The strange case(s) of Pechersk district court

To “commemorate” the first anniversary of the Maidan, the Pechersk district court in Kyiv unfroze the seized assets and blocked bank accounbts belonging to Serhiy Arbuzov, the former first deputy prime minister and member of the “family” (close circle around Viktor Yanukovych). This was stated in the decision by the court on November 21. A copy of the first and last pages of this decision was published by the website Censor.Net. However, this document cannot yet be found in the register of court decisions. The decision states that the Pechersk district court unfroze the bank accounts under the name of Arbuzov at the Ukreximbank, Sberbank and UkrBusinessBank. The accounts in the name of his wife have also been unblocked at Ukreksimbank, UkrBusinessBank, All-Ukrainian Development Bank and Oschadbank (Savings Bank). "Resolution without appeal" - as stated in the report. It is not the first case that this court has judged in favor of ex-President Yanukovych’s close circle and “family” members. Just recently, the court decided in the 8th instance in favor of Andrii Portnov against the Ukrainian general prosecution office. Portnov, advisor to Yanukovych and one of the supporters of using force against Maidan protestors, fled to Moscow in February 2014. Based on these 8 decisions, Andrii Portnov demanded that all possible EU sanctions against him should be immediately lifted. Recently while in Moscow, he received without difficulty a one-year EU Schengen visa and he openly laughs at would-be EU sanctions against him. Another strange decision by the Pechersk court concerns Dmytro Sadovnik, commander of one of the Berkut riot police units, who was released from detention and set free. This decision allowed him to flee to Crimea. Dmytro Sadovnik is a suspect in the deaths by sniper fire of 39 Maidan activists in February 2014. Not only courts make strange decisions. An executive search for vacant positions in the Ukrainian government will be conducted by the Russian recruiting company World Executive Search (before 2014 Rosexpert – Russian expert) , as reported by Zerkalo Nedeli (ZN). Bloggers joke that it is certain that the Russian recruiting company will be able to select real Ukrainian patriots for Ukrainian governmental and administrative positions. It may also be worth proposing that the Russian agency select staff for Ukraine’s Security Service and for the Ukrainian army’s general staff. Perhaps there are also vacancies there. Or perhaps the Russian FSB will not cooperate with this agency, as it is perhaps fully “independent” and will fully comply with “confidentiality” rules in Russia. Most probably, publications and exposure in ZN made some decision makers to change their minds. Next day Kyiv post reported that it is “lack of public service professionals on the Ukraine labor market has pushed the government to look abroad for qualified applicants who can take positions. Prague-based Pedersen & Partners and Korn Ferry, global head hunting firms, have found 185 potential employees, many of whom are members of Ukrainian community in Canada, the US and the U.K. After the job interviews, 24 candidates were recognized as fully qualified to serve in Ukraine's public offices. However, their names haven't been disclosed so far.” This is good that Ukraine has free mass media and behind the curtain decisions become more and more difficult. Written by Dr. Vitalii Usenko, MD, MBA, expert of the Center of Military-Political Studies in the sphere of psychology of communications and by Dmytro Usenko, student at Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto