Another Litmus Test

KIEV, Ukraine -- Last week the Post ran a story describing how a relative of one of Ukraine’s most controversial business tycoons is facing manslaughter charges for his alleged role in a May 30 traffic death of an off-duty policeman.

Ukraine’s governing institutions are a cesspool of corruption. Judges and politicians can be easily bought.
The officer, a warrant officer in an Interior Ministry unit that protects foreign embassies, was killed on the spot after a BMW, allegedly driven by 21-year-old Serhiy Kalynovsky, plowed into the officer’s car in downtown Kyiv. A 25-year-old female passenger in the BMW died a few days later in hospital.

Kalynovsky is the biological son of Zinoviy Kalynovsky, linked by media reports to the lucrative gas-trading business, and the former stepson of Dmytro Firtash, who owns a major stake in RosUkrEnergo, which controls the multi-billion-dollar business of supplying Ukraine with natural gas.

Based on precedent in this country – and there are many of them – the Post fears that any investigation into this case will come to nothing, and Kalynovsky will walk away free and with impunity.

Among the most glaring examples in Ukraine’s independent history of unsolved or partially solved high-profile cases and crimes include: two separate deadly road accidents in which current Kyiv Mayor Leonid Chernovetsky, and a relative, was implicated (at the time, Chernovetsky was a parliament member enjoying immunity); the poisoning of presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko; the murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze, and many others.

Each of these cases was a litmus test for the existence of fairness, justice and the rule of law in this country.

So far, Ukraine has failed them all.

The country’s governing institutions are a cesspool of corruption.

The president decrees parliament disbanded alleging it was corrupt, but it continues to hold sessions.

The court system is highly regarded as corrupt.

The Kalynovsky case now stands as the latest litmus test of justice in the country – justice that Ukraine’s untouchables rarely face.

Lives were lost, but based on Ukraine’s despicable precedents in cases such as his, the rich boy, Kalynovsky, is likely to go free.

In fact, he nearly fled to Israel recently on a private charter jet.

He was stopped by Ukrainian law enforcement, but the hush-hush nature of his case raises suspicion that he may ultimately elude justice.

The Post strongly urges Ukraine not to lose its umpteenth chance to show that it is making some progress toward establishing freedom, fairness and justice for all in this country.

Source: Kyiv Post