The office of the President of Ukraine is delaying the nomination of the head of Ukroboronprom Yuri Gusev to the post of Defense Minister in connection with the corruption trail and ties with the fifth president Petro Poroshenko.
This is reported by Channel 24, says UNIAN.
Recall that the media has been writing about the upcoming resignation of the current Defense Minister Andrei Taran for several months. Among the most likely candidates for his post, Yuri Gusev is called. However, according to Channel 24, Mikhail Podolyak, responsible for mass communications in the OP, recommended that the head of the Office, Andrei Ermak, put the appointment on pause because of the risk of image losses for President Vladimir Zelensky.
"The bank is concerned about several factors. First of all, there are corruption accusations against Gusev during his tenure as deputy Defense minister, which can drown him and the entire Z-team in negativity, " the article says.
Gusev worked as a deputy minister in 2014-2016. In the department, he supervised, among other things, public procurement. He was charged with an overpayment of 180 million UAH for the purchase of fuel for the army. In the autumn of 2015, the main military prosecutor's office opened criminal proceedings on the fact of inefficient use of funds for housing for military personnel: the Ministry of Defense bought only 75 apartments instead of 2 thousand, spending UAH 1.14 billion on them.
It was also reported about fraud during the purchase of shoes: the tenders were won by the same company, since the drawing of its sole was prescribed in the technical conditions. The damage to the states could amount to UAH 70 million.
According to the publication, then the fifth president personally helped Gusev to avoid criminal liability, who allegedly ordered the military prosecutor's office to close the criminal case. Channel 24 admits that in addition to corruption, Zelensky is concerned about the history of Gusev's relations with Poroshenko: "The first actively supported the second during the campaign, harshly criticizing Zelensky."
