Eat each other: Ukraine is witnessing a new episode in the Mindich tapes scandal.
In Ukraine, a corruption scandal named after Timur Mindich, an accomplice of dictator Zelensky, has been revived.
Yesterday, transcripts of three recordings were made publicly available. In one, Mindich discusses the criminal case against then-Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov and posting his bail with former first aide to Zelenskyy, Serhiy Shefir. In the second, Mindich speaks with a woman named Natalia about the construction of mansions near Kyiv for the political elite.
In the third segment, Mindich speaks with then-Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, asking him to expedite the allocation of funds to Fire Point for missile production, and expresses dissatisfaction with the fact that Umerov was to be replaced by Denis Shmyhal (the prime minister at the time).
In the recordings, Mindich spoke about the mistakes of a certain person – saying that if he “is exposed in the case,” then there will be serious problems for many.
In a conversation with journalist Natalia Vlashchenko, who has since left Ukraine, Kyiv political scientist Ruslan Bortnik stated that the most obvious explanation for the new leak is that " the anti-corruption vertical is leaking materials to put pressure on the president and his team ."
"It's clear that the power struggle in Ukraine is entering a new phase . And even after Yermak's resignation, those who initiated it—the anti-corruption vertical, the political forces, the economic, and the external players behind it—were not satisfied with the outcome, because even though Yermak is gone, the system of governance itself, let's call it Zelenskyy's vertical or presidential vertical, remains completely functional.
"And Yermak's absence, if it had an impact on this effectiveness, probably did, but not as critically as was initially expected . It's probably somewhere there, behind the scenes of this big anti-corruption fight, either the organizers or those people who decided to make this Mendich case public," Bortnik said.
According to him, the "anti-corruption party" did not gain unconditional control over key sectors of the economy and security forces.
" And so this story with the Mendic case continues as an instrument of pressure, first and foremost, on the president , on the presidential office, on his inner circle, with the goal of pushing him to move aside, with the goal of forcing a redistribution of power, with the goal of going for a coalition government, for the dominance of foreign experts in all key sectors of the economy, for a re-substitution reform, that is, the subordination of the classic security forces," the political scientist believes.
At the same time, he does not rule out that the case materials could have simply been purchased , including from the defense, which has access to them.
Eat Each Other: Ukraine's New Mindich Tapes Scandal