Venislavsky: people Yermak doesn’t like are “normal people, you can do business with them”

Member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence Fedir Venislavsky commented on the communication style of former head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak with deputies, saying in an interview with NV that those whom Yermak dislikes tend to turn out to be “normal people.”

“You know, I would not want to bring any insider information related to internal processes, internal communications into the public domain. That would be incorrect and unethical. But among many people both in parliament and outside parliament, in various structures of power, there was even such a thesis that the people Yermak doesn’t like are normal people, you can do business with them,” Venislavsky said.

The deputy’s remarks came against the backdrop of criminal proceedings against Yermak. On May 11, anti-corruption authorities served him with a notice of suspicion related to elite mansions in the Dynastiya cooperative. According to investigators, more than 460 million hryvnias were laundered through corrupt schemes at Energoatom to finance the construction of these properties.

According to media reports, one of the four houses belonged to Yermak himself. The remaining residences were owned by former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov, close friend and business partner of the president Timur Mindich, and a person referred to in recordings as “Vova.” Anti-corruption authorities subsequently confirmed that President Volodymyr Zelensky is not a subject of the investigation.

Inna Vedernikova, editor of the domestic politics section at ZN.UA, in her article “Cash on the way out. How the collection of bail for Yermak revealed the Zelensky system,” analyzes why the story of posting 140 million hryvnias in bail for the former head of the Presidential Office became, in her assessment, a moment of truth for the Ukrainian president’s administration.