Yanukovych’s Kharkiv duo in legal trouble: Dobkin arrested, Kernes named as suspect

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Oleg Makhnytsky and Interior Minister Arsen Avakov confirmed the March 10 arrest of Mikhail Dobkin, the former governor of Kharkov Oblast, the nation’s fourth most populous region with a population of 2.7 million people located strategically on Russia’s border.

Additionally, Dobkin’s close friend, current Kharkiv Mayor Hennadiy Kernes, said he is also getting a subpoena. 

While the possible charges against Kernes have not yet been specified, he is being called to the general prosecutor as a suspect.

Dobkin, meanwhile, is being held on suspicion of violating Ukraine’s territorial integrity and, according to Russia’s ITAR-TASS news agency, “activity aimed at decentralization of state power in Ukraine through its transformation into a federation.”

Dobkin and Kernes were publicly and militantly opposed to the EuroMaidan Revolution that sent Viktor Yanukovych fleeing as Ukraine’s president on Feb. 21. Yanukovych is now a fugitive from Ukrainian justice, facing mass murder charges, living in exile in Rostov-on-Don, Russia.

It was, reportedly, a roundtable on “Ukraine After Crisis” in Kharkiv on Feb. 12 when Dobkin talked about federalization of Ukraine’s oblasts.

“Federalization is not a fear, not separatism, not a treason, this is just different form of ruling the country… Ukraine has failed as an unitarian country. And if we fail, let’s look for a better form. Anyone has better ideas? Let’s move on to it,” Dobkin said at the roundtable. He also said that federalization is the most acceptable way of decentralization of power in the country.

The new interim government replaced Dobkin with Ihor Baluta, a Batkivshchyna Party member. Baluta took office on March 4.

However, Kernes, has remained in office and done a 180-degree turn politically — going from pro-Yanukovych and anti-EuroMaidan Revolution to anti-Yanukovych and pro-EuroMaidan Revolution.

He has pledged his loyalty to Kyiv’s new authorities, including interim President Oleksandr Turchynov and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk.

However, his sudden political change of heart may not be enough to save him.

Kernes had often been accused of organizing AntiMaidan demonstrations, as well as squads of titushki, the government-hired thugs who did the dirty work at protests, such as violent provocations and ambushes against EuroMaidan supporters.

A judge in Kyiv’s Shevchenko District Court was expected to decide on whether to keep Dobkin jailed in pre-trial confinement.

Meanwhile, Kernes has been summoned to the general prosecutor’s office in Kyiv on March 13 at 10 a.m. for interrogation. Kernes, an active user of social media, has already posted the photo of the subpoena to his Instagram and Twitter accounts.

“I do not understand what this means. Of course I’ll go for an interrogation. But am I a suspect? What am I charged with? The paper doesn’t say anything,” Kernes said, in a comment to Media Port, Kharkiv news publication. 

Earlier Kernes said that Kharkiv’s Party of Regions — which was the nation’s ruling party until Yanukovych fled office on Feb. 21 — will gather for a meeting and try to bail out Dobkin. Kernes said that Dobkin is still very popular among Kharkiv Oblast residents and his detention can cause “a very unexpected reaction.”

Dobkin, however, is also under fire for supporting draconian anti-protest and anti-free speech laws passed on Jan. 16. He derided parliament’s action as “not tough enough” in stopping the EuroMaidan demonstrations that toppled Yanukovych a month later.

The laws would have outlawed unsanctioned demonstrations and criminalized libel, redefined under the legislation as criticizing public officials.

“If we want to save the country, it’s necessary to eradicate at the legislative level the militant policy of extremists, nationalists and ‘grant eaters,'” he said.

The laws triggered a backlash among EuroMaidan demonstrators, leading to the first deadly clashes between police and protesters on Hrushevskoho Street in which police shot three demonstrators that month and a fourth died of pneumonia after being shot with a  water cannon.

Parliament rescinded the laws on Jan. 28, but not in time to defuse public anger at Yanukovych and his then-rulling Party of Regions, which controlled parliament until Feb. 22.

Also, according to Ukrainska Pravda, citing Interfax-Ukraine news, Dobkin lawyer Yulia Pletnyov, said that her client was arrested at 5:20 p.m. on March 10 in Kyiv on the basis of an order from Kyiv’s Shevchenko District Court. She called the detention unlawful.

“It is said that Dobkin allegedly went into hiding. This is not true, as we had come to the Kharkiv regional prosecutor on March 7 to find out whether there are any criminal charges against him. He was ready to give evidence if so,” Ukrainska Pravda quoted Pletnyov as saying.

Ukraine’s richest man Rinat Akhmetov has also released a statement in which he called on new Ukrainian authorities not to inflame the situation in the east referring to Dobkin’s arrest. “When the authorities take into custody one of eastern Ukraine’s leaders, it doesn’t calm down the situation in the region but instead inflames it. It should be an independent court that decides, after a comprehensive investigation, whether Mikhail Dobkin is guilty or not,” the billionaire wrote and stressed that before there is a verdict Dobkin should remain at liberty. ” I am ready to provide any required bail and to personally stand surety for him,” Akhmetov’s statement read. 

Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at shevchenko@kyvipost.com