Petro Poroshenko became a defendant in Medvedchuk’s “coal case” – RBK

December 17 investigators of the State Bureau of Investigation already tried to hand Poroshenko summons for interrogation. They were waiting for him at the Verkhovna Rada, but he ignored them, got into the car and drove away. On the same day, he flew out of the country.

At the same time, Poroshenko said that he was not going to hide abroad and would return to Ukraine in the first half of January. “I am told greetings from the President’s office that they will understand if I stayed in Europe. I will not give them such a gift and will return to Ukraine in the first half of January. But according to his own schedule, and not according to the schedule of the powerful screenwriter of the videos of Pan Zelensky, “he said in video message…

According to the Ukrainian Criminal Procedure Code (CPC), the presentation of suspicion means about the same as in Russia – the presentation of charges, lawyer Ilya Novikov explained to RBC. Once suspicions have been raised, a preventive measure does not have to be chosen, he notes. However, since the defense considers the case to be politically motivated, and also because of the seriousness of the charges, Novikov admits that the Ukrainian authorities will eventually go to the arrest of the ex-president. “The purpose of this is twofold – to isolate the opposition leader and impose sanctions by the NSDC (Council of National Security and Defense of Ukraine. – RBK), which are introduced out of court and include the seizure or seizure of assets, “adds Novikov.

The persons involved in the “coal case” mentioned by the RRG are also the head of the political council of the Ukrainian party “Opposition Platform – For Life” (Opposition Platform – For Life) Viktor Medvedchuk, businessman Serhiy Kuzyara and former Minister of Energy of the country Vladimir Demchishin (two are already under arrest, Demchishin is abroad).

This May The Ukrainian resource Bihus.info began to publish recordings of telephone conversations made in 2014 of a person with a voice similar to that of Viktor Medvedchuk, with representatives of Donbass and the leadership of Russia. Later posted the same records Security Service of Ukraine. Among the interlocutors of “Medvedchuk” in Moscow, according to the publication, are Dmitry Kozak (at that time the Deputy Prime Minister), Vladislav Surkov (the presidential aide) and others. With them, among other things, he negotiated the supply of coal from Donbass to Ukraine, repeating that he was coordinating his actions with the “first”, “main”, “our” and simply “Poroshenko”.

As a result, according to the findings of the investigation, coal began to flow to Ukraine according to the following scheme: two mines (mine named after Kiselev and “Luhanskugol”, located in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, respectively) were legally re-registered to the territory controlled by Ukraine, and with them through state company Centrenergo contracted for the supply of anthracite on the condition that the settlement would be non-cash and in the territory controlled by Kiev, since in the fall of 2014 banking activities in the DPR and LPR were prohibited in Ukraine.

Medvedchuk himself claimedthat these records are “edited”. In court, he called the charges against him legally null and void. According to him, there was nothing criminal in the agreement between Centrenergo and the mines of Donbass, because it fully complied with the law “On a special procedure for local self-government in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions”, which the Verkhovna Rada adopted in pursuance of the Minsk agreements. “It was the time of the Minsk agreements, the time of the Normandy meetings, when people believed that a peaceful settlement was possible and should be … Therefore, it is very strange to read today such an assessment of the actions of people who were directly involved in bringing this peace to life,” he said he.

In 2014, due to the loss of control over part of Donbass, Ukraine turned from an exporter to an importer of coal – most of the mines that produced coal were behind the front line. In August 2014, the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine found a way to diversify supplies – one million tons of coal for thermal power plants (TPPs) were to be purchased from South Africa. The state-owned enterprise Ukrinterenergo managed to contract the required volumes, and in early November the first shipments arrived at the TPP. But a few days later, at a meeting of the NSDC, President Poroshenko criticized the terms of the contract, pointing out that the coal was purchased through an offshore company more expensive than the market and was of poor quality. A criminal case was opened against the director of Ukrinterenergo.

As Kiev negotiated the supply of coal from South Africa, Russia began to restrict coal exports to Ukraine. As a result, Centrenergo began buying coal from mines that were under the control of separatists from the DPR and LPR.

The investigation believes that the disruption of supplies from South Africa was the result of a conspiracy. Not later than October 2014, Poroshenko “entered into a criminal conspiracy” with Medvedchuk, “and they distributed among themselves the functions, roles and tasks performed in a general criminal plan,” says suspicion text Poroshenko. According to the plan, Russia was to create a shortage of coal for Ukraine by limiting supplies. Coal export was supposed to resume only at the beginning of deliveries from enterprises controlled by the DPR and LPR.

“A month ago, when the suspicion was published to the former Energy Minister Demchishin, it was quite clear <...> they were planning to write Poroshenko. And since September it was clear that their strategic task was to write the names of Medvedchuk and Poroshenko next to them on suspicion. We knew this and were quite ready for all this “, – wrote ex-president’s lawyer on Facebook. In his opinion, “they are trying to feed society a story about bad and incorrect coal purchases under Poroshenko in 2014 against the backdrop of empty coal warehouses in 2021, complete dependence on Russia for coal and electricity, and a series of scandals with Zelensky and his inner circle.”