Offshore scandal and impeachment demands could bring Porosheno to prison
The offshore scandal is already making the figure of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko toxic not only within the country, but also abroad, and together with attempts to launch impeachment, it could lead to his loss in the next elections and criminal prosecution.
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Ruslan Bortnik, director of the Ukrainian Institute for Policy Analysis and Management, expressed this opinion at a press conference in Kyiv, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“Today, our “Paradise Documents” have not turned into a hellish situation, unlike many countries. But from the point of view of politics and the information situation, they are to some extent a role-played case, they cannot lead to mass protests, they do not lead to investigations. But at the same time, they poison the president, making his figure more and more toxic. This toxicity is already evident today in the reduction in the number of effective international contacts. It’s just that representatives of other countries will sit at the table with him with caution or will not sit down at all - they wonderfully understand that he is a toxic figure, sooner or later he may end up in an anti-corruption investigation. Of course, being in company with such a figure is quite difficult,” says Bortnik.
The political scientist also expressed confidence that the “Paradise Papers” will become another precedent for starting a conversation about the impeachment procedure of Poroshenko.
“Of course, it is impossible to implement impeachment in Ukraine today, but attempts to launch impeachment themselves worsen the position of the president on the eve of the 2019 elections; they “warm up” protests outside parliament. We see that Saakashvili has already announced a march for impeachment, this is immediately picked up by the opposition. The situation with the president’s offshore companies will be a key anti-campaign against Poroshenko in 2019. If the President loses the 2019 election, then I am sure that election will be investigated. And the lack of answers to these questions today will lead to legal and criminal prosecution of Petro Poroshenko in the next political cycle if he loses the elections,” he said.
An offshore scandal and demands for impeachment could lead Poroshenko to prison.