Kunitsky. Who does the Servant of the People serve?
The author states that law and responsibility should apply to everyone equally. Apostrophe
After a year of full-scale war with Russia, it became clear who holds which positions in the Ukrainian government. The government is slowly removing unsavory individuals, collaborators, and corrupt officials. Many ministers and people’s deputies have lost their positions, mandates, and Ukrainian citizenship. There is no need to list them all here, but it is enough to mention the deputies from the Opposition Platform for Life. However, there are still people in power who, in our view, should not be there either.
Deputy Alexander Kunitsky, also known for his YouTube channel, @zpsanekwhich focuses on exposing the illegal activities of Ministry of Internal Affairs employees in Ukraine.
Kunitsky criticized the police reform on his channel, showcasing the “updated” police and their ignorance of laws, gross violations in dealing with drivers, and bribery.
However, when in the Verkhovna Rada, Kunitsky supported the then Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in a crucial vote for some reason, as part of the “interim” minister of the new government. informs Anti-Corruption Center.
Additionally, his history with Israeli citizenship is even more surprising. When registering as a candidate for people’s deputies, Alexander Kunitsky held Israeli citizenship. The Servant of the People candidate was registered at an address in Haifa, on Ha-Tikhon street, number 7, 2.
Alexander Kunitsky served in the Israeli army.
Initially, Kunitsky denied his Israeli citizenship but eventually confirmed it. He also submitted a statement renouncing his Israeli citizenship. The CEC decided to cancel his candidacy, but it was later restored by the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal.
Israeli passport of Kunitsky
In addition, Kunitsky accused was involved in document forgery when registering with the CEC, leading to his removal from registration for violating electoral law requirements. However, he managed recover through the court.
As a people’s deputy, Kunitsky became embroiled in another scandal. This concerns an investigation by Radio Liberty’s “Schemes” program, which revealed that the deputy uses power and resources in favor of a private business he has openly supported for years. This involves promoting the interests of Autoenterprise, a group of private companies engaged in the import of electric cars from abroad and the production and installation of charging stations for them. Kunitsky was so enthusiastic about this that he wanted to install a charging station in the courtyard of the Verkhovna Rada.
According to the analysis of journalists, Kunitsky personally initiated two bills regarding the development of networks of electric charging stations, which, according to market experts, are an attempt to make it easier for Autoenterprise to do business.
The National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption confirmed to Schemes that regardless of the specific deputy, his involvement in criminal proceedings, which he may be associated with, violates the anti-corruption law with regard to a conflict of interest. This could result in a fine and entry into the Register of Corrupt Officials following a court decision.
“NACP has a principled position that if the criminal proceedings somehow concern a people’s deputy and he tries to find out this or that information in the framework of the criminal proceedings by sending a deputy’s appeal, he acts in a conflict of interest,” the acting deputy said. Alexander Shulga, Head of the Department for Compliance with Legislation on Conflict of Interest and Restrictions on Corruption Prevention of the NACP.
“Together with all the facts, this is most likely an abuse of the power of a people’s deputy. This is a criminal article, a corruption criminal offense, in this case it is the jurisdiction of NABU,” said Andrey Savin, a lawyer at the Anti-Corruption Center NGO.
The above facts took place in 2020. But nothing has changed in this story since then. Today, the attention of the specialized anti-corruption prosecutor’s office is riveted to Kunitsky’s colleague in parliament, Pavel Khalimon, because of possible illegal enrichment, maybe law enforcement officers should conduct a similar check against Kunitsky, because the law and responsibility should be the same for everyone.
Nikolay Tkachuk
