EXCLUSIVE: The Roots of U.S. Corruption in Ukraine – Interview with Andriy Derkach

Recently, I had an opportunity to sit down with former Ukrainian parliamentarian Andriy Derkach to discuss his thoughts and insights regarding the historic developments which are taking place in his h

by Patrick Henningsen

Recently, I had an opportunity to sit down with former Ukrainian parliamentarian Andriy Derkach to discuss his thoughts and insights regarding the historic developments which are taking place in his home country. His long career in Ukrainian politics and established body of work in investigating and tracking financial corruption has given him a unique inside perspective on a number of timely stories, including the role of the Biden family and US government agencies in fostering a culture of corruption in Ukraine. Because of his work in this area, he has been sanctioned and forced to flee his country. During a recent interview with Italian-American journalist Simona Mangiante, Derkach revealed the existence of an extra-budgetary fund that was being used to fund international terrorist activities. Not long after that interview, a serious terror attack took place in Moscow’s Crocus City Hall. We initially pick up on this point of the financing of terrorism, as well as new revelations regarding the 2022 attack on the Nord Stream pipelines. Our discussion then moves on to the beleaguered state of Ukraine, chronicling its political fragmentation and economic collapse following the Maidan coup and leading to the current NATO proxy war against Russia, followed by the government’s attack on the Orthodox Church, and the likely fate of the country’s embattled president Volodymyr Zelensky.

Former Ukrainian parliamentarian Andriy Derkach in the capital city of Minsk, Belarus, speaking with journalist Patrick Henningsen on April 25, 2024 (Image credit: BELTA Agency)

On the recent terror attacks in Russia and the funding of terrorism

Patrick Henningsen: The terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall in Moscow was a tragic and shocking event. Recently, information has appeared in the international media about a collective statement, signed by a number of high-ranking officials, including you, regarding the planning and financing of acts of terrorism. This document has already made a noticeable impact in the West, especially after the statement by the Russian Federation’s Investigative Committee on the initiation of a criminal case. Now that a legal procedure has been initiated, what will be its scope, and in your opinion, will this effort end with formal charges?

Andriy Derkach: Statements are only a statement of the amount of information, documents, direct and indirect evidence obtained during its preparation. Some of them are already at the disposal of law enforcement officers, some are still preparing for transfer. We receive information every day, complementing the facts we have presented. Our main requirement for law enforcement agencies in the United States, Germany, France, Cyprus and Russia is to conduct an objective investigation, publicize the results of the investigation, and bring real charges against persons organizing, carrying out and financing terrorism, regardless of which jurisdictions they are in, or what positions they might hold. This is all in accordance with the international obligations assumed by the above-mentioned countries to combat terrorism and its financing.

In this case, special attention is paid to financing. Sometimes a hidden, non-direct form of participation in terrorist activities carried out by individuals requires no less detailed attention, since it is impossible to carry out terrorist acts without proper funding.

For all of us involved in the investigation who are preparing documents and a statement, the fact that the Biden partners, represented by the owner and employees of Burisma, financed terrorism is a documented fact. Now it is up to law enforcement agencies to legally confirm by investigative means and procedurally bring to justice participants and sponsors of terrorism. For example, the heads of the GUR (Defense Intelligence) of the Ministry of Defense and the SBU (Security Services) of Ukraine do not hide the fact that they carry out terrorist actions through an extra-budgetary cache. Check out a recent interview with the head of the SBU, Vasily Malyuk. Look at the synchronization of political and technological support for terrorism under the leadership of the United States in the recent New York Times article dated February 25, 2024, which describes the direct leadership of the CIA over the actions of the GUR and the SBU. Information is being thrown into American society about the possibility and effectiveness (and acceptability) of terrorism as a way to somehow harm and deter Russia. Then, a month later, Sullivan’s first visit to Ukraine takes place. And a few days later, we see the attack on Crocus City Hall. And the actions of the GUR and the RDC in the Belgorod region. Then attacks on the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. Note Sullivan’s ridiculous comments about the United States’ non-involvement in these events and the assessment of the “absurdity of the initiation of a criminal case by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation.”

