Ukraine woke up on Friday to news shaking the foundations of political power in the country. Agents from the National Anti-Corruption Agency (NABU) and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) this morning stormed the home of Andriy Yermak, head of the President’s Office and Volodymyr Zelenky’s right-hand man, in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital. Anti-fraud agencies came with a search warrant, as part of midas case, A network of kickbacks and money laundering affects Zelensky’s immediate circle.
NABU confirmed that the search was only being conducted at Yermak’s home and not at his office. Both are located in the government district of the Ukrainian capital. “NABU and SAPO inspectors have had full access to my apartment, lawyers are working with them and, for my part, they are fully cooperating with me,” Yermak wrote on social networks.
NABU and the Attorney General’s Office have warned for several days that there will be new proceedings regarding issue Midas. The media assumed that the next person affected would be Rustam Umarov, Secretary of the National Security Council, former Defense Minister, and Zelensky’s trusted man. Omerov was questioned by NABU last Wednesday as a witness. The surprise was that anti-corruption organizations went after Yermak first. It is still unknown whether the president’s right-hand man will be formally investigated.
Business basis issue Midas There are dozens of hours of recordings on the phones of Timur Mendich, Zelensky’s partner in the audiovisual production company Kvartal 95, the company that brought him fame as an actor. Mendic’s home was searched on November 10, but the current accused had fled the country a few hours earlier.
Mendic would be the mastermind of a kickback and money laundering network in several government ministries. The main ministry affected so far is energy. SAPO estimates that through Mendic and senior government officials, more than 85 million euros were stolen from the budget of the atomic energy company Energoatom.
Recordings released by anti-corruption organizations also reveal that Mendic maneuvered to manipulate contracts in the Ministry of Defense when Umarov led it.
It is not known what measures Zelensky can take regarding Yermak. On November 12, the president ordered the dismissal of another of his trusted men, former Minister of Justice and Energy German Galoshenko, after a search of his home. Galoshenko has not yet been formally investigated. The only former member of the government who has been formally investigated is former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov.
The opposition Golos party and media outlets such as Censor.net point out that Yermak appears in Mendic’s recordings under the alias “Ali Baba.” Alibaba, according to the audio recordings, was supposed to be responsible for obstructing investigations conducted by anti-corruption agencies.
Yermak’s power in Ukraine is almost absolute, surpassed only by Zelensky. For the president, his friend and most trusted man serves as an advisor, a leader in crucial negotiations, but also as a lightning rod on decisions that are controversial, because they will cause discomfort or because they are part of a dirty power game.
It all started in July
The storm actually began last July, when the Ukrainian Security Services (SSU, under the Ministry of Interior) carried out a raid against two dozen NABU and SAPO agents. A few days later, Zelensky unexpectedly submitted a law to the Rada (Ukrainian parliament) de facto suspending the independence of anti-corruption organizations. The president withdrew the law after being subjected to a torrent of criticism from the European Union and suffering from the first popular demonstrations during the war. NABU and SAPO, which have the support of the European Union, leaked that the maneuvers sought to stop the investigation into the Mendic case.
Social unrest around the president has exploded as a result issue Midas. The three main opposition parties are mobilizing support among the parliamentary majority for Zelensky’s party, Servant of the People, to submit a no-confidence motion to dismiss the government and create a national unity executive body. The situation is so difficult for Zelensky that on November 20 he met with his parliamentary group to confront the pressure. Important names in his ranks asked him to take a radical decision to end the unrest, which was to dismiss Yermak. The president ruled out this, and also ruled out changes in the government.
Popular discontent is increasing at a time when the powers are failing to confront the Russian invader. A poll conducted by the Sociopolis Center for Population Studies in November confirms that 70% of citizens want Yermak dismissed.
“In the beginning, in 2022, we had a lot of strength, a national unity that we had never felt before, but today society is not united with our leaders. So it is difficult to continue,” Svetlana Biohova, a hotel businesswoman from Bucha, said in El País newspaper on Thursday. Anastasia Kuchereva, a librarian in central Kiev, explained this Thursday: “I will tell you something that sounds very strong. But now I think I hate our government more than Putin, while we live every day without electricity because of the Russians, they steal resources. At least with the Russians we know who the enemy is.”
Kuchereva points out the daily power outage for more than 12 hours in Kiev due to the invaders’ bombing of the Ukrainian power grid. The country’s main remaining source of electricity is produced by Energoatom.