by Veronika Kyrylenko
Release of audio recordings of the phone calls between “individuals whose voices sound like” those of ex-President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and Vice President Joseph Biden and John Kerry must be making it hot and sweaty in a Delaware basement
Half
a year after the failed attempt to impeach President Trump over his
“pressure” on Ukraine, a topic of the relationship between the U.S. and
Ukraine will be yet again getting close attention and presumably making
it hot and sweaty in the Delaware basement.
A reason for that is a political scandal that burst out in Kiev on May 19, when a member of Ukrainian Parliament Andrey Derkach called a press conference where he released audio records
of the phone calls between “individuals whose voices sound like” those
of ex-President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and Vice President Joseph
Biden, as well as Secretary of State John Kerry who discussed the course
of Ukrainian domestic policy in very precise detail. On that tapes, Joe
Biden factually tells Poroshenko what to do, and Poroshenko seeking
advice, cooperates his actions and frankly reassures Biden that all his
orders will be executed. Mr. Derkach said that the contents of those
records are sufficient to incriminate Poroshenko a treason. As for our
side of the pond, the tables are rapidly turning against Biden, who, so
far, “magically” shrugged off all corruption accusations.
Yours
truly, as a native Russian and Ukrainian speaker, was thrilled to
listen to every single word that was said on that press conference.
The
central topic of the conversations on the highest level was a figure of
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, whom American counterparts
insisted to be removed from the Office as a key precondition of landing
Ukraine $1 billion that it strove to receive from IMF to keep its
collapsing economy afloat.
The
first conversation between Poroshenko and Kerry took place on December
3, 2015. During that initial call, Kerry told Poroshenko that “Vice
President Biden would like you to consider a possibility to replace
General Prosecutor Viktor Shokin … Vice President is concerned about
it.” Kerry urged Poroshenko to resolve this “issue” by the Biden’s visit
to Ukraine.
On February 18, 2016 Poroshenko gave Biden “good news”: “Yesterday I met with General Prosecutor Shokin, and despite of the fact that we didn’t
have any corruption charges, we don’t have any information about him
doing something wrong, I specially asked him … to resign... And
despite of the fact that he has a support in the Parliament. And as a
finish of my meeting with him, he promised to give me the statement on
resignation. And one hour ago he bring me the written statement of his resignation. And this is my second step for keeping my promises.”
“Great!” – exclaims Biden. Thus, there was nothing wrong with Shokin,
according to Poroshenko, but one billion dollars outweighed it for the
corrupt Ukrainian President.
Interestingly, that is not even the news since Biden himself bragged about his influence on Ukraine at the Foreign Affair Issue Launch on January 23, 2018: “I
was supposed to announce that there was another billion-dollar loan
guarantee. And I had gotten a commitment from Poroshenko and from
Yatsenyuk [Prime Minister of Ukraine] that they would take action
against the state prosecutor. And they didn't…I said, you're not getting
the billion. I'm going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six
hours. I looked at them and said: I'm leaving in six hours. If the
prosecutor is not fired, you're not getting the money. Well, son of a
bitch. He got fired.”
Yes,
Viktor Shokin was fired, but Biden made more demands from Poroshenko on
March 22, 2016: “Tell me that there is a new government and a new
Prosecutor General. I am prepared to do a public signing of the commitment for
the billion dollars.” “Extremely strong motivation!” – replied
Poroshenko eagerly.
On May 13, 2016, Biden congratulated
Poroshenko on “getting the new Prosecutor General,” saying that it will
be “critical for him to work quickly to repair the damage Shokin did,”
than added “And I’m a man of my word, and now that the new Prosecutor General is in place, we’re ready to move forward to signing that one billion dollar loan guarantee.”
Poroshenko remarked that he asked a newly appointed Prosecutor General
Yuriy Lutsenko to contact U.S. Embassy, and emphasized that he “would be
very pleased if he [Lutsenko] had a certain person either from
Washington, whatever… We have here, I don’t remember his name, an
American prosecutor of the Ukrainian origin. He’s a little old. I sent
Geoffrey [Pyatt, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine] his name. He was ready to
be an assistant and advisor [to Lutsenko]… and be a person of trust.” In
other words, an American with the advisory functions to the Ukrainian
Prosecutor General who would make sure nobody looks into Burisma
anymore. And such person was found – it was ex-U.S. federal prosecutor
Bohdan Vitvitsky. Joe Biden, meantime, got what he wanted. The major
part of the Burisma investigation was closed, and the remaining part was
sent to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine that was
directly tied to the U.S. Embassy in Kiev and instead of investigating
corruption leaked to them confidential information on Viktor Shokin and
his family.
In
the course of the press conference, Mr. Derkach described Biden’s
motive in firing Shokin. He noted that Prosecutor General’s office had
started investigating Burisma Holding in fall of 2015. It was known that Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, joined
its board in April 2014, at a time when Burisma was engulfed in
corruption investigation woes, and at a time when his father was leading
the Obama administration’s effort to curb Ukraine’s endemic corruption.
In fall of 2015, Ukraine got evidence on large financial tranches that
were laundered by the Burisma and then wired to a company called
Rosemont Seneca Bohai LLC between April 2014 and November 2015.
Specifically, the records show 18 months in which two payments of
$83,333 per month were paid to Rosemont Seneca Bohai for “consulting
services,” and then sent to the American Bank Morgan Stanley. “Letting
Shokin dig it all up would mean a political suicide for Biden,” –
concluded Mr. Derkach.
The
second part of the press conference was dedicated to the “external
governance” of Ukraine by the U.S., in which Mr. Derkach presented the
records of Biden advising Poroshenko how to deal with the parliamentary
crisis in Ukraine that would hinder all necessary reforms. Among the
methods that Biden explicitly instructs Poroshenko to use are personal
appointments and removals, and where and how to find legal loopholes.
The final part of the press conference was led by the Ukrainian ex-prosecutor Konstantin Kulik, who investigated the crimes of the Yanukovych regime in 2016-2019. He detailed corruption actions of the former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovich, the U.S. charge
d’Affaires in Ukraine George Kent and FBI Special Representative for
Eastern Europe Keren Greenway who blocked the return of funds stolen by
the Yanukovych regime to Ukraine in the amount of the country’s annual
budget (about $45 billion). According to Mr. Kulik, they “placed
fulfillment of orders of representatives of the U.S. Democratic Party
over the interests of justice.” “In 2018, it became clear that Biden, Jovanovic, Kent and
Greenway are doing everything to block the investigation of Zlochevsky
[the Burisma founder] and other persons of the Yanukovych regime and are
doing this in coordination with the environment of Poroshenko. Without
an investigation of their activities, there is no chance to continue
confiscating assets for 40 billion dollars,” he stressed.
All
of the records of the hours-long conversations between the top U.S. and
Ukrainian officials are now being officially sent to the U.S.
government, according to Mr. Derkach. If even a part of the “Derakch
tapes” turns out to be true, the Democratic ambitions would be buried
for good for at least a couple of the upcoming political cycles.
Photo credit: Gage Skidmore
Veronika
Kyrylenko is a Ph.D. from Odessa National University (Odessa, Ukraine),
Research Associate at GeoStrategic Analysis. @KyrylenkoN on Twitter
Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/05/joe_biden_ukraine_scandal_exploding.html
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