Wednesday, May 22, turned out to be unusually fruitful for events in the anti-corruption sphere. Thus, representatives of NABU and SAPO announced suspicion of ex-deputy head of the Presidential Office Andrei Smirnov. On the same day, it became known about a search of NABU representatives. And finally, NABU visited the SBU department in the Lviv region. What is happening and why we should soon expect personnel changes in a number of law enforcement and anti-corruption structures
There are no irreplaceable people - who is Andrey Smirnov
The personality of the former deputy head of the OPU Andrei Smirnov, who was fired on March 29, 2024, was examined more than once by “Comments”, and even then the at least strange nature of his connections was noted. Having started out surrounded by the head of the Right Sector, Dmitry Yarosh, he then became friends with the regionals and defended Elena Lukash and Alexander Efremov in the courts. Later he became close to the controversial businessman Seyar Kurshutov, who received the title of “king of smuggling,” and as a lawyer he helped the judge of the Dneprovsky District Court of Kyiv, Nikolai Chaus, escape from Ukraine.
However, all these connections did not prevent Andrei Smirnov from becoming deputy head of the Office of the new President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky - his namesake Andrei Bogdan. As the media wrote, they met back in 2015 while defending then-comrade-in-arms Igor Kolomoisky and the head of the UKROP party Gennady Korban. Probably, Smirnov’s qualifications prompted the then “supply manager” of the president to take him into his team, despite the obvious “smell” of connections both with the “regionals” and with the team of Petro Poroshenko.
But what is most surprising is that even after Bogdan left the OPU in February 2020, Andrei Smirnov remained, joining the team of his other namesake, Andrei Ermak. Why he was left on the team is a mystery, but probably the whole point is the same as why Andrei Bogdan actually brought his friend to the presidential team - high ability to “solve” judicial issues. For this reason, the OPU assigned Andrei Smirnov the authority to control the courts and reform them, until 2024-2025.
However, even then, hardware wars were raging inside the OPU, so far barely noticeable to the inner eye.
Andrey Smirnov vs Andrey Ermak and Oleg Tatarov – the war under the carpet came out
As journalist Vladislav Sidorenko wrote with reference to his insides, in the spring of 2021 clouds gathered over Andrei Smirnov - his immediate superior and namesake Andrei Ermak allegedly intended to get rid of his subordinate. Already at that time, another deputy, Oleg Tatarov, who came to work at the OPU in August 2020, began to oversee the legal direction in the Office. Although the talk then was about his supervision of law enforcement agencies, the transfer of the courts to a new curator seemed quite logical, and for this it was necessary to remove Smirnov. However, those insights did not receive actual confirmation.
A much more serious wake-up call for Andrei Smirnov was the information campaign in September 2021, during which he was accused of failing judicial reform. And indeed, the deputy head of the OPU had something to show for his immediate area of work, but even then everything ended successfully for him. However, Oleg Tatarov began to gradually “gnaw off” Andrei Smirnov’s powers, for example, in the form of control over the criminal justice system.
With the beginning of the Russian invasion and until the end of 2022, personnel changes somehow faded into the background - until the beginning of 2023.
In February 2023, Ukrayinska Pravda published an investigation dedicated to Andrei Smirnov’s brother, Igor, who became the owner of real estate in Lvov, a parking space in Kyiv, a plot of land, several cars and motorcycles. It was the purchase of this property in the name of his brother that NABU charged Andrey Smirnov with in its suspicion in May 2024.
It is curious that in its investigation the UP mentioned Oleg Tatarov, whom NABU was also interested in even before his appointment to the OPU, and this was probably no coincidence.
In the fall, Andrei Smirnov and his judicial reform received the traditional dose of criticism, and finally, on March 29, 2024, he ceased to be Andrei Ermak’s deputy. And then a very strange chain of events followed.
NABU and SAP - how anti-corruption bodies split in the Presidential Office due to the war
The filing of charges against Andrei Smirnov by NABU and SAP, and the searches carried out on the same day related to the Anti-Corruption Bureau is not the first chain of “coincidences” that may be associated with the war of Ermak and Tatarov against Andrei Smirnov.
On April 2, 3 days after the dismissal of Andrei Smirnov, NABU and SAPO detained an ex-adviser to the Office of the President of Ukraine, a former employee of the SBU and a person with a very controversial reputation, Artem Shilo. He was accused of embezzling UAH 95 million from the purchase of transformers for Ukrzaliznytsia.
At the same time, he turned out to be close to many influence groups in power, and as anti-corruption journalist Yuri Nikolov argued in an interview for Novoye Vremya, Artem Shilo is allegedly the “right hand” of Oleg Tatarov.
Moreover, Oleg Tatarov himself had very tense relations with NABU for a long time. So, even before his appointment to the police department, as a lawyer, he came under the radar of the NABU in a case of theft of 18 million UAH. on the construction of housing for the National Guard.
The person involved in the case, the owner of the now bankrupt Ukrbud corporation, Maxim Mikitas, said in an interview with Ukrayinska Pravda that it was Oleg Tatarov who helped him “resolve” issues in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in particular, he bribed experts in the department. He also accused the deputy head of the OPU of helping the raider takeover of “Ukrbud” and transferring part of the enterprise’s property to his father-in-law. After this, Oleg Tatarov gained a reputation as a raider.
