NABU and SAPO claim that the head of the Rada faction offered bribes to MPs. "Schemes": it's Tymoshenko

Law enforcement officials claim that the head of one of the parliamentary factions of the Verkhovna Rada offered bribes to other MPs. The relevant post was published by National Anti-Corruption Bureau and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office. Radio Liberty's Schemes project declares that this refers to Yulia Tymoshenko, head of the faction "Batkivshchyna".

Anti-corruption agencies said that the defendant offered undue benefits to MPs from outside his faction for voting for or against specific bills.

According to preliminary qualifications, the maximum possible punishment is 10 years in prison with confiscation of property.

No notice of suspicion has yet been served.

Law enforcement officers are not disclosing the name of the suspect, and promise to provide other details later.

The schemes say that it is the leader of the Batkivshchyna party, Tymoshenko.

Earlier, Ukrayinska Pravda, citing its own interlocutors in political circles, stated that the NABU and SAPO are conducting searches in the office of this political party.

In the evening of January 13, in the Rada not found a sufficient number of votes to appoint Denys Shmyhal as the new first deputy prime minister – minister of Energy and to put Mykhailo Fedorov's candidacy for the post of defense minister to a vote.

After that, the MP from the Servants of the people anonymously reported LIGA.net that some factions want to get the SN to build a coalition.

He claimed that Batkivshchyna wants to get some appointments from the "servants". The elected official described the following tactic: MPs give enough votes for the resignation of ministers, but do not do so to appoint them to new positions.

"In this way, we may be pushed to take certain steps," the interviewee explained.

LIGA.net sent a request for comment to Batkivshchyna, but has not yet received a response.

• This is not the first time in recent times that the NABU and the SAPO have notified an incumbent MP of suspicion of receiving bribes for voting. In particular, at the end of December, five MPs became defendants in such case.