If you look closely at that NYT article, “The Spy War. How the CIA secretly helps Ukraine fight Putin” from February 25th, it describes in detail the chronology and details of the creation of the GUR of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine as a separate CIA unit on the borders with Russia and Belarus. The CIA provides financing, equipment and advanced training for individual units of the GUR MO, is in direct contact with its head, his protégé and pupil Kirill Budanov. GUR MO’s terrorist methods of action did not arise for nothing, the CIA has extensive experience in conducting such operations “under a false flag” in the locations it needs around the world. The Ukrainian special services turned out to be very useful and showed their readiness for any degree of “controlled” escalation, which we can observe now.

The collective West, led by the United States and Britain, uses the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine for its own purposes and at its discretion. Sometimes directly, as a performer, and sometimes as a cover. One such example is the undermining of the Nord Stream gas pipeline between Russia and Germany. A strategic international project for the whole region. We have studied in detail the facts, documents and statements preceding the events of the explosion of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, and reasonably stated, referring to the documents and facts, in our statement. The text of the Statement clearly traces the line of accusations regarding the undermining the “Northern Streams” to the United States and NATO allies. But in Western official and journalistic investigations, except for Seymour Hersh, for a long time, everyone has been leaning towards the version of the “Ukrainian trace” plot. So why wouldn’t you agree with this version of events?

Having studied the materials of independent journalistic investigations on this issue, we plunged in detail into the version favoured by the collective West and their mainstream media – about the involvement of the Ukrainian special services in the terrorist act on the Nord Stream pipelines. Having certain capabilities, we were able to identify the exact group of people who were said to have been “identified” as responsible for this bombing. We know everyone by name. They are as follows: Oleg Yuryevich Varava, Sergey Anatolyevich Kuznetsov, Ruslan Anatolyevich Rudenko, Andrey Anatolyevich Burgomistrenko, Marina Alexandrovna Sitalo, these are the persons who really have the experience and skills of deep-sea diving, and who were even trained for this in the most approximate conditions. This is the so-called “Chervinky group” which, without specific data, according to a prepared template, was mentioned by all the world’s media: Washington Post, New York Times, The Hill etc. They established that this group of people trained at the Sokolovsky deep-water quarry, which has a depth of 100-110 meters, located in the Zhytomyr region in Ukraine. The quarry belongs to a company affiliated with a company close to Sergey Slyusarenko, the head of the Incompas company, which also supplies weapons, including for the GUR of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. Slyusarenko is a partner in corrupt procurement of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, and Budanov’s wallet. After that, with the support and coordination of the CIA, and C.W. Smith responsible for the US State Department, they were taken to a NATO military base in Romania to continue training in as close conditions as possible near the South Stream pipelines. We know that the same group carried out dives near to the Nord Stream pipelines. They were used blindly, as a cover, in a planned operation to deflect charges. We even know that less than half of the promised reward of $1 million was reported to them.

Also, Burgomistrenko, who was the head of the state enterprise Radon, a monopolist working with radioactive waste, including highly active ones, deserves special attention in this group. The Ukrainian leadership has been talking about a “dirty bomb” for a long time. Nuclear blackmail is also present in the practice of Ukrainian leaders. We are currently studying information about the work of the Ukrainian special services and their agents on the topic of nuclear blackmail and the “dirty” nuclear bomb. Burgomistrenko and this topic are mentioned by us today, so that later our “non-partners” in the West would not say that they did not know and had not heard about such a line of activity. The only question arises – do the CIA and the hawks from the United States know about the creation of a “dirty” bomb in Ukraine, or are they also involved in this?

In addition, we pay close attention to the financing of terrorism. Of course, Zlochevsky (head of Burisma) and his subordinates may not be the only ones involved in financing terrorist acts. There is a huge list of sponsors that requires a detailed study. To date, I have only a part of the table with persons related to the sponsorship of terrorist activities of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine in my hands. We are working on it.

Some individuals have already been identified. We also continue to introduce the rest further. Here, I have a list of private and legal entities from the EU and the USA that directly finance the GUR of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine with either money or equipment. Interesting facts are revealed by analyzing these documents. As individual citizens and companies in Poland, the USA, and Baltic countries, they finance and technically equip purposefully the “Kalinovsky Regiment” and the “Russian Volunteer Corps”, the so-called “International Legion” assigned to the military unit A3449 of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, and as a result, these sponsors enable their “raids” on border territories, accompanied by civilian casualties. There are documents and facts which show this. All of them will be added to the case file.

PH: Why are you paying such close attention to the financing of terrorism?