As the same Vladislav Sidorenko claimed back in 2021, it was Andrei Smirnov who allegedly coordinated the work of NABU on Oleg Tatarov, actually handing him over to the Bureau. And this is where their fierce confrontation actually began, in which Andrei Ermak took Tatarov’s side. But be that as it may, the case in which Oleg Tatarov was involved - about bribing an expert of the Ministry of Internal Affairs - was successfully closed back in April 2022.
But it would seem, why does NABU bring charges against Andrei Smirnov if he “works” with them, and SAPO hits not only the ex-deputy of the OPU, but also NABU?
A likely clue here will be the fact that NABU, like many bodies, has its own pressure groups that focus on the same exact different power groups in the same Office of the President.
Thus, according to initial media reports, the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office conducted searches of the first deputy head of the NBU Gizo Uglava. However, the SAPO officially denied these data, stating that a search was not carried out on the premises of NABU, much less Gizo Uglava. Only the home of one of the NABU detectives was searched in the case of “leaking” data on the investigation of thefts at the “Big Construction” of Vladimir Zelensky.
The NABU responded rather sharply to the SAPS, noting that they themselves can investigate leaks in their own department, thereby essentially advising the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office to mind their own business.
Gizo Uglava will leave NABU
But what is truly important in this skirmish is the mention of the name Gizo Uglava in the first media reports, the information of which was clearly obtained from NABU. It is very likely that the threat of dismissal hangs over the deputy head of the Bureau, however, not for the first time.
Thus, after the dismissal of its director Artem Sytnik from the Bureau, from April 2022 to March 2023, NABU had the status of acting. O. It was Gizo Uglava who headed it. Already in October, as “Comments” wrote, they wanted to put Andrei Kaluzhinsky, head of the Main Detective Division of NABU, in the chair of the head. However, in the end, the Bureau was headed by the former head of the State Inspectorate of Architecture and Urban Planning of Ukraine, Semyon Krivonos, who, judging by his biography, had never been involved in operational activities. That is, most likely it is the Uglava that still leads the operational and investigative actions of NABU.
This is supported by the messages of the head of the Anti-Corruption Center Vitaly Shabunin on his page on the social network Facebook, in which he talks about at least the existence of two decision-making centers in NABU.
So, according to him, Gizo Uglava actually received complete control over the activities of detectives, which makes the leaking of information from the Bureau more likely due to such an innovation, while he cannot bear responsibility for this. The anti-corruption official also emphasized that the main thing in the story that happened on May 22 will be the decision of Semyon Krivonos, which will demonstrate who really runs the Bureau.
Whether Vitaly Shabunin is thereby hinting that Gizo Uglava may be fired from NABU, and that this may be connected with Andrei Smirnov, we cannot say, but it is an interesting coincidence.
Bureau of Economic Security - not for the state, but for Tatarov and Ermak
But not only NABU and control over it is a stake in the game that flared up with the presentation of suspicion to Andrei Smirnov, but also influence on the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine. It was the BEB that led the investigation into the case of agribusinessman Vasily Astion, who is close to the ex-deputy head of the OPU, for whom on January 18 the Shevchenkivskyi District Court set bail at only 1 million UAH. This is despite the fact that the same BEB asked for UAH 61.4 million, which is equivalent to the amount that, according to investigators, the suspect withdrew abroad.
In this case, traces of a clash between Andrei Smirnov and Oleg Tatarov are also visible, in any case, it was under Vasily Astion that the ex-deputy head of the OPU registered part of the purchased property. And according to the media, Oleg Tatarov established his control over the BEB in 2023. Probably, in January, Smirnov, who still had strength and supervised the courts, managed to help his business partner before his own dismissal.
Meanwhile, the situation with the BEB has long attracted attention not only within Ukraine, but also from Western partners. The new body for combating economic crime raised questions among experts already at the beginning of its creation in 2021 and confirmed their validity 2 years later.
In 2023, a real personnel crisis began at BEB - after the dismissal of its head Vadim Melnik, acting. O. Eduard Fedorov became director, after 3 months he left and the prefix “i. O." received by Andrey Pashchuk. Now acting director Sergei Perkhun. That is, this is already the third time this year. o., despite the fact that Vadim Melnik worked as a full-fledged director for more than 1.5 years.
The problems in the Bureau, according to some journalists, began with a change in the “supervisor” of him. So, as Forbes claimed, the BEB was supervised by ex-employee of the fiscal service Andrei Gmyrin, who in April 2023 was put on the wanted list in the case of the ex-head of the State Property Fund Dmitry Sennichenko. As the same Vladislav Sidorenko argued, the struggle between influence groups within the Bureau - the “prosecutor’s” and the “tax” - only worsened the situation within the BEB.
