Servant of people, Yermak's "friend", participant in negotiations with Russian Federation regarding "security guarantees": what is known about new Prosecutor General Kostin
Deputy Andrii Kostin has been appointed to the post of Prosecutor General.
This is reported by Censor.NET with reference to Radio Svoboda.
Before becoming a deputy, Andrii Kostin was a co-owner of the Pravo law firm and deputy chairman of the Odesa Oblast Bar Council. He also taught constitutional, budgetary, tax and customs law, as well as the European Convention on Human Rights at courses for lawyers at the Odesa Regional Bar Association.
"There is nothing surprising that I ended up on the list of "Servants of the People". I think that this is, among other things, a tribute to the work that I carried out both in the bodies of bar self-government and as an expert in various projects. Therefore, in certain I was quite well-known in professional circles," Kostin said.
On January 14, 2020, the People's Deputy headed the Committee on Legal Policy.
"I actively worked in the committee and, apparently, I demonstrated with my work that I am ready to work effectively in a new position," Kostin himself explained his election as the head of the committee.
On November 10, 2019, Kostin became a member of the Servant of the People party. In March 2021, the deputy became a member of her political party.
In August 2021, President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded Kostin the title of "honored lawyer of Ukraine" for "significant labor achievements, many years of conscientious work and on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of independence."
According to Andriy Kostin, he knows Andrii Iermak and has been communicating with him for "many years". In 2019, it was Iermak who advised to include Kostin in the list of "Servants of the People".
He explained this decision as follows: "I am very particular about the trust of my friends, if I recommend someone, I pass it through myself. For me, there is nothing higher than human relations."
In 2021, People's Deputy Andrii Kostin became one of the candidates for the new head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office. He was called a "key contender from the authorities" for this position.
At the same time, as the journalists of "Schemes" (Radio Svoboda) discovered, three members of the selection commission had a probable conflict of interest due to their connections with Kostin: the head of the competition commission and two other members had cooperated with him before or continued to cooperate at the time of the competition for the SAPO in various expert and advisory councils.
In the end, Kostin was eliminated from the competition: none of the international members of the selection committee, as well as Roman Kuybida and Vyacheslav Navrotsky, voted "for" his integrity.
In the fall of 2021, "Schemes" journalists reported that Andriy Kostin's daughter Anastasia works as an assistant to his faction colleague Andrii Zadorozhny, and Zadorozhny's son Ivan is an assistant to Kostin himself. As of October 2021, Anastasia Kostinia and Ivan Zadorozhny were paid the same salary - 26 thousand hryvnias per month. Andrii Kostin refused to answer the question of "Scheme" about whether he agreed with his colleague to exchange child assistants.
At the same time, Andriy Zadorozhnyi said: "We're not stupid, are we? We know who went to work for whom? That's why my son arranged for him. His daughter arranged for me. And the agreement... Well, for sure, no: we didn't agree."
Kostin's wife was also among the deputy assistants. As of 2021, she worked as an assistant to his faction colleague Maxim Dyrdin, and Dyrdin's wife was at that time an assistant to Kostin himself.
Budget housing
In 2020, Andrii Kostin became one of 19 "servants of the people" who rented housing at budget expense, while declaring a million dollar fortune. According to the declaration at the time, the sum of Kostin's own monetary assets amounted to UAH 4.8 million.
Problems with declaration
In 2019-2020, according to anti-corruption experts, Deputy Kostin did not declare any place of residence in Kyiv, although he rented housing in the capital at budget expense.
In addition, as they discovered, in 2019 Kostin sold two apartments in Odesa, but did not submit a notification to NAPC about significant changes in property status (it is about income from the sale of apartments in the amount of UAH 1.2 million).
Participation in negotiating groups with Russia
Since May 2020, Kostin has been a member of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group for settlement of the situation in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and later became its deputy chairman.
In April 2022, President Zelensky included Kostin in the delegation for negotiations with Russia on "security guarantees of Ukraine".
