"Everything is lost": how Yuliia Tymoshenko came under suspicion. And will she leave politics?
On Wednesday, the NABU and SAPO handed a suspicion to the leader of the "Batkivshchyna" faction. According to NABU records, Yulia Tymoshenko tried to persuade several deputies from the "Servants" to switch sides for a reward and vote as she wanted. For this, the deputies would receive $10,000.
Journalists reported on the searches at Tymoshenko's residence closer to 11 p.m. As the politician herself stated from the parliament rostrum: "At 9:30 p.m., a huge number of people burst in. They arrived in five buses, armed and in full gear."
Journalist Yevhen Plinskyi reported that the searches lasted until exactly 6:20 a.m.
And closer to 10 a.m., it became known that Tymoshenko had been charged.
As a source at NABU told Censor.NET, "this will be a very simple and telling episode."
Indeed, when NABU released the recordings, they managed to explain the whole essence of backroom politics in a minute.
Based on the recordings, after several Servant of the People MPs were exposed for illegal payments (involving envelopes containing between $2,000 and $5,000 in various cases), one politician decided to use this to her advantage.
The recordings reveal Tymoshenko negotiating with one of the "Servants" deputies that she would pay them money – probably 10 thousand dollars – and they would vote as required.
PEOPLE'S DEPUTY OF UKRAINE — I just have one question: is this a one-time thing? And is it ten or what?
HEAD OF THE DEPUTY FACTION — These...
PEOPLE'S DEPUTY OF UKRAINE — Yeah.
HEAD OF THE DEPUTY FRACTION — Once a month, this is a constant issue for everyone.
PEOPLE'S DEPUTY OF UKRAINE — Yeah. That's it, me.
HEAD OF THE DEPUTY FRACTION — For one person. Is that okay?
PEOPLE'S DEPUTY OF UKRAINE — Well, of course, it's better than it was.
In the conversation, Tymoshenko also explains that her faction may vote in favour of dismissals in personnel matters, but not in favour of appointments. She also explains how to "kill" unnecessary bills.
HEAD OF THE DEPUTY FRACTION — Here's the thing. There are laws that are included in the agenda. They are included in the agenda, but we are against them. We still vote for their inclusion in the agenda.
PEOPLE'S DEPUTY OF UKRAINE — Yeah
HEAD OF THE DEPUTY FRACTION — And then we don't vote for them in order to "kill" them. So here too, where they are included in the agenda, we will also write to you.
PEOPLE'S DEPUTY OF UKRAINE — Yeah
In addition, Yulia Tymoshenko announces her goal in this story to "Servant" — to destroy the mono-majority.
HEAD OF THE DEPUTY FRACTION — For us, of course, it is desirable that there be no disruptions.
PEOPLE'S DEPUTY OF UKRAINE — Yeah
HEAD OF THE DEPUTY FRACTION — Because everything is very interconnected for us. That is, we want to crush this "majority" and therefore we must not give them any leeway. So talk to the guys. Of course, there will be no penalties, but it is very important.
PEOPLE'S DEPUTY OF UKRAINE — There must be discipline.
At the end of the conversation, the detectives laid 40,000 dollars on the table in front of Tymoshenko, which she claimed as her own.
To be honest, everything turned out to be very clear.
However, the leader of "Batkivshchyna" denied everything in public, of course.
"I officially declare that the published audio recordings have nothing to do with me," Tymoshenko wrote.
She stated that she would prove the groundlessness of the accusations in court.
"I have done this many times before," said the head of the "Batkivshchyna" faction.
Everything is clear here. But the most interesting thing is how it was done and what it will lead to.
From what the NABU has released, it looks like their fastest investigation.
On 12 January, i.e. on Monday, a conversation took place, on 13 January, detectives came with search warrants, and on 14 January, Tymoshenko was charged.
Why? Because Tymoshenko herself suggested a meeting at her office at that very time to hand over the money. That is, the money was to be handed over to her interlocutor and three other MPs.
Apparently, the interlocutor did not go to Tymoshenko's office. He simply handed over the recording to NABU.
So far, most MPs are inclined to believe that it was done by one of the "Servants," who was previously involved in a NABU case.
"Basically, it's an open secret in the Rada, and everyone knows it. It was a 'Servant' deputy who had been sitting with her in the temporary investigative commission, had been gaining her trust over a long period of time, and she fell for it," says the deputy.
"It definitely wasn't Buimister, who was initially blamed by Telegram channels. I saw her talking warmly with the faction this morning. She left the faction today because of the vote on Maliuk, not because of this," says one of the "Servants."
"I was told that it was another deputy from the 'Servants' who had been under suspicion by NABU since 2022," the deputy adds.
Despite the fact that Tymoshenko was very cheerful in public today, she told her colleagues that she was even ready to leave politics and that she had had enough.
But these are very distant plans and emotions.
In reality, what we can talk about now is the crisis of the mono-majority's votes and how others will take advantage of this.
Both "Voice" and "European Solidarity" voted today to appoint Mykhailo Fedorov as defence minister. Some did so out of sympathy for Fedorov, others because the country needs a defence minister. Shmyhal and Dmytro Natalukha were also appointed to the State Property Fund.
Another thing is that yesterday evening clearly showed that the "Servants," and more importantly, the president, do not have a cemented majority. Instead, there is a big bargaining chip.
Let me remind you what had happened. When Denys Shmyhal was appointed Minister of Energy, the scoreboard showed an incomprehensible 210 votes instead of 226. Meanwhile, 265 votes were cast for his dismissal from the post of Minister of Defence. And it was not about attitudes towards Denys Anatoliiovych, nor was it a competition for the post. Because no one wanted the post of Minister of Energy.
