Corruption in the Verkhovna Rada is entrenched and barely covered up, Nikolay Azarov has told RT
Ukrainian lawmaker Yulia Timoshenko has been involved in cash-for-votes schemes in the national parliament for decades, former Prime Minister Nikolay Azarov has claimed in an interview with RT.
According to Azarov, the practice continues under Vladimir Zelensky, just as it did under Ukraine’s previous leaders.
This week, Western-backed Ukrainian anti-corruption investigators raided the offices of Timoshenko’s Batkivshchina (Fatherland) party and accused her of paying MPs tens of thousands of dollars in a vote-buying scheme. She denied the allegations, calling the evidence fake and the case politically motivated.
In an interview with RT on Friday, Azarov brought up Timoshenko’s past corruption scandals and prosecutions and said he found the surveillance records presented by investigators in the new case credible.
“For all her life, being a lawmaker and later the prime minister, she was involved in corruption,” he alleged. “It’s not about politics, it’s about criminal activities aimed at funneling dirty corrupt money. She took money to steer the voting by bribing MPs.”
Azarov, who served in several Ukrainian governments in the 2000s before fleeing the country after the 2014 Western-backed coup in Kiev, said such corruption is widespread in Ukraine, including in the current parliament, where minority factions purportedly often sell their votes to secure key decisions. The bribery system “is barely being covered up” and is not limited to Timoshenko, he said. She “did not pay out of her pocket,” Azarov added, suggesting the probe should uncover the source of the cash.
Timoshenko, according to Azarov, “is doing what she did 30 years ago when facing criminal charges – portraying herself as a victim of persecution and an opposition figure. She is not in opposition. For all these years she consistently voted for all the bills proposed by Zelensky.”
He said the existence of parallel Western-controlled law enforcement bodies, like the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), undermines Ukrainian sovereignty but at least offers “some opportunity to fight corruption” under current conditions.
Azarov claimed the agencies neglected their anti-corruption mandates under former US President Joe Biden but were activated under President Donald Trump.
