Head of Ukraine's Supreme Court Arrested After Alleged $3M Bribe

Facts

• The chairman of Ukraine's Supreme Court, Vsevolod Kniaziev, was reportedly arrested on corruption allegations, local sources said on Monday.¹
• The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), alongside the office of the Special Anti-corruption Prosecutor (SAP), did not mention Kniaziev by name but said they had exposed "large-scale corruption" in Ukraine's top court, adding that further investigations are continuing.²
• "NABU and SAP have exposed large-scale corruption in the Supreme Court, namely a scheme for receiving undue benefits by the leadership and judges of the Supreme Court. Urgent investigative actions are currently underway," NABU said in a statement.²
• Nonetheless, Ukrainian media was able to confirm that it was in fact Kniaziev that was detained, stating he was wanted on suspicion of receiving a $3M bribe.³
• One Ukrainian outlet, citing sources, reported that the money allegedly came from backers of Kostyantyn Zhevago, a Ukrainian billionaire who was arrested on embezzlement charges in France — at Kyiv's request — last December.²
• The bribe was said to be in connection with a court ruling in April that dealt with the firm Ferrexpo. The case addressed a repurchase of shares from a subsidiary company that is said to have benefitted Zhevago and others; 18 other Supreme Court judges reportedly who also had a hand in the decision are currently being investigated.²

Sources: ¹Kyiv Independent, ²The Sydney Morning Herald, and ³Dw.Com.

Narratives

• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by UnHerd. Ukraine is notoriously one of the world's most corrupt countries — however, those concerns were hushed up and swept under the rug as soon as the war started. The longer the fighting goes on, the more these problems will start to resurface.
• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Al Jazeera. While Ukraine does have a corruption problem, this is routinely over-exaggerated by Russia as one of the justifications for its invasion. In fact, Russia's corruption problem is far worse than that of Ukraine, which can be traced back to the Soviet era. Now that Ukraine is moving into the European sphere of influence, it is making steady improvements.