“For the first time in history, for fighting corruption”: Bohdan confirmed that he was sanctioned because of the “Mindich tapes”

Andriy Bohdan, the first head of the Presidential Office, confirmed that sanctions were imposed on him for distributing audio recordings of conversations involving people from the inner circle of businessman Tymur Mindych.

He said this in a video address published on his social media.

The former head of the Presidential Office noted that “for the first time in world history, sanctions were imposed not for corruption, but for fighting it.”

“From a legal point of view, I was sanctioned in the case of the ‘Mindych tapes.’ That is, I am that same Andriy who is on those recordings, even though, as I wrote earlier, I submitted my resignation in February 2020. A complicated structure concerning the publication of corrupt conversations by officials has been hidden behind the legal wording ‘for systematically discrediting the country’s top leadership,’” Bohdan said.

At the same time, he did not clarify whether he had passed those recordings to journalists. Bohdan believes the sanctions were introduced “simply for criticizing the authorities, for the truth that was published by the same journalists who constantly and systematically criticized me.”

Meanwhile, he announced “his own independent legal investigation” in response to the sanctions.