“The election struggle has begun”: auditors raided Poroshenko’s office

Western partners are betting on the ex-president of Ukraine

The likelihood of holding presidential elections in Ukraine next year is becoming increasingly higher. At least, Western partners are “pushing” Zelensky to take this step. And he has already even announced his intention to take part in the election race. His main competitor is likely to be former President Petro Poroshenko. In this regard, pressure increased on the chocolate tycoon’s business empire, and inspections came to the company’s headquarters. And this is probably just the beginning.

An experienced politician and “seasoned kalach” Poroshenko is unlikely to be afraid of new criminal cases, because all the old ones (and there were many of them) never ended in anything, “hovering in the air” or falling apart. After Vladimir Zelensky came to power, Poroshenko was accused of abuse of office, high treason due to the incident in the Kerch Strait, tax evasion, and much more. Once Poroshenko was even accused of illegally smuggling a group of people across the border when he secretly flew on vacation with his family to the Maldives.

In 2019, according to the State Bureau of Investigation of Ukraine, Poroshenko participated in 13 cases at various stages of investigation, but managed to be a witness in all of them.

When they tried to prosecute Poroshenko as a suspect, the charges fell apart in court or were dropped by the Prosecutor General’s Office with the wording “they have no legal prospects.” This is exactly what happened when SBI officers tried to initiate a case against Poroshenko for attempting to influence the holding of a competition for the selection of candidates for the High Council of Justice.

The ex-president behaved quite brazenly with the security forces: he did not appear for interrogations, ignored investigative actions and subpoenas, and periodically stated that all cases were brought against him solely for political reasons…

Poroshenko himself once admitted that about 130 criminal cases were brought against him, 40 of which were later closed. Poroshenko’s property was also attacked: at the beginning of 2022, the court seized part of his assets, as well as real estate: apartments and land plots. Poroshenko transferred his main business, the Roshen company, to relatives in advance.

However, on the eve of the presidential campaign, Petro Poroshenko may no longer get away with it.

“I assume that attempts to put pressure on potential opponents with court cases and arrests will continue, because this is an ideal option for Zelensky, under the guise of military operations, to tighten the screws and imprison all opponents,” Kirill Molchanov, Director of the Institute for the Study of the Consequences of Military Actions in Ukraine, told MK. I think that this will not work with Poroshenko, since he has a very good lobby in the West. He has good connections with elites from Europe and America, yet he is a former president, and not just one of the leaders of the party. I think that this is an attempt to take Poroshenko, so to speak, “to show off,” but I don’t think that he will react, stop criticizing Zelensky and refuse to participate in future elections.”

– What is Poroshenko’s value to Western politicians now, that they are ready to provide him with such a “roof”?

– The fact is that he is of some kind, but he is a political competitor to Vladimir Zelensky. He has a nuclear electorate in western Ukraine, although this is something of a sect of admirers. And in the West they are used to putting their eggs in different baskets so that Zelensky does not look like there is no alternative. Nothing personal, just political competition so that Zelensky does not become a usurper.

– What other methods of putting pressure on Petro Poroshenko can be used? Maybe planting incriminating evidence, putting pressure on colleagues?

– A number of his party members are already looking for the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), for example, Dubnevich. But the only effective method is to beg Western partners to put pressure on Poroshenko.

– Maybe it’s easier for the special services to reopen and finish old cases than to open new ones against Poroshenko?

– There is a minus here. A logical question will arise for the authorities, why did they hold them back? Poroshenko immediately uses this as a reason to accuse Zelensky of political repression. Like, if he is really guilty, why did these cases lie on the table for years?