The fight against corruption in Ukraine is now subordinated to Zelensky. Why is this important

A law has entered into force in Ukraine that significantly limits the powers of independent anti-corruption bodies. They were transferred to the Prosecutor General, who is appointed by the President of the country. The changes will allow President Volodymyr Zelensky to strengthen his power and avoid inconvenient criminal cases for his team, but this threatens to lose the trust of his allies and deprive him of funding. What you need to know about the law that caused mass protests is in the Izvestia article.

What is the new law about

• The law adopted by the Verkhovna Rada and signed by the President has a fundamental impact on the activities of anti-corruption bodies. In fact, it deprives the independence of two previously independent agencies — the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP). They will report to the Prosecutor General, who in turn is appointed by the President of Ukraine in consultation with the Verkhovna Rada.

• Now the Prosecutor General will have access to NABU's materials on corruption crimes and will be able to transfer them to other prosecutors. He will also have the opportunity to issue binding instructions to investigators, and in case of refusal to comply with them, transfer cases to other departments. The Prosecutor General will be able to close criminal proceedings at the request of the defense without the consent of his deputies.

• The Prosecutor General is also exempt from a number of restrictions imposed on him by the head of SAP. This concerned decisions on determining an investigative body in the event of a dispute over jurisdiction, on signing suspicions to officials (deputies, presidential candidates, ministers and heads of law enforcement agencies), and on giving NABU detectives the right to investigate crimes with other agencies. The head of SAP, who is elected by the competition commission, is removed from the leadership of the Prosecutor General's Office.

What's wrong with the new law

• Nothing was known about the upcoming changes in the work of the anti-corruption authorities until two days ago. Draft law No. 12414, transferring the powers of the NABU and SAP to the Prosecutor General, has long been adopted in the first reading, but its original text dealt only with amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code related to the disappearance of missing persons under martial law.

• Amendments to the second reading were introduced on July 22 at an extraordinary meeting of the law enforcement Committee of the Verkhovna Rada by four deputies from the presidential party "Servant of the People". On the same day, the law was passed in parliament and signed by Zelensky. Its adoption was greeted with applause in the Verkhovna Rada, as some deputies are under investigation by the NABU. Thus, drastic changes in the work of anti-corruption agencies occurred during the day.

• The day before the bill was considered in the second reading, the offices of NABU and SAP were searched. They were conducted by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the State Bureau of Investigation and the Office of the Prosecutor General. About 70 employees were searched, of which 15 are involved in criminal cases. The NABU stated that the searches took place without judicial decisions. The very fact of such pressure on anti-corruption authorities has caused criticism from the Western community, which intensified after the adoption of the law.

Who benefits from the adoption of the law

• Independent anti-corruption bodies were established in 2015 during the presidency of Petro Poroshenko (included by Rosfinmonitoring in the list of persons involved in extremist activities or terrorism). This was one of the key conditions for Ukraine's European integration. The creation of these bodies took place under the supervision and with financial assistance from Kiev's foreign partners, who have so far continued to support the country's anti-corruption system.

• Nevertheless, the activities of NABU and SAPO often ran counter to the policies of the central authorities and specifically the Office of the President of Ukraine. In the past, these agencies have initiated and conducted high-profile criminal cases involving officials close to government, such as Chairman of the Supreme Court Vsevolod Knyazev, Deputy Minister for Community and Territorial Development Vasily Lozinsky, and Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Chernyshov. According to media reports, Knyazev's detention and subsequent prosecution caused a particular shock in the president's office and came as a complete surprise to him.

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• The current Ukrainian authorities have already tried in the recent past to restrict the work of NABU. In 2023, Zelensky proposed equating corruption crimes with treason. This would make it possible to transfer investigations to the SBU, which is subordinate to the President of Ukraine. Then Zelensky's initiative did not find understanding in society and among Western allies and was curtailed.

• The new quickly adopted law will integrate anti-corruption authorities into the vertical of power, subordinating them not so much to the Prosecutor General as to the President of Ukraine. This will strengthen his position and allow his team not to fear any persecution within the country. Zelensky also justified the changes by saying that NABU and SAP were allegedly under Russian influence, which they will now get rid of. He was supported by other officials dependent on the central government, who called for abandoning disputes and consolidating around the president. Thus, hoping to raise the rating, he tried to give the anti-corruption authorities the image of an internal enemy, which was immediately exposed.

