Ruslan Kravchenko’s resignation statement does not strip him of his powers as Prosecutor General until the Verkhovna Rada votes, and the suspicion notice he signed against NABU Director Semen Kryvonos will remain valid even after his dismissal.
Serhii Vlasenko, a People’s Deputy from the Batkivshchyna faction and a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Legal Policy, told LB.ua this in a comment.
According to him, there is no legal conflict in the situation surrounding the suspicion notice.
“It was signed by the incumbent Prosecutor General. It is indeed a working, normal document. He could have signed it while standing at the Verkhovna Rada rostrum before the vote,” Vlasenko said.
If the Rada votes tomorrow to accept the resignation, the suspicion notice, he said, remains valid.
As for the circumstances of the Prosecutor General’s trip abroad, the MP noted that the fact he was on an official trip at the time of signing the suspicion notice has not been confirmed. Vlasenko described as unlawful the Anti-Corruption Action Centre’s claim that only the President could have authorised the Prosecutor General’s travel on an official trip.
“I want to remind you that under the Ukrainian Constitution, the Prosecutor General is an independent official and is neither controlled by nor accountable to the President of Ukraine. So let them keep the CPC’s political nonsense to themselves. The President has no connection to this and cannot have any connection whatsoever,” the MP said.
Vlasenko also believes that investigative actions by NABU and the SAPO in the Prosecutor General’s office and in the office of his first deputy were carried out without proper grounds. He suggests they were conducted precisely in order to supposedly gain access to certain materials.
He also believes the Prosecutor General failed to handle the public side of the situation.
“It seems to me that Kravchenko completely lost the media battle. If, on the same day after this operation in his office, he had come out to the public and calmly explained to people why they came to see him, that there were no questions about him personally, that the only purpose for which they entered was to gain access to case materials, then the situation would have been a bit different. But now it all looks different,” Vlasenko noted.
Two questions remain open, he said.
“Will Kravchenko’s successor oversee this investigation? And how will all this work in the long term? Suspicion notices sometimes do not ‘go off’ immediately, but after some time,” the MP said.
Vlasenko also explained who would perform the duties of Prosecutor General if the Rada dismisses Kravchenko tomorrow and the President does not submit a кандидатура for a successor.
“The first deputy or a deputy must perform the duties of the Prosecutor General. Since the first deputy has resigned, one of the deputies will exercise the Prosecutor General’s powers until a candidate is submitted and that candidate is approved by the Verkhovna Rada,” he said.
According to the MP, Kravchenko himself can designate such a deputy as he steps down.
- On the morning of 14 September, Ruslan Kravchenko announced the signing of a suspicion notice against the NABU director for allegedly forging documents to obtain an unlawful benefit. He also claims that during searches at the Prosecutor General’s Office, NABU and SAPO staff allegedly gained access to materials relating to investigations against their colleagues. The searches were conducted in a case concerning protection rackets for illegal call centres and money laundering. The main suspect is the director of one of the PGO’s departments.
- The President, responding to Kravchenko’s video, urged the Verkhovna Rada to consider Kravchenko’s resignation as quickly as possible. Kravchenko wrote a resignation letter after meeting Volodymyr Zelenskyy more than a week ago, although he told journalists he had no intention of resigning.
- His first deputy has also resigned.
- Kravchenko travelled abroad before the video was published.
- NABU reported that as of the morning, the suspicion notice had not been served on Semen Kryvonos.