We are not at war with anyone, but we have crisis plans for various cases - Kryvonos
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) is not in conflict with any of the state institutions of Ukraine, but it has crisis plans for various cases to protect the work it has done, National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) Semen Kryvynos has said.
"NABU is not at war with anyone, we do not have a war inside the country with other institutions, we strictly adhere to the requirements of the law and simply do our job... When anti-corruption bodies effectively carry out their work, they constantly face certain resistance, challenge and pressure," Kryvonos said on Wednesday in Kyiv during the international conference "Movement through Resistance. How the Anti-Corruption System Works," organized by the ezine Ukrainska Pravda.
Specifying the elements of pressure, Kryvonos noted: "There is a registration of certain legislative initiatives, which, in our opinion, can significantly affect the work of our institutions." However, according to the NABU director, such initiatives have not yet been supported by parliament.
The NABU director emphasized that he cannot comment on the progress of the investigation of any cases and draw parallels between the investigation of specific cases and certain pressure on anti-corruption bodies, since this would be a political assessment.
"The intersection of interests, relatively speaking, happened in July... therefore I refrain from political assessments - it is not my business and it is forbidden for me by law," Kryvonos added.
Answering a question from journalist Mykhailo Tkach about whether options for responding within NABU to the SAPO in the event of various situations, in particular, for example, the arrest of heads of anti-corruption bodies, Kryvonos said: "We certainly have crisis plans in case of certain actions... There are crisis plans, their main goal is to inform the society about what is happening, international partners and - the main and most important thing - not to allow the investigations conducted by NABU to be stopped. This is the most important thing, because any attack will not be aimed at a personalized attack on Klymenko (head of the Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) Oleksandr Klymenko - IFU) or Kryvonos or a detective - it will be an attack on the institution and on pre-trial investigations."
"To protect the assets of NABU and SAPO, pre-trial investigations, sensitive information - we are taking measures to ensure that this information is not seized or destroyed in any way," he added.
Clarifying whether there are potentially such actions that would stop work on criminal proceedings, the NABU director said: "I really like to quote a phrase that detectives like to quote: no one can stop an investigation that NABU has started, not even NABU itself."
