EU considering sanctions on just eight Yanukovych officials

BRUSSELS - With Ukraine’s former president on the run after stealing billions of euros and causing some 150 deaths, oppositon chiefs want the EU to impose a visa ban and asset freeze on him and his allies, but EU countries are not ready to go ahead.

Hryhoriy Nemyria, the deputy chairman of the opposition Batkivshchyna party, told EUobserver on Wednesday (26 February) the fugitive leader, Viktor Yanukovych, and his clan, or “familia,” is believed to have embezzled €9 billion from the Ukrainian treasury over the past four years.

He added that the latest death toll from Kiev and other cities is 150 people and rising, as new information comes to light.

He noted that the EU sanctions are “urgently” needed to help repatriate the stolen funds and to “defuse” tension on the streets.

“I don’t think they had the chance to move the money, much of which is in European banks, because the events developed so quickly,” Nemyria said.

“There is also an important psychological and security dimension. Activists and families of victims feel a lot of aggression because the people who committed these crimes have not been brought to justice. But if the new people in power use the Ukrainian legal system to pursue them without international endorsement, there might be a perception that this is just political revenge.”

For their part, EU officials have drafted a legal text to implement a decision taken by EU foreign ministers last week.

The text is a standard formula, but it tidies up the ministers’ rhetoric.

The ministers said the EU will impose sanctions “against those responsible for human rights violations, violence and use of excessive force.” But the legal text refers to “human rights violations, violence or use of excessive force,” because the “and,” in legal terms, would have been “cumulative,” and would have only designated persons deemed guilty of all three infractions.

The draft text also contains an annex of names.

It is confidential until it is published in the bloc’s Official Journal, but the potential names - set down below - are well known, not least to the Ukrainian opposition activists who worked with EU diplomats to put the list together.

The annex currently designates just eight people, most of whom are Yanukovych’s former security chiefs.

One option under discussion is to expand it to 11 names, especially in view of new information in documents seized from government buildings. Another option is to include political and business figures in the Yanukovych clan, or "familia."

EU countries are waiting to see what EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton i says after coming back from Ukraine on Wednesday before deciding what to do.

Some EU states agree with Nemyria’s point of view.

“What would we say to the people on the Maidan [the opposition camp in Kiev] if Oleksandr Yanukovych suddenly pops up in Paris and uses the money that he has in French banks to avoid being brought to justice,” a diplomat from one small EU country said, referring to Viktor Yanukovych’s son, a dentist, who used his father’s power to become one of Ukraine’s richest men.

The diplomat noted that the Union, in Egypt and Tunisia, already used asset freezes to help repatriate stolen funds.

For her part, Ashton’s spokeswoman told EUobserver on Wednesday that: “The main focus now is on two issues: creating a lasting political solution and economic stabilisation.”

But other EU states are wary of triggering the blacklist even if Ashton says Yes.

A diplomat from one large EU country said there is “no agreement” on who to list and that the fall of Yanukovych has put a question mark over the whole idea.

He noted the foreign ministers last week also agreed that “implementation will be taken forward in the light of developments in Ukraine.”

“We use sanctions for preventative purposes, to try to change people’s behaviour, not for punitive purposes. You could say that the threat of sanctions has already had a positive impact in limiting the bloodshed. The question is what intention would we have if we implement the sanctions today?” the diplomat said.

A diplomat from another member sate said the decision is unlikely to be taken quickly.

“The situation in Ukraine has changed to the extent that there is no urgency as before. The original idea was to use sanctions to save lives. But now these events are in the past,” the source noted.

He added that no matter what happens at EU level, individual member states would most likely stop people like Oleksandr Yanukovych from “popping up” in London, Paris, or Vienna to grab their wealth.

“There are other institutions, other kinds of action in play, which are not being disclosed,” the diplomat noted, referring to EU countries’ anti-money laundering structures and intelligence services.

“If a Politically Exposed Person arrived in a luxury hotel in the EU tomorrow, we would know about it very quickly,” the diplomat said.

EU blacklist: The options

The following names were given to this website by Ukrainian civil society activists and opposition leaders, some of whom advised the EU diplomats who drew up the draft blacklist of eight names. But EUobserver has no knowledge of who is currently in the confidential EU annex.

Short list of people responsible for use of force

Serhiy Arbuzov (former deputy prime minister)

Yuriy Ilyin (former chief of Ukrainian army)

Andriy Kluyev (Yanukovych’s former chief of staff)

Pavlo Lebediev (former minister of defence)

Olena Lukash (former justice minister)

Viktor Pshonka (former prosecutor general)

Oleksandr Yakymenko (former head of Ukraine’s domestic intelligence service, the SBU)

Vitaliy Zakharchenko (former interior minister)

Additional names of people responsible for use of force

Serhiy Asaveliuk (former chief of special operations of the “BBVV,” the interior ministry’s gendarmerie)

Myhailo Dobkin (head of regional administration in Kharkiv, alleged to have masterminded use of “titushki,” or, hired thugs)

Gennadiy Kernes (mayor of Kharkiv, allegedly linked to titushki operations)

Valeriy Koriak (former Kiev police chief)

Oleksiy Krykun (former senior official in Kiev police)

Valeriy Mazan (former senior interior ministry official)

Oleksandr Popov (former chief of Kiev municipal administration)

Andriy Portnov (Yanukovych’s former deputy chief of staff)

Viktor Ratushniak (former deputy minister of interior affairs)

Volodymyr Sivkovych (former deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine)

Stanislav Shuliak (former BBVV chief)

Volodymyr Totskyi (former head of the SBU’s couner-terrorist “Alpha” squad)

Oleh Tsariov (MP in ruling Party of Regions, publicly backed use of force against protesters)

Oleksandr Shchogoliev (former head of Kiev branch of SBU)

Members of Yanukovych familia

Mykola Azarov (former prime minister)

Oleksandr Efremov (Party of Regions MP)

Anatoliy Holovin (former president of the Constitutional Court)

Yuriy Ivanushchenko (Party of Regions MP, alleged to control Yanukovych's regional “barons”)

Serhiy Kliuyev (businessman and brother of Yanukovych’s former chief of staff)

Oleksandr Klymenko (former chief of tax administration)

Vadym Kolisnichenko (deputy chairman of Party of Regions, who backed 15-year prison terms for protesters)

Serhiy Kurchenko (Ukrainian businessman)

Viktor Medvedchuk (main mediator between Yanukovych and Russian leader Vladimir Putin i)

Volodymyr Oliynyk (Party of Regions MP, who backed 15-year prison terms for protesters)

Eduard Stavitskyi (former minister of ecology and natural resources)

Dmytro Tabachnyk (former education minister)

Oleksandr Yanukovych (former president’s older son)

Viktor Yanukovych (former president)

Viktor Yanukovych jr. (former president’s younger son)