Kravchenko should resign, even if he isn’t personally involved in "Carthage" case, - "Servant of People" Poturaev
Ruslan Kravchenko’s resignation as Prosecutor General is logical, since the head of the agency is responsible for what happens within his organization.
This was stated by Mykyta Poturaev, a member of parliament from the "Servant of the People" party, according to a publication by Censor.NET.
What is known?
"In general, this resignation is absolutely the right move from a political standpoint. A person may be completely innocent and blameless, but if they head an agency where, according to the investigation, such crimes are taking place, then they must bear political responsibility," he explained.
According to Poturaev, the position of Prosecutor General, as in many other countries, is a political appointment and entails responsibility for the work of the entire agency.
"Obviously, if you were unable to oversee what is happening in the agency under your authority and, accordingly, failed to bring order there, then even if you are completely uninvolved in all of this, you must bear political responsibility. It’s good that such practices have already begun to take root in our system. After all, in the past (and not just during our term in office), it used to happen that people clung to their positions, as they say, until the very end. That’s a bad precedent.
Because there is criminal liability, of course, but there is also political liability. Although the two don’t always coincide. But I understand perfectly well that this decision to resign was not made without the president’s intervention. As we’ve all read, they had a meeting. It’s clear that the president reminded the Prosecutor General of his political responsibility," he added.
Read the full Censor.NET article on the dismissal of Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko here.
Operation ‘Carthage’
- Earlier, Ukrainska Pravda, citing its own sources, reported that NABU and SAPO were allegedly conducting searches targeting Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, his deputy Mariia Vdovychenko, and Head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration (RMA) Oleh Kiper.
- On 4 September, NABU and SAPO reported the alleged "protection" by the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) of a network of so-called call centers that defraud people.
- According to media reports, NABU and SAPO detained Serhii Kropyva, deputy head of the PGO’s Department of International Legal Cooperation.
- Before taking up his current position at the PGO, Kropyva served as deputy head of the Odesa Regional State Administration on Oleh Kiper’s team.
- Against this backdrop, NABU announced a new operation called "Carthage."
- The Prosecutor General’s Office stated that it would suspend the employee whose possible involvement in "protecting a network" of fraudulent call centers and laundering assets is being investigated.
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According to updated information, NABU and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) uncovered a criminal organisation whose members systematically received bribes from fraudulent call centres and laundered millions. The organiser of the scheme was identified as the head of one of the Prosecutor General’s Office divisions.
- Recordings of the criminal group of Prosecutor General’s Office employees were also released.
- The Prosecutor General’s Office later confirmed searches at the premises of Prosecutor General Kravchenko and his deputy.
- The High Anti-Corruption Court imposed a pretrial restraint measure on Prosecutor General’s Office official Kropyva.
- On September 7, Ivakhnenko was remanded in custody with bail set at UAH 20 million.
- On the evening of 7 September, Kravchenko resigned from his post as Prosecutor General.