AD: The degree of equipment and the availability of funding determines the level of opportunities for terrorist acts. The goals that we require law enforcement officers to achieve are, among other things, to identify all those involved in the financing of terrorism, in addition to their organizers and perpetrators. We consider it necessary to create an international public register of persons involved in financing. The issue of launching an International Tribunal “XXI” is also overdue, I would even say overripe. This is the working title of the process to create the foundations and basis for conducting a fair international legal trial to investigate the facts of terrorism, war crimes, corruption, crimes against freedom of speech and human rights by NATO members and their governments, special and military organizations, aggression against national economic security, undermining the authority of States in the global political community and direct threats to the national security of individual States or entire regions.

This is something that needs to be addressed in the near future, both at the state and international levels, with the involvement of public organizations and lawyers.

We are also working on the possibility of creating a public international Register of damage and victims of terrorist activities, as well as a Register of participants and sponsors of terrorism. This is a rather complex and voluminous process and undertaking.

On the external management of Ukraine

PH: You are one of the most experienced politicians in your country, and you have witnessed its development from the point of independence, right up until the destabilizing crisis we are witnessing now. In your view, how did it happened that Ukraine came to this point in history?

AD: Almost everyone in the world knows the situation today. From the promised prosperity, development of democracy and freedom of speech – Ukraine has since evolved into the scheme of total dictatorship, marked by the destruction of its own population, loss of territories, flight of the population, and has actually turned into a fascist dictatorship. If we talk in detail, in terms of Ukraine’s relations with its neighbors, I have always maintained that it is necessary to establish relations that should be friendly, clear and transparent. By 2022, the Ukrainian authorities have spoiled relations with almost all the neighbors along its borders, including Belarus. In fact, Ukraine has been made into a red rag for Russia – now it is a fashionable expression, “anti-Russia”. Everything that happened started after the coup d’etat in 2014, the so-called “Maidan”, and then gradually, step by step, Ukraine turned into what it has become today.

We cannot consider the political situation in Ukraine in isolation from the ‘external management’ by the US deep state, the Democratic Party, and the business that Poroshenko built together with the Democratic Party on the territory of Ukraine. It is no secret that after the coup (actually it was an unconstitutional voting mechanism) the United States, namely (Victoria) Nuland, appointed Poroshenko as President of Ukraine. Next, the spheres of influence were divided. You know that Biden started to be in charge of Ukraine together with Nuland, and what happened next is called privatization of positions, and privatization of management. What is that? Poroshenko placed in charge of the National Bank of Ukraine Gontareva his partner in the financial business. He also started to control the credit and financial resources. Nuland put her friend Jaresko as finance minister and began to control financial flows and the aid allocated to Ukraine by the international community and the United States. It turned out to be a symbiosis of politics and business (influence peddling and excessive earnings). And, what is important here, the spheres of influence were divided. Joe Biden got Naftogaz, and (Amos) Hochstein, his favorite advisor, became chairman of the supervisory board – with a crazy salary. I don’t think any state-level manager in the United States received the kind of salary that Hochstein and his appointees on the Naftogaz supervisory board received for implementing a corrupt “reverse gas” scheme, funneling Russian gas back into Ukraine from Europe, bringing in an additional 500 million euros a year in extra profit.

The next stage of what the deep state and the State Department have been doing is to build a parallel system of governance in the state of Ukraine. Lustration was carried out, Poroshenko called it “positive discrimination”, this is when the personnel who have work experience, knowledge, were lustrated, and in their place were appointed either “Sorosyata” (those who directly co-operate with the organizations, in one way or another, funded or connected with George Soros), veritable ‘no-names’ without work experience, or representatives and partners of Poroshenko. This applied to all leadership positions. Poroshenko himself was once a minister in the government of President Yanukovych and was also subject to lustration requirements. It is well known that if you want to destroy something, you have to carry out “democratic” reforms. They started to destroy the judicial system through the creation of so-called “integrity commissions” where the majority were representatives of foreign states or “Sorosyata”. After that there was a reform of the police, where we brought Georgians from Mikheil Saakashvili’s team, who have criminal records – after working in Georgia they came to Ukraine under the patronage of the State Department. Then they started to reform the law enforcement system. I have already spoken about an absolutely corrupt scheme where American taxpayers’ money is allocated for reform, then divided up, and when criminal cases are brought, the US Embassy and the State Department started blocking these cases. Moreover, I have the impression that this is the scheme that was set in motion in 2014 – that continued to function after Trump was elected in 2016. Unfortunately, Trump himself and his administration have been more focused on dealing with attacks from within than controlling what happens in Ukraine. So the deep state and the Democratic Party continued to run the State Department, their agents of influence in Ukraine, all covering for their own business. The business was divided into the sphere of fuel and energy complex, and the financial sphere through internal state loan bonds and the National Bank. To explain it simply: the state money stolen in Ukraine by Yanukovych, Poroshenko or Zelensky is withdrawn and laundered through offshore, enters the territory of the United States, and then invested in the form of buying (Ukraine state) bonds on the territory of Ukraine. These corrupt officials earned two times: the first time when they stole the money, and the second time when they invested – plus interest. It turns out that the people of Ukraine pay for the interest on the stolen money with the participation of the US financial system. This is a huge amount of money. Giuliani and I have discussed this topic. At first it was about $7 to $8 billion, then it came to $15 billion.

