Head of ILI Tetiana Khutor outlined possible negative scenarios for Ukraine following the corruption scandal on Espreso TV

The “Midas” case will damage Ukraine’s reputation, which is politically disadvantageous amid the difficult conditions of seeking and attracting financial support. This was stated by the Head of the Institute of Legislative Ideas, Tetiana Khutor, on Espreso TV.

“Of course, this is definitely not what we need in order to convince our partners to provide us with financial assistance. And this is happening at a time when foreign funds are entering Ukraine intending to invest over 100 million dollars,” the expert noted.

At the same time, she emphasized that Ukraine is capable, in terms of anti-corruption policy, of protecting itself from similar cases in the future, as the existing anti-corruption infrastructure demonstrates a high level of performance.

“It is very good that such investigations are being conducted. We have the High Anti-Corruption Court and anti-corruption bodies that have ensured that Herman Halushchenko is not somewhere in Vienna or Switzerland, but in Kyiv and currently in a pre-trial detention center,” Tetiana Khutor said.

According to her, NABU and SAPO are free in their actions to issue factual and legal notices of suspicion to persons connected with the “Midas” case. However, the expert warned that in such cases it is crucial to thoroughly prepare the legal justification and evidence base, as the suspects will use the services of top lawyers to file claims with the European Court of Human Rights.

“Claimants have every opportunity to defend themselves and later legally dismantle these cases. Therefore, it is extremely important that NABU and SAPO have rock-solid arguments and a strong legal foundation before issuing a notice of suspicion to anyone,” the Head of ILI stressed.

Tetiana Khutor cautioned that if a notice of suspicion is issued with weak justification, it will give grounds to undermine the case not only legally but also communicatively — to claim that it is politically motivated or commissioned. This, in turn, could distort the importance of the case itself and the results that society expects to achieve.

The full recording of the broadcast is available here: