President Zelensky is proposing legislation that supporters say remedies the problem Parliament created Tuesday by enacting Law No. 4555-IX (English translation). 

As yesterday’s post explained, that law gives the Prosecutor General unchecked power to

• order both the anticorruption agency (NABU) and the special corruption prosecutor (SAP) follow his directions,
• review pretrial investigations,
• reassign NABU-led cases to other law enforcement bodies,
• close cases at the request of the defense, and
• appoint staff to prosecution teams.

The simple way to undo the damage this law has created is to repeal it, and indeed some reports say that is precisely what Zelensky’s proposed legislation does. But an analysis by Ukraine’s Laboratory of Legislative Initiatives makes clear that that is not the case.

Rather, the analysis shows that in several ways Zelensky’s bill exacerbates the damage 4555-IX did to the two agencies. Most damaging is it perpetuates the myth that the two have been infiltrated by Russian spies. As the Laboratory’s analysis explains:

“Within 6 months from the date of entry into force of this Law, the SSU [the domestic security agency] shall conduct an inspection of employees of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau [(NABU] of Ukraine and other law enforcement agencies, prosecutors of the Prosecutor General’s Office and the SAPO, who have access to state secrets, for committing actions in favor of the aggressor state.

“Thus, the main idea of the ‘compromise’ changes from the President of Ukraine is to ‘cleanse’ NABU from the influence of Russian special services. The information campaign, which damaged the reputation of NABU in connection with the searches and detentions on July 21, created the impression that this is a widespread problem in NABU. However, there was no proper evidence of sufficient public communication on the part of the SSU.

“Such inspections can be pressure on NABU and SAPO, as well as the basis for the SBU to gain access to the materials of the NSDC in NABU and SAPO proceedings. In addition, we can talk about the ‘dependence’ of NABU on the SBU through the introduction of a mechanism of constant polygraph checks. This undermines the institutional independence of NABU and SAPO, which has been built over 10 years during the implementation of the state anti-corruption policy.”

Given how charged the allegation of Russian influence has become, a better solution would be to couple a simple repeal of 4555-IX with appointment of an independent commission to review the claims of Russian influence and issue a report clearing the air. Perhaps with recommendations for ways to ensure unsubstantiated rumors (conspiracy theories) are extinguished before they do harm.

That would be a report that the leader of at least one G-7 country would eagerly consume.

The full text of the English version of the report is here.