PH: Can you tell more about your work with Rudy Giuliani? Why did you help him and the United States?

AD: Firstly, I didn’t help the United States. I was helping my country, Ukraine, to investigate corruption. But when you start investigating corruption in Ukraine, you are bound to get into a story related to the United States. That’s the whole problem. All accusations of interference in the United States presidential election are lies. We’re not the ones who came in and set up foreign rule and corruption. It was specifically the Bidens, Nulands and Kents who came in and set up these corruption schemes. As for Giuliani, let’s separate the history of our relationship with Giuliani and the work with Giuliani in Ukraine. Giuliani started working in Ukraine with the same office of Zelensky from late 2018 to early 2019. Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko visited him, he had meetings with Andriy Yermak (Zelensky’s chief of staff), there were some agreements. We learnt all this later from the press. In fact, Lutsenko also gave interviews, and there were the so-called “Novikov tapes” about Yermak’s obligations to Giuliani to investigate the Burisma case.

An important issue is the topic of Viktor Shokin’s removal. Let me explain, because this is a good direct illustration of Biden’s influence peddling. Since Shokin’s arrival, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine has been conducting a huge number of anti-corruption investigations. They concerned the corruption of the previous (Poroshenko) government. Virtually all of the Ukrainian prosecutors who worked in the various groups came out in one way or another to money laundering that had been stolen from the people of Ukraine, found in either in Europe or in the United States. In many cases, when they went to the United States in their investigations, they were blocked by officials. One such official was special representative of the FBI, Karen Greenway. When Konstanin Kulik’s (former Ukrainian prosecutor) investigative group was working on the investigation of the Burisma corruption schemes, they repeatedly wrote appeals to embassies, to the US Justice Department. Simply, no one wanted to pay attention to them. The documents that were sent were just put on the desk and continue to sit there. As such, there is no real co-operation between Ukraine and the USA in the fight against corruption. It exists solely for the purpose of PR and stealing more money from international technical assistance, when some representatives come, take pictures and then go back, telling us that we should first reform the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office and then start some investigations. That is why there was a systemic blocking of our real investigative efforts. Moreover, Kulik’s group was not allowed to travel to the United States. Of course, there were direct appeals from the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office on the subject of these investigations, which were all ignored.

SEE ALSO: Why Ukrainian Witness Kulyk Could Break Biden Impeachment Case Wide Open

Then an unconstitutional body called NABU – the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine – was created. It was created by the US Embassy. However, a kind of law enforcement department existed under it, right in the embassy. Allegedly, formally it is not subordinate to anyone in the state, and is like ‘independent’, but in fact it is being managed “online” from the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine.

At one of our first press conferences, we received documents that were created as part of a criminal case initiated by the Prosecutor General’s Office, when there was correspondence between the US Embassy and NABU, with all the cases leaked, with consultations, including how to behave with Shokin, and how to deal with Burisma. I don’t think these documents that were in the US Embassy and in the FBI were ever handed over to the US Department of Justice. l’m not even sure that the heads of the US Department of Justice at a certain stage understood what was actually going on with these investigative processes. The block was at the embassy level, by Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, and after she was removed, the acting ones, the notorious Kristina Kvien, and George Kent who worked at the embassy and were responsible for these matters. They all blocked the investigative system.