They decided to save the situation with the help of bill No. 10,439 from the Cabinet of Ministers, behind which, according to the people’s deputy of Ukraine from “Voice” Yaroslav Zheleznyak, was Oleg Tatarov. And this despite the fact that business representatives unanimously spoke out against it, and the ambassadors of the G7 states. The stumbling block was the recertification of the bureau's employees, which the law proposes to carry out a year after the end of the war, that is, all BEB employees whose work the business is dissatisfied with will continue to work.
At the same time, alternative bills were not even considered, and according to the same Vitaly Shabunin, the Cabinet of Ministers itself specifically timed the adoption of the bill for the next missile attack of the Russian Federation on December 29.
However, the authorities denied the assertion that bill No. 10,439 was “Tatarov’s”, and the document was even finalized before its adoption in the first reading on April 11. However, businesses have hope that the document will still be finalized for the second reading, taking into account their wishes, but in the meantime, the department is still visiting businesses with searches.
At the same time, reforming the BEB remains one of the markers for the IMF and must be completed by the end of June.
Political experts interviewed by Comments noted the danger of increasing tension in the political situation in the country as a result of such high-profile messages.
And among shareholders of power, in Ukrainian society as a whole, uncomfortable questions arise
Director of the Center for Research on Civil Society Problems, political analyst Vitaliy Kulik agrees that the situation with the presentation of suspicions from NABU and SAPO has become livelier.
“We took on the “coal baron” Vitaly Kropachev. For the former deputy head of the OP Andrei Smirnov. We can say that NABU is trying to prove its ability to produce results. There is activity. Why there are both objective and subjective factors,” the expert notes.
If we talk about objective ones - the indicator of “landings”, decisions brought to convictions in the courts, NABU does not have so many.
“And among shareholders of power, in Ukrainian society in general, uncomfortable questions arise,” explains Vitaliy Kulik. – Where are the results? What is the point of allocating huge funds to fight corruption if in the end there is a lot of noise, and the end result is things that are not brought to their logical conclusion? Why are some people declared suspicious after they have ended up abroad with no intention of returning? What is happening in general in our anti-corruption sphere?”
The subjective factor, according to the expert, is that in relation to NABU there is an attempt to correct the leadership.
“We see how our “professional anti-corruption officials” from the public sector have cheered up. And they began to point out that there was a leak of information from NABU detectives. And that these leaks were sanctioned by the deputy head of NABU, Gizo Uglava. Accordingly, the searches that the police conducted at the premises of NABU representatives under the sanction of the SAPO are one of the elements of this investigation. It is clearly not a one-time event, not a targeted one - and will lead to certain consequences. We are looking for a solution to the system bug at NABU,” says Vitaliy Kulik.
It turns out, he continues, that on the one hand, NABU is active to show - look, we are working! Everything is fine. On the other hand, there is a wave demonstrating that there are problems in NABU, perhaps not only in the leadership, in the decision-making system, but also in the leadership in general.
“Is NABU independent and capable of acting effectively? Recently, his significant readiness to take into account Bankova’s wishes has been evident. And this cannot but raise questions, including among our Western partners, who have seriously invested in building an anti-corruption system in Ukraine (NACP, NABU, SBI, SAP),” says Vitaliy Kulik.
He connects the activation of anti-corruption bodies with the above.
“It’s good that they took on the coal barons and caretakers. But for some reason this happens only after the Russians destroyed the Trypillya Thermal Power Plant, and the coal mining industry ceased to generate sufficient profits. Bankova no longer needed a coal watcher. And Kropachev suddenly found himself in the lens of anti-corruption officials. As for Smirnov, there is a long history there. But it also surfaced not very long ago,” the interlocutor of “Comments” emphasizes. – And what about the cases regarding the Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Oleg Tatarov? Are they closed or not? Updated or forgotten? Information that such cases exist is circulating. Are these leaks related to Uglava or not? Is there some kind of agreement between Bankova and NABU or not?”
We have many unanswered questions, the expert states.
“It seems that the time has come when effectiveness should finally be determined not by a wave of suspicions with cases then falling apart in court, but by real verdicts. Time for a quality report of the entire anti-corruption system. Not populist, not with rose-colored glasses - in the interpretation of “professional anti-corruption officials.” And - in fact, to the point. Without trying to justify what cannot be justified,” says Vitaly Kulik.
We can talk about hardware games of law enforcement officers and higher authorities
The head of the Center for Political Intelligence, political strategist Oleg Posternak reasons as follows:
“In general, the Smirnov case can be called a good sign, since it directly clearly shows that even proximity to top-level authorities does not give indulgence from motivated claims of law enforcement officers. Some may perceive this as a signal to Western partners on the eve of the EU and NATO summits about the effectiveness of the anti-corruption machine built over the past decades. However, in fact, we can also talk about hardware games of law enforcement officers and the highest authorities.”
According to the expert, Smirnov is the person who coordinated legal work in the President’s Office. And these are extremely closed questions that always have political overtones.
“At the same time,” notes Oleg Posternak. – it is worth mentioning Smirnov’s background, whose biography includes cooperation with Portnov, legal support for odious “regionals”, work with Korban, the image of the person of the ex-head of the OP - Bogdan. Therefore, it was possible to predict that someday it would “arrive” with him, given the number of enemies in the political establishment and the loss of “roof” on Bankova after his dismissal.”
