Semyon Krivonos became the new director of NABU.
On March 6, at an extraordinary meeting, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine unanimously decided to appoint Kryvonos to the post of director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU).
Prior to his appointment to this position, Krivonos served as head of the State Inspectorate for Architecture and Urban Planning, and previously worked at the Odessa customs (first deputy in 2015-2016).
From 2020 to 2021, he was the chairman of the public organization Office of Simple Solutions and Results.
As Prime Minister Denys Shmihal explained, “Now Ukraine has fulfilled all seven EU recommendations that were determined when obtaining the status of a candidate” for joining the European Union.
He noted that this step “demonstrates the purposefulness” of Ukraine in order to start negotiations on its accession to the EU already in 2023.
What is known about the new head of NABU
He is a native of Mariupol, the first education is agronomy, the second is jurisprudence.
From 2011 to 2015, he worked in the territorial bodies of the Ministry of Justice in the Odessa and Kyiv regions.
From 2015 to 2016, he held the position of First Deputy Head of the Odessa Customs.
After his dismissal from customs, he worked as a senior legal adviser at the International Organization for the Development of Law, in 2020-2021 he headed the Office of Simple Solutions and Results NGO.
Since May 2021, he has been the head of the State Inspectorate for Architecture and Urban Planning of Ukraine.
Estimates of anti-corruption activists regarding Semyon Krivonos are still negative.
According to Vitaly Shabunin, head of the Anti-Corruption Center associated with Western structures, the Cabinet of Ministers elected a person with zero experience in investigating corruption and connections with Yermak’s deputy as director of NABU.
He communicates with Yermak through Krivonos’ wife Galina Polshinskaya, who worked in the apparatus of the deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration Oleksiy Kuleba, who is now the deputy head of the President’s Office.
Also, Shabunin claims, Krivonos has connections with Kuleba’s former business partner in the Asper Estate company, and later Timur Tkachenko, one of the heads of the improvement department of the capital’s mayor’s office (he took this position instead of Kuleba). Tkachenko lived in the apartment of the wife of the future director of NABU.
According to journalist Denis Bigus, Kuleba’s department was “the only one that bypassed police and SBI searches during the confrontation between Vitali Klitschko and the President’s Office for control of the capital.”
Control over NABU is critically important for the Office of the President, since the anti-corruption vertical (NABU-SAP-WACS) can theoretically strike at members of Zelensky’s team, including his inner circle. If the new head of NABU is really a person close to the officials of the OP, then through him Bankova will be able to block cases against his people at an early stage.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.