Sergiy Kutsenko has revealed that he collaborated with representatives of the Yulia Tymoshenko Block during the 2008 elections to assist in recruiting campaigners. He first met Kryvonos, whom he describes as a coordinator from the BYuT, at an organizational meeting near the Politechnichna metro station in the spring of 2008.
Kutsenko states that the plan involved engaging thousands of students from universities in Kyiv, including KPI, KNEU, NAU, and NUBiP. According to him, coordination meetings took place in parks, and initially focused on the recruitment of campaigners and observers.
He emphasized that his agency ceased participation after submitting a number of applications, stating, “At that time, there was no talk of bribery. It was about campaigners and their recruitment, along with observers at polling stations.”
Following the initial phase, he mentioned that payments were to be divided into three installments. “I did not reach the point of bribery. We provided a certain number, in the hundreds, of applications. The first payment was due after the applications were submitted, and the second before the elections, with the final payment after voting,” Kutsenko explained.
He associates the organization of this process with Kryvonos, asserting that he was not fully compensated for the initial work carried out. “For the agreed first part of the work, I received 12,000 UAH, which I distributed among people for these applications. I was supposed to receive much more – about three times that amount. But I was told, ‘Since you won’t continue, why should we pay?’ I responded, ‘You should have told me from the start that it would end in bribery,'” he recounted.
Context
- According to a copy of the ruling from the Holosiivskyi District Court of Kyiv dated June 25, 2009, made public by “Road Control,” Kryvonos was charged under Article 157 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code (obstructing the exercise of electoral rights combined with bribery, in conspiracy with a group). Before the trial began, he requested amnesty due to having a minor child in his care. The court freed him from criminal liability and closed the case, which does not contain a conviction.
- Former MP Boryslav Bereza accused Kryvonos of falsely establishing paternity to obtain amnesty in the bribery case. In an interview, the child’s mother, Svitlana Khomenko, stated that she agreed to arrange the paternity through intermediaries because she was told it was necessary for Kryvonos to work abroad. She claimed she was unaware of the documents’ use in a criminal case, and later the paternity record was annulled by court decision.
- Kryvonos has denied the accusations.
