Ukraine's Anti-Corruption Bureau Rejects Fugitive Ex-Prosecutor General's Claims of Plot

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has dismissed claims by former prosecutor general Ruslan Kravchenko that the agency took part in a plot to carry out "violent acts" against him. The Bureau said the accusations are an effort to obtain protection abroad.

In comments to Interfax-Ukraine and Ukrainska Pravda, NABU and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Office (SAPO) said they regard Kravchenko's statement as "an attempt to secure protection in the country where he is staying." They noted that he left Ukraine in haste after the two bodies carried out Operation Carthage. The Bureau stressed that his assertions about NABU and SAPO involvement in the events he described are untrue.

Kravchenko made the allegations on 28 October. He claimed that the heads of NABU and SAPO asked for a group to be sent to Austria to commit violent acts against him, supposedly on orders from the President's Office.

He also said two servicemen from the Artan unit of Defence Intelligence of Ukraine were detained in Austria. According to Kravchenko, one of them had earlier worked in NABU's surveillance unit, and the unit's commander, Viktor Torkotiuk, was in Austria when his subordinates were detained.

Kravchenko offered no evidence for these claims. Nor did he explain why he had not come back to Ukraine after his business trip.

He left the country on the night of 13-14 September. Under an order he had signed himself, he was meant to spend five days in Paris, reportedly attending hearings on Ukrainian children held under the auspices of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. His name, however, was not on the list of participants in the discussion.

The trip ended on 18 September. Mariana Haivovska, spokesperson for the Prosecutor General's Office, said Kravchenko had still not returned to work by 21 September.

The case has also touched journalists. On 8 October, Ukrainska Pravda journalist Mykhailo Tkach and cameraman Yaroslav Bondarenko were detained in Vienna while on an editorial assignment connected with locating Kravchenko. Austria's Interior Ministry said Tkach was suspected of espionage, but the suspicion was later not substantiated.

The Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office cited "eyewitness accounts" as grounds for the arrest, without explaining how it had checked their reliability. On 14 October, Tkach said those accounts may have come from people linked to Kravchenko and his circle.