On February 7 Verkhovna Rada passed a resolution stripping ex- Premier Pavlo Lazarenko of parliamentary membership by an absolute majority of votes (337 ayes and 0 nays). Paradoxically, accused by the Ukrainian General Prosecutor’s Office of a number of financial crimes and by US law enforcement authorities of laundering $114 million, unlawfully received and transferred to foreign bank accounts in 1994-99, the former premier was found guilty of money- laundering as per Article 302-bis of the Swiss Criminal Code, Pavlo Lazarenko had retained his lawmaker status until February 7, 2002. What had prevented the Ukrainian people’s deputies from making that decision earlier? This question cannot be answered with certainty.
First, why did it take so long? Second, why now? Without doubt very influential forces had been involved in the Lazarenko case and very many found it vitally important to distance themselves from him. Several days ago Deputy General Prosecutor Oleksiy Bahanets announced that the criminal cases relating to the assassinations of former NBU President Vadym Hetman and People’s Deputy Yevhen Shcherban had been forwarded to a court of law. Both cases are being heard together and both incriminate Pavlo Lazarenko. Also, before putting the draft resolution to a vote in the parliament, as proposed by SDPU(o) leader Viktor Medvedchuk and Communist Heorhy Kriuchkov, Speaker Ivan Pliushch presented a polarized draft by Deputies Chobit and Shyshkin to the effect that stripping Lazarenko of deputy status was “unacceptable.” Mr. Pliushch did not bother to explain precisely what that unacceptability was all about. Maybe this is a coincidence, but the final resolution was passed on the date when US experts were checking the authenticity of former Major Melnychenko’s tapes, and that issue remains expressly obscure. The strange thing is that the US experts got hold of the recordings shortly before the parliamentary elections in Ukraine. The California Northern District Court ordered Mykola Melnychenko to hand all recordings in his possession over to the Department of Justice. They say that Lazarenko’s lawyers are also very interested in gaining access to the tapes, hoping that, if and when the recordings become public knowledge, their client’s case will take a new turn.
Be it as it may, it is safe to assume that the end of Lazarenko’s parliamentary career on February 7 was completely unforeseen. Even Batkivshchyna and Reforms-Congress fractions voted for the resolution — against Lazarenko — for reasons that are only too well understood.
Interestingly, the expulsion saga received a new picturesque episode not so long ago. Viktor Zherdytsky, former president of Hradobank and current people’s deputy, was registered as a candidate people’s deputy in territorial constituency No. 75 by the Transcarpathian district election committee, albeit the second time around. This hopeful is currently in a detention cell pending trial in Hanover, Germany, on charges of embezzling DM 4 million meant as compensation for Ukrainian Ostarbeiters. At first, the district election committee refused registration, referring to Zherdytsky’s prolonged absence from Ukraine and the fact that copies rather than originals of the required documents were submitted. But the copies were promptly replaced by originals and the arrested candidate’s absence was recognized by the commission as being in conformity with “the international treaties currently in effect” and the election law. As for the man himself, the German court is expected to pass judgment in his case before the end of March (timing it to the election date in Ukraine?). Suppose Zherdytsky is found guilty? Will it be the same as in the Lazarenko case? Will he be eventually stripped of the people’s deputy status? Is this some vicious circle?
Getting back to what happened in the parliament on Thursday, February 7, one of the final voting days for the current Verkhovna Rada membership, a number of important resolutions were passed. The draft resolution On the Initiation of Impeachment Proceedings with Regard to President Leonid Kuchma and the Formation of a Special Committee of Inquiry was placed on the agenda by 282 ayes, along with draft resolutions setting up ad hoc committees of inquiry to investigate transgressions of human rights and the privacy of telephone conversations; the traffic accident involving Head of the Presidential Administration Volodymyr Lytvyn; the Prosecutor General’s Office recommendation to request the US Department of Justice to allow interrogation of Mykola Melnychenko in the US; dismissing Volodymyr Shcherban as head of the Sumy regional state administration, etc. In the time before the election the legislators plan to amend the law on the parliamentary elections to extend their term of office to five years. In a word, much was said about the election campaign’s impact on the current last session of Verkhovna Rada, and no one had expected that so much would be said... Perhaps the increased solar activity is to blame. To use the musical parlance: Finale. Coda. Apotheosis.
