MOSCOW, November 14. /TASS/. A high-profile corruption scandal involving former and current Ukrainian cabinet members, as well as people believed to be members of Vladimir Zelensky’s inner circle, has sparked calls for protests.
Ukrainian radical nationalist Dmitry Korchnisky (designated in Russia as a terrorist and extremist) claims that preparations are already underway for street protests. According to him, some "serious people," including former and current city mayors, are behind the activity. "Maidan-style protests are being prepared, along with street riots," Ukraine’s Strana news outlet quoted him as saying.
What seems to confirm his words is activist Maria Barabash’s call for holding a protest rally in the country’s capital of Kiev on Saturday. She has accused Zelensky’s office of trying to distract the public from the corruption scandal by announcing the need to defend the city of Krasnoarmeysk (called Pokrovsk in Ukraine) in the Kiev-controlled part of the Donetsk People’s Republic at all costs.
As new details emerge of the corruption case involving people from Zelensky’s entourage, opposition lawmakers and public figures have started discussing the extent to which he could have been involved in criminal schemes. However, the law enforcement agencies investigating the case have so far made no statements on the matter.
Mindich scheme
On November 10, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO), both independent from Zelensky’s office, announced an investigation into a major corruption scheme in the energy sector, dubbed Operation Midas. Searches were conducted at the Energoatom energy company and the residences of entrepreneur Timur Mindich and the now suspended Justice Minister German Galushchenko, who served as the country’s energy minister at the time of the events that are being looked into. NABU also started to release recordings of conversations from Mindich’s apartment, which revealed discussions of corrupt practices.
Charges in the case have been brought against Mindich, Igor Mironyuk, a former adviser to the energy minister, Dmitry Basov, Energoatom executive director for safety, businessmen Alexander Zukerman and Igor Fursenko, Lesya Ustimenko and Lyudmila Zorina, as well as former Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Chernyshov, who is also seen as a member of Zelensky’s inner circle. Mindich left the country a few hours before searches started.