Sytnyk: Massive Smearing Campaign Against NABU Is Planned for Autumn

Artem Sytnyk, the Head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, expects attempts to discredit his agency in the media in the nearest months, he said in an interview to Ukrayinska Pravda.

"I have the information, not only from civic activists, that there is a massive [discreditation] campaign against NABU in the media is planned for autumn," he says. According to Sytnyk, NABU is not afraid of it and will continue to operate according to the law.

"The only chance for NABU to survive under such circumstances is openness, honesty, and most importantly, acting within the legal framework. If we step out of the legal framework even a bit, our opponents will definitely use it. We understand it very well, this [acting legally] is our only weapon, as there is a whole army of media resources controlled by people who want to maintain their influence," Sytnyk said.

The Head of NABU says there are currently about 200 open cases in his agency, 25 of them have been already sent to court. "We have already returned over ₴50,000 million to the state through our cases. It is only the beginning, the prosecutors have never been able to return such amounts." Sytnyk is expecting to be able to return about ₴1 billion to the state budget, a big part of it through the case against Volia Narodu MP Oleksandr Onyshchenko.

Source: Ukrayinska Pravda