I don’t think Giuliani’s initial question was solely about Burisma. As a prosecutor, he was interested in finding out what was going on in principle. He started communicating with President Zelensky’s office. He had contacts that he tried to use to investigate corruption in Ukraine. After several of our press conferences, including one with Oleksandr Dubinsky, and with Andrii Artemenko who had been an MP with me for some time, got in touch with me and said there was a proposal to meet with Giuliani. Giuliani in my understanding is a hero of the United States, he behaved like a hero of September 11th, he was the only prosecutor who brought order to New York – there are real indicators of his record in public service – respected man I’ve heard of. Obviously, we got in touch by phone. After that, he flew to Kyiv to conduct some investigations and make films to document this subject. My position was quite direct, open and simple, I addressed him with an official letter as a people’s deputy with a proposal: let’s make a joint investigation team. If it does not work through the United States Department of Justice, then two bodies of representative power – the US Congress and the Supreme Council of Ukraine – can start investigating corruption processes. At least gather an evidence base from available documents. This was not a closed history of talking about corruption. Rather, it was all public, with the presence of official documentary appeals. He was interested in the idea and started to explore it. I explained that I was leading a group of the budget committee to investigate embezzlement of material and technical assistance, but these investigations were based on the materials of a constitutional body – the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine. It was officially written there that $5.2 billion either disappeared or was spent irrationally. He was interested in the system of funding through USAID and the so-called funding of “Sorosyata” by the Democratic Party, where the money was partly plundered and partly withdrawn. He and I even had a table of money that was used irrationally or stolen. At his suggestion, we did two Common Sense podcasts. It’s not just about Burisma, it’s a systemic thing. Burisma is the epitome, the quintessence, of the Vice President of the United States being involved in a corruption scheme. But there are plenty of cases to be investigated.

I thought there were procedures in place that mandated investigations by the US Department of Justice and the FBI. Unfortunately, I was wrong. They probably did some investigations and they have documents, but look at the trouble Jim Jordan and James Comer have describing what is perfectly clear. Where there is a sea of evidence – bank transactions, accounts, payments, witness availability, and how Congressional investigations are being blocked. I’m being asked if there are more documents. Yes, there are sufficient documents. The question is, if there are no document investigations, then going further you can do harm by providing those documents.

On Burisma, Biden and the weaponization of justice

PH: Were you ready to testify as a witness to the US Congress?

AD: Testimony should be given not by those who draw up legal documents and give publicity, but by those who were directly involved in the investigation. In this case, Congressional testimony should be given by both Shokin and Kulik. They were involved in the investigation, they know all the details of the process, they know exactly who the witnesses are. But we did not only provide documents, we provided witnesses, in particular on Burisma. And not just abstract people, but two nominal directors of the companies, who transferred money stolen in Ukraine and laundered through the Latvian “Privat Bank” to the United States, and directly to the Biden family. Burisma tried to sue me, they filed a lawsuit against me for protection of honor and dignity. They lost all instances. The decisions of the court in two instances came into force. During the trial, the representatives of Burisma did not object that they paid money to the Biden family. They objected to the amount of the payments. Let’s say, $900,000 – is that per quarter, or per year?

Regarding the fact that Shokin is now being held hostage in Ukraine under the total control of the Ukrainian Security Service and Yermak, I have made this information public for the purpose: saving the life of former Ukrainian Attorney General Shokin, and for Congress to ensure his safety and departure to the United States in a certain legal way. We’ll see how that plays out. But I think it will happen with great difficulty because he is currently a hostage in the negotiations between, on the one hand, Biden and Blinken and, on the other hand, Yermak and Zelensky. Consider the actions of the State Department and the deep state towards its own citizens on the territory of Ukraine – you know the story of the murder of US citizen Gonzalo Lira in prison. You know the situation with Dubinsky.

Just as in the United States, there is a “weaponization of justice”, only in a more severe form: the law enforcement system of Ukraine has become a continuation of the regime, a continuation of a fascist dictatorship, which serves its interests and political orders. It is impossible to speak about any justice and democracy on the territory of Ukraine now. The Constitutional Court has been paralyzed, the judicial system and the Supreme Court itself have been crushed. Almost all judges who make decisions are under criminal cases and fulfill the instructions of prosecutors or investigators who come and demand to bring this or that citizen to justice. All this information is in the media, there is a huge number of documents on the subject. I cited Lira as the most glaring example that the United States is aware of today.

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