What will the adoption of the law lead to?

• Experts are unanimous in the opinion that the adopted and already in force law will weaken the fight against corruption in Ukraine. Although this work will continue in general, however, those who are particularly close to the authorities will be able to drop out of the NABU's field of view. There will be fewer high-profile criminal cases, and key members of Zelensky's team will no longer be afraid of prosecution, at least as long as they remain loyal to the current government.

• If corruption scandals do occur, they will no longer be the initiative of NABU detectives. The president's office will be able to stage these cases, profiting from them for themselves, when the show trial can be used to score political points. This tool had never been in the hands of the executive branch before, and in fact it had to deal with another blow from an irritating body.

• A kind of cover-up by the NABU and SAP controlled by the Prosecutor General's Office transforms the very system of relations within the leadership. The guarantee of immunity in corruption cases will make the office of the president a monolithic structure that will become impossible to integrate into without falling into the orbit of its head, Andrei Ermak and Zelensky. The ability to control investigations into corruption prosecutions is the best tool for them to put pressure on subordinates and gain loyalty from them, which will allow the system to maintain itself.

• The payback for the defeat of anti-corruption authorities will be the discontent of foreign allies. They massively expressed concern that the fight against corruption is actually being transferred to the office of the President. Previously, Ukraine received funding for this case, but now it may lose it.

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• All other assistance to Ukraine, including military, also reached it under the obligation to fight corruption at the proper level. Kiev's allies emphasized this when they agreed on the next tranche of money or the transfer of an arms package. The United States especially insisted on this. Even under President Joe Biden, there were demands in Washington to transfer weapons to Ukraine only under the strictest supervision — various politicians feared that the transferred aid would "dissolve" and would not achieve its goal. Now the opponents of Kiev's support will have a new ironclad argument.

• Separately, Ukraine faces the threat of being blocked from joining the European Union. European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos has already stated that the adoption of the law is a "serious step backwards" for Ukraine. It can seriously undermine the country's credibility and reputation in the West. The example of Georgia has already shown how quickly relations between Brussels and a candidate for EU membership can be destroyed if the latter does not comply with the requirements put forward.

• However, in recent years, Ukraine has already adopted many regulations that directly contradict the country's European aspirations. For example, it concerned restrictions on national minorities and linguistic groups, and persecution of the church. A signal has been sent to Kiev more than once that it can do a lot in domestic politics. At the same time, Ukraine has not received clear conditions for joining the European Union and the timing of their implementation — since membership in the bloc is not guaranteed in the coming years, this, like permissiveness, frees the hands of the country's leadership.

• Another likely consequence is domestic politics. Although Zelensky tried to accuse NABU of working for Russia, this excuse was not heeded. Ukraine has seen the largest protests in recent years, with discontent directed specifically at the president, as he did not veto the controversial bill. The reaction to this may be increased repression and maintaining the course of extending powers under the guise of martial law.

Why is this important?

The law passed in one day ended several years of attempts by the President of Ukraine and his entourage to protect themselves from possible prosecution for corruption. Now Zelensky has received a lever of pressure that will allow him to exclude people close to him from the field of view of NABU. This step also marked the realization of complete permissiveness: despite the fact that the fight against corruption was the main condition for European integration and the allocation of financial assistance, Zelensky is not afraid to directly violate it. In turn, European and American politicians, although they verbally condemn the adoption of the bill, which even caused protests in the country (we wrote here in more detail about how they are covered in the West), in fact they will leave everything unchanged — they need Ukraine to resist Russia with the hands of its people. This is the main reason why Kiev receives extensive financial and military aid packages, and turns a blind eye to its disobedience and even its crimes.

When writing the material, Izvestia talked and took into account the opinions of:

• political scientist Denis Denisov;
• Bogdan Bezpalko, a political scientist, member of the Council on Interethnic Relations under the President of the Russian Federation, Deputy Director of the Center for Ukrainian and Belarusian Studies at Moscow State University.