Last month, the Security Service of Ukraine and the prosecutor general's office derailed a sting operation by undercover NABU agents to catch a State Migration Service official suspected of issuing passports and residence permits for bribes. The agencies accused NABU of illegal eavesdropping and released the names of its agents, blowing their covers.
Poroshenko's faction and its allies in parliament also have submitted a bill that would allow lawmakers to fire the anti-corruption agency's director with a simple majority vote. Under current law, NABU's chief can only be fired for a criminal conviction, a provision that was intended to ensure independence.
"Those attacks are directly linked to the fact that we investigate an increasing number of criminal cases involving people who are in control of the media, material or administrative resources, which they turn against us," Sytnik said.
Since its creation in 2015, NABU has investigated 461 cases involving business executives, government officials and judges accused of involvement in corrupt schemes.
Sytnik thinks the current campaign against his agency results from a probe that targeted the son of Interior Minister Arsen Avakov for alleged involvement in a scheme to embezzle 14 million hryvnias (about $520,000) allocated for purchasing police rucksacks.
Avakov has insisted his son was innocent and alleged that NABU of falling under political influence.
Ukraine needs a sovereign government before it can try reform. The reason they don’t have one was the need for private armies when invading rebel-held areas in the east. The national Ukrainian army was mostly staffed by people from the Russian speaking zones and the army largely disappear after the coup that brought Maiden into power. Private armies associated with various oligarchs and neo-nazi groups proved to be the only effective weapon the government had in its goal of conquering the eastern half of the country.
The problem with private armies is once they realize they’re stronger than the national army, the state ceases to be sovereign so the country is ruled by a dozen or so oligarchs and their troops and followers. Trying to reform anything under such conditions is a bad joke.
Sounds like the Fox is guarding the hen house.