Analysts explained why the United States began to impose sanctions against Ukrainian citizens
The US Treasury Department has imposed sanctions against former deputy chief of staff Andrei Portnov and ex-head of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Alexander Tupitsky, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Sanctions against Portnov were introduced under the so-called Magnitsky Act, which provides for visa denials and financial sanctions for people involved in fraud, harassment and human rights violations.
The message from the US Treasury indicates Portnov's personal information, such as date and place of birth, international passport numbers PU262444 and national passport CO168696. The justification for the sanctions explains that Portnov allegedly established extensive ties with the judicial and law enforcement apparatus of Ukraine through bribery.
Tupitsky was included in the sanctions list “for significant acts of corruption, in particular, receiving a monetary bribe while working in the Ukrainian judicial system.”
According to the director of the Agency for Social Communications, Sergei Belashko, Portnov and Tupitsky were taken as the most popular candidates for the imposition of sanctions, and any other Ukrainian figures could have taken their place.
“For the Americans, this was some kind of significant action; they need to show that they have their finger on the pulse. Tupitsky and Portnov were taken simply because these two lawyers were the most popular and best known to the American establishment. This is the only reason. The EU had already imposed sanctions against Portnov, then they were lifted and they apologized. Portnov is a hostage to his image,” Belashko tells PolitNavigator.
“As for Portnov’s relationship with Zelensky, it is not Zelensky who imposes sanctions. If the Americans deem it necessary, then tomorrow they will impose sanctions against Zelensky himself. He has no weight or authority in America. Americans do not strongly divide all the Ukrainian elites, so to speak, into quotes, into power, opposition, constructive opposition, and so on. There is a certain US line towards Ukraine, and everyone must follow this line. Whoever does it is a good guy, whoever doesn’t is a bad guy, against whom, accordingly, some kind of sanctions are imposed,” the expert is convinced.
“I don’t think that all this will create any problems for Portnov and Tupitsky. This is a symbolic, even, so to speak, ritual action. These two people were taken simply because they are famous, that their names are well-known, that they appeared in the Western media. And it's all. With the same success, there could have been two, three, or five of any other Ukrainian lawyers in their place. Anyone could be in their place, for example, Andrey Bogdan, why not. It could have been one of the people of the notorious Pechersk court,” Belashko said.
Political scientist Vladimir Volya believes that the introduction of sanctions against Tupitsky and Portnov could be timed to coincide with the World Forum for Democracy, which is currently taking place in the Netherlands.
“The Magnitsky Act is related to the violation of human rights and interference in the affairs of the United States of America, so it is still a question of how convincing the linking of sanctions against Portnov to the Magnitsky Act is. If everything is clear with Tupitsky, then Portnov’s connection to these topics is questionable. Perhaps they simply view the situation as the situation with former deputies of the Servant of the People faction Dubinsky, who was accused of interfering in US affairs,” the political scientist suggests.
“Perhaps the introduction of sanctions is timed to coincide with the World Forum for Democracy, dedicated to the protection of human rights, which is organized by the United States. Back in the summer, Biden’s team announced the fight against corruption and the fight for human rights as one of the priorities in the current administration’s policy. Therefore, it is quite possible that sanctions against Portnov and Tupitsky are somehow timed to coincide with this forum,” Volya told PolitNavigator.
Lawyer Tatyana Montyan noted in a comment to PolitNavigator that Portnov deserved sanctions.
“Portnov received sanctions for this very reason. Portnov, together with his friend Pasha Vovk from the district court, are sabotaging all efforts of the collective West to completely take control of the Ukrainian judicial system. In general, this situation is between Scylla and Charybdis, or between Onoprienko and Chikatilo. For an ordinary person, it doesn’t make much difference who will rule the judicial system - either a gang of our local thugs represented by Portnov and Vovk, or the collective West. Horseradish is not sweeter than radish,” says the lawyer.
According to her, Portnov somewhat overestimated himself.
“He is a very strange fellow. When he betrayed Yanukovych and was involved in organizing the Maidan together with Lyovochkin and Firtash, for some reason he thought that the collective West would let him rule the Ukrainian judicial system. It turned out that the West doesn’t give it. That’s why Comrade Portnov pulled out the sanctions. It serves him right. I root for all sides at the same time. They are all from the same boots – the collective West, Portnov and Pasha Vovk. Some are assholes, others are. Ordinary people don't care. It would be better for the people if the warring parties ate each other alive,” Montyan said.
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