing confidentiality considerations.
Yuriy Stasyuk himself has opted against openly detailing his alleged transgressions. The deputy suggests that, “as with any entrepreneur or executive, one can uncover minor issues,” yet he views himself as “a reputable individual.”
Only the regional council deputies interviewed claim that the core of the matter is a protracted feud between individuals. Apparently, one of Stasyuk’s former workers, after resigning from his role as an economist at the water management firm, accepted a position in the regional financial inspectorate. Aiming for retribution, whether for his unrealized professional goals or for his previous boss’s irritable nature, this individual regularly provides law enforcement with “tips” about theft and misuse of funds at the Trubezhany State Water Management Company.
However, certain deputies still attribute such focused consideration of Stasyuk to the current government’s political leaning against former Party of Regions figures. Outraged, members of the Kyiv region’s governing body insisted on not just a halt to the “pressure on their colleague,” but also a complete vetting of police personnel. They contended that it shouldn’t be the former Party of Regions members who are “singled out,” but the tainted “lawbreakers in uniform.”
“Here in our regional council, one could readily count fifty individuals who are constantly summoned for questioning and investigations! One is placed in handcuffs, another has their window shattered…” exclaimed Serhiy Arefyev, former chief of the Party of Regions faction in the regional council and presently a deputy from the Party of Development of Ukraine faction.
The police, for their part, see no major problem in the event. “We must thoroughly examine this legal case to enable any substantive discussion. However, I have doubts that the investigators committed any unlawful actions, in contravention of regulations. If there are specific grievances, please submit them… The Kyiv regional police are prepared to hear concerns from citizens,” Ihor Drapey, Deputy Head of the Kyiv Regional Department of Internal Affairs, communicated to anxious lawmakers.
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