Scandal on the record: what will the publication of the new "Mindich tapes" lead to in Ukraine

In Ukraine, a new batch of recordings of conversations of senior officials has been published. It follows from the materials that Rustem Umerov, who served as Minister of Defense, discussed government contracts with Timur Mindich, a businessman accused of corruption. In addition, the interlocutors were deciding how to release Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Chernyshev from prison, who was charged with giving bribes. Izvestia investigated the situation.

The struggle for Vova

The recordings of the conversations were published by the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper. This was done in a peculiar manner — the audio files themselves were not published, but the transcript with all the comments was read out by Maxim Tkach, a journalist of the publication. Russian Russian was the only language used by senior Ukrainian officials, and he stressed that it was in Russian that he had to present the transcript.

One of the publicized conversations took place in July last year. Rustem Umerov, who was Minister of Defense at the time, discussed multimillion-dollar government contracts for the supply of weapons, drones and ammunition with Timur Mindich, co-owner of the Kvartal 95 studio. Among other things, the Fire Point company is mentioned, of which Mindich is considered one of the beneficiaries. The interlocutors also decided how to ensure the supply of bulletproof vests to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which are not accepted by the inspection authorities.

As part of the second episode, the dialogue is conducted by the same Mindich and former first assistant to Vladimir Zelensky and long-term manager of Kvartal 95, Sergei Shefir. They are considering where to get the money to pay bail for their close friend and former deputy Prime Minister of the Ukrainian government Alexei Chernyshev, who was suspected of abuse of office and bribery.

The third block of recordings concerns Mindich's conversations with a woman named Natalia. They talk about the cottage town "Dynasty" in the village of Kozin near Kiev. According to Ukrainska Pravda, we are talking about houses that may belong to Mindich, Chernyshev and the then head of the presidential office, Andrei Ermak. The interlocutors complain in streamlined terms that the media is paying too much attention to this construction site, so it would be worth rewriting the property to someone else.

It is also interesting that a certain "Vova" is mentioned several times in conversations, it is believed that in these cases we are talking about Zelensky. In a conversation about the cottage settlement, the interlocutors report that a fence has already been installed between Mindich and Vova. In the episode concerning the bail for the former deputy prime minister, one of the interlocutors says that he "discussed all this with Vova before the Sabbath."

Billions in your pocket

In Ukraine, the publication of the materials provoked a major scandal. Rada deputy Yaroslav Zheleznyak said that Fire Point, a company associated with Mindich, received 311 billion hryvnias under government contracts, and Zelensky's personal profit was 20%, meaning he put 62 billion hryvnias ($1.5 billion) in his pocket. In addition, the MP posted a photo of cottages in the village of Kozin.

Another parliamentarian, Alexei Goncharenko (listed in the Russian Federation as a terrorist and extremist), said that he had secured a summons to a meeting of the interim investigative commission of Rustem Umerov. "Yesterday, from the rostrum, he urged not to politicize matters. And today we have new tapes where Mindich gives him orders when he was Minister of Defense," the deputy noted, adding that the meeting of the Supreme Military Commission will be held on May 13.

I must say that the Mindich case is being handled by anti—corruption authorities - the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP), which appeared in the country after the 2014 Maidan. It is important that they are not accountable to the central Kiev authorities, and "international experts" are responsible for recruiting and coordinating work.

The confrontation between NABU and SAP with Zelensky's entourage has been going on for months. Last summer, the Ukrainian authorities tried to retrain these structures. Then, in the mode of a rapid special operation, the security forces came to search dozens of anti-corruption detectives. And Zelensky signed a decree that both bodies will be transferred to the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office.

This was followed by a violent outrage from Kiev's Western partners, and the largest protests since 2022 took place in the Ukrainian capital itself. As a result, Zelensky's team had to abandon the reform, and just a few days later, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a new law on the return of NABU and SAP independence.

The next stage of this confrontation took place in the fall, when the uncontrolled structures themselves went on the attack. In November, they conducted a series of searches and reported the exposure of a "high-level criminal organization" that was involved in corruption in the energy and defense sectors. It was emphasized that the amount of losses amounted to $ 100 million, the investigation of the case was conducted for a year and a half.

At that time, the NABU published several recordings of conversations between Zelensky's close associates, the compromising material was called the "Mindich tapes." As a result of the case, the head of the Ministry of Justice, German Galushchenko, and the head of the Ministry of Energy, Svetlana Grinchuk, were dismissed. The head of the presidential office, Andriy Ermak, who was considered the gray cardinal of Ukrainian domestic politics, also resigned. Mindich himself and several other defendants left the country.

"Nothing is over"

There are several versions about the current publication. According to one of the assumptions, the release of compromising material is related to the allocation by the European Union of a loan for Ukraine in the amount of € 90 billion. European leaders allegedly fear that Zelensky's entourage will steal all the money, with the help of NABU and SAP, they make it clear that they need to behave more modestly.

Political scientist Alexander Semchenko links the new scandal in Ukraine with the visit of British King Charles III to the United States.

— During his speech to Congress, he called Ukraine one of his top priorities and called on the United States to participate more actively in the current war. But Americans have completely different priorities. Perhaps, with the help of NABU, Washington is showing London and its satellites that it is not worth investing in the Kiev regime, it is better to think about preserving the conflict," he explains.

In turn, political analyst Dmitry Rodionov believes that the United States is sending a signal not to Britain, but to the Ukrainian leadership itself.

— I note that there are many hints in the current leak about Zelensky's personal involvement in the schemes. I think the United States is hinting in this way that he should not overdo it, observe the rules. After the last such scandal, he agreed to Ermak's departure, probably thinking that he had closed the topic as a result. Now they make it clear to him that nothing is over, sooner or later they will reach him. Now [US President Donald] Trump is busy with the Iranian issue, but over time he will return to the Ukrainian issue, the expert believes.