It was an internal demarche by the "Servants."
Only 153 deputies from the presidential faction voted. Although 186 representatives of the presidential faction voted for the dismissal of Fedorov from the post of head of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, 180 for the dismissal of Shmyhal, and 168 for the dismissal of Maliuk.
The deputies suddenly vanished into thin air. When the author wrote to the deputies, she received identical replies: "Seven years of the convocation, discipline"... "But everyone just scattered. Everyone was let down in terms of time, and everyone had scheduled meetings."
You have to admit, it's a rather interesting explanation in the context of a near blackout.
One might think of some intrigue on the part of the leader of the "Servant" faction, considering that he likes to play such games.
But all the MPs from different factions who were interviewed this time rejected this version.
"It's not Davyd, it's outside the Servant faction. Some were offended that they were being ignored again, some were frightened by the information about new suspicions," explained a source to Censor.NET.
Since July, i.e. after the case with NABU and SAPO, "Servants" has had problems with votes.
The Mindichgate scandal and suspicions against five "Servants" only exacerbated the destructive trends.
In particular, the so-called Pavliuk group began to show "disagreement" (in particular, due to recent personnel losses).
During the vote on Shmyhal, Pavliuk's group did indeed break away. And with it, a bunch of other little-known MPs.
"Everything will be fine, Pavliuk's group had a bit of a party, but they're back now," said one of the "Servants."
By morning, everyone had been persuaded and the votes were found. But the episode with the lack of votes at the most important moment still remained.
That is, the Servants' personnel vote has been recorded. As of yesterday, there were 229 of them. Today, there are 227 left, due to the appointment of Dmytro Natalukha to the State Property Fund and the death of Oleksandr Kabanov.
Next on the list to become MPs on the "Servant of the People" party's electoral lists are Roman Kravets (better known as the owner of the Joker Telegram channel) and travel agency director Serhii Karabuta. However, the former is still refusing to write the letter of resignation that is expected of him. The second is hesitating with his decision. But the list is not moving forward because of this.
Next is Yurii Fedorenko, a military officer who heads the "Achilles" regiment. He has not made up his mind either.
This means that the "Servants" increasingly need votes from outside.
Now let's see who gave them yesterday and how.
In addition to the "Servants," votes for Shmyhal's resignation were cast by "Batkivshchyna" - 17 out of 25 available, non-factional - 11 out of 22, Platform for Life (Lovochkin-Boiko) - 16 out of 21, "Dovira" - 18 out of 19, "For the Future" – 12 out of 17, and "Restoration" (Stolar-Isaienko) – 11 out of 17.
At the same time, on Tuesday, the same factions voted slightly differently on Shmyhal's appointment. "Batkivshchyna" – 0 out of 25 present, non-factional – 8 out of 22, Platform for Life (Lovochkin-Boiko) – 16 out of 21, "Dovira" – 16 out of 19, "For the Future" – 7 out of 17, "Restoration" (Stolar-Isaienko) – 10 out of 17.
And for comparison, let's take the vote on the dismissal of SSU Chairman Vasyl Maliuk.
With 235 votes in favour, "Batkivshchyna" gave 11 out of 25 available, non-factional – 5 out of 22, Platform for Life (Lovochkin-Boiko) – 12 out of 21, "Dovira" – 18 out of 19, "For the Future" – 11 out of 17, "Restoration" (Stolar-Isaienko) – 10 out of 17.
Voting for Shmyhal on Tuesday. Photo by Yaroslav Zhelezniak
In other words, the votes of Tymoshenko's faction were crucial in the vote to dismiss Maliuk. Without them, the scoreboard would have shown 224.
And the faction's MPs ended up fighting amongst themselves, because most of them didn't want to vote. Starting with those who were radically opposed to Andrii Kozhemiakin and Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, and ending with the "inappropriate" votes of Oleksandr Abdullin and Oleksandr Kucherenko. And in order to get those 11 votes, Tymoshenko persuaded each of them personally.
In other words, you heard in the recordings that Tymoshenko wanted to "kill" the majority, but she was playing a much wiser political game.
By taking even a small group of "Servants" under her wing, she automatically raised her own stakes in the bidding for votes.
"She understood that they would have to form a coalition with her, and that would be a whole different scale (of bargaining)," notes one of the experienced MPs.
"Over the past few weeks, there have been rumours that Tymoshenko was planning not just to exchange votes, but to claim positions. I can't remember the last time I saw anything like this. In other words, she was not at odds with the authorities; she was negotiating with them. And here I wonder whether she was really taken out of the game by accident," says one of the MPs.
It should be noted here that conspiracy theories are currently very popular among MPs, claiming that NABU and SAPO are acting in the interests of the United States (for example, to weaken the president in negotiations).
Objectively speaking, the president's faction is very unbalanced. And in fact, anyone can currently play their own behind-the-scenes games for votes.
There could be many versions of what had happened: someone could have very timely either neutralised the threat or reined in a competitor, or it could have just been a coincidence.
To clarify, NABU did an excellent job, no question, but that does not answer the question of whose initiative it was to launch the deputy in this story.
In addition, it is now interesting to see how the fate of Tymoshenko's faction votes will unfold. Are they lost forever to the president's team, or will they be lured away one by one with Tymoshenko weakened? It will also be interesting to follow the "For the Future" group and the fate of its MPs, and not only because Yulia Tymoshenko saw her future political fate with them. But because a couple of weeks ago, certain anonymous Telegram channels were quite actively sending them greetings.
Tetiana Nikolaienko, Censor.NET
