Anti-graft agency detains Ukrainian security official as inter-agency conflict reignites
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) said on Feb. 23 that it had detained a Security Service (SBU) employee in what appears to be the continuation of a long-running conflict between the two agencies.
The conflict is seen as part of a broader struggle between the President's Office and the NABU, which says the authorities are trying to eliminate its independence. The SBU, which is seen as loyal to the President's Office, has arrested NABU employees, accusing them of having ties to Russia, and portrayed the crackdown as an attempt to counteract Moscow's alleged influence on the bureau.
The NABU said it had detained an employee of the Security Service's Kyiv branch and charged him with receiving a $68,000 bribe from two people. The SBU did not respond to a request for comment.
The employee was allegedly bribed for removing them from military enlistment officers' wanted lists and arranging a fake deferment from conscription.
"The deferment was to be secured using knowingly false documents claiming that each of the men had three children," the NABU said. "The fake birth certificates were supposed to be issued abroad."
The ongoing conflict between the NABU and the SBU began in July, when the SBU searched NABU premises and detained Ruslan Mahamedrasulov, the head of a NABU detective unit, and his father, charging them with "aiding the aggressor state" — Russia.
At the same time, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law that subordinated the NABU to the prosecutor general, an official appointed by the president. The bureau's independence was later restored following the first major protests during the all-out war, but the clash continued.
Critics argue that the case against Mahamedrasulov is a political vendetta for his role in investigating Zelensky's allies in a case involving state nuclear power monopoly Energoatom, the biggest corruption investigation during Zelensky's presidency.
Eight suspects have been charged in the case, also known as the Midas operation. Timur Mindich, a close associate of the president, is allegedly the ringleader.
The clash between the agencies continued in September, when the NABU charged Illia Vitiuk, former head of the SBU's cybersecurity, with illicit enrichment and lying in his asset declaration.
The Security Service responded the same month by charging Vitaly Tebekin, a NABU detective, with lying in his asset declaration.
The conflict appeared to have subsided as Zelensky's chief of staff Andriy Yermak resigned after the NABU searched his premises in November. Yermak is also being investigated in the Energoatom case.
Meanwhile, Mahamedrasulov was released from custody in December as criticism of his case mounted.
But the standoff continued on Feb. 10, when the NABU said that that an unspecified law enforcement agency had set up a surveillance device in the home of a NABU unit chief.
The official is investigating corruption in the defense industry as part of the Midas operation, the bureau said.
Although the NABU did not specify which law enforcement agency was involved, Chief Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Oleksandr Klymenko hinted that it could be the SBU.
