Corruption allegations between top officials lead to brawl in front of Ukrainian president

Spokesman for Ukraine's president has upbraided the country's interior minister and the Odessa governor for a water-throwing and insult-laced clash

Prime minister Arseny Yatseniuk, right, with interior minister Arsen Avakov during a government meeting in Kiev Photo: Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters

Corruption allegations between top Ukrainian government officials boiled over into a dramatic showdown on Monday that reportedly saw the country’s interior minister fling a glass of water at a regional governor – all as president Petro Poroshenko looked on.

The incident, which took place at a session of the National Council of Reforms held at the presidential administration in Kiev, forced Mr Poroshenko to end the meeting, according to lawmakers who were present.

At the heart of the matter were allegations of corruption at the state-owned Odesa Port Plant, a major chemical producer and a top priority for Ukraine’s privatisation plans. Mikheil Saakashvili, former Georgian president and current Odesa regional governor, has claimed prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and his allies are delaying the plant’s privatisation to maintain ongoing corruption schemes, an allegation which prompted interior minister Arsen Avakov to lash out at Monday’s meeting.

Sergei Leshchenko, a lawmaker from the president’s faction, described what sounded more like a soap opera than a meeting of top officials: “A fight broke out, Avakov accused Saakashvili of being a thief, to which Saakashvili responded that he has nothing but an honest name. After that the minister began shouting ‘Get out of my country!’” before throwing a glass of water at Mr Saakashvili.

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Mr Yatsenyuk, an ally of Avakov, intervened to echo Mr Avakov’s insults against former Georgian president Saakashvili, calling him an “actor on tour” and repeating the interior minister’s demands that he “get out of the country,” according to Mr Leshchenko.

Mikheil Saakashvili with Arseny Yatsenyuk in 2012 during a meeting in Kiev  Photo: Andrew Kravchenko/AFP

Mr Saakashvili has long criticised both Mr Yatsenyuk and Mr Avakov for allegedly allowing corruption in the country to flourish – and profiting off of it. Yatsenyuk, for his part, has refuted all such allegations and described them as a smear campaign against him.

As corruption allegations have become a daily occurrence in Ukraine, even Ukraine’s biggest supporters in the US government have now expressed disappointment with the pace of reforms. US vice president Joe Biden last week warned the country’s leaders to get their act together or face losing international support.

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Even as Mr Biden was visiting Kiev, however, the country’s poor track record with corruption made international headlines, as two dozen Dutch Golden Age paintings stolen from the Netherlands a decade ago turned up in Ukraine – and top Ukrainian officials were accused of holding them hostage.

The Westfries Museum, from where the paintings were stolen, claimed on December 7 that an ultra-nationalist group working with top officials in Ukraine was demanding €50 million ransom for the artworks.

Ukraine’s interior ministry has since promised to help locate the paintings, though no information on the Ukrainian investigation has yet been released.

By Allison Quinn