Ukraine's disgraced ex-prosecutor general moves to Austria, media report says

Ukraine’s disgraced former Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko has moved to Austria, the media outlet Ukrainska Pravda reported late on Sept. 23.

The Kyiv Independent has requested comment from Kravchenko and will publish his response once it is received.

Kravchenko was fired by parliament on Sept. 15 amid a major corruption investigation.

He left Ukraine on Sept. 14, under the pretext of an official trip to a conference in Paris. But the organizers told the Kyiv Independent that they had not expected him to attend, strengthening the suspicions that the trip was a fig leaf for fleeing Ukraine to avoid potential charges.

Ukrainska Pravda cited records from Austria’s Central Register of Residents.

According to the register, Kravchenko and his wife are registered on 7 Jordangasse, apartment No. 12, in downtown Vienna.

Apartment No. 12 at 7 Jordangasse is the office of CS Corporate Services GmbH, a company that provides registered addresses to Austrian limited liability companies, secretarial services, management services, and the sale of shelf companies that are already incorporated and ready to be transferred to a new owner, according to Ukrainska Pravda.

There is speculation in the media that Kravchenko may apply for political asylum in Austria.

Austria does not generally extradite Ukrainian citizens, and several former Ukrainian officials live there.

Kravchenko's personal office was searched by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau in early September as part of a large-scale corruption investigation into an alleged scam call center protection racket run from the Prosecutor General's Office.

Within the investigation, a top prosecutor described as a “confidant” of Kravchenko was charged. Publicly revealed evidence hints at Kravchenko being implicated, and he submitted his resignation on Sept. 7.

Kravchenko left Ukraine on Sept. 14 and simultaneously approved charges against the head of the anti-corruption agency investigating him.

The charges against Semen Kryvonos, head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, and an unnamed “close associate” of Oleksandr Klymenko, chief of the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), were seen by many as a petty vendetta rather than pursuit of justice.

The charges were canceled by the Prosecutor General's Office late on Sept. 14, and Kravchenko was dismissed by parliament the next day.

On Sept. 17, President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed Anton Kovalsky, chief prosecutor of Khmelnytsky Oblast, as acting prosecutor general.

Media reports suggest Kovalsky could ultimately be appointed prosecutor general, rather than merely serving in an acting capacity.