Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Wednesday that prosecutors have opened a criminal inquiry into leaked tapes that allegedly feature the country's former leader discussing conditions for a $1 billion loan with former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.
The tapes, which are yet to be authenticated, were released on Tuesday by Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii Derkach, who long has aired unsubstantiated corruption accusations against Biden and his son, who used to serve on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma.
The recordings don't appear to contain anything that would incriminate Biden or his son and were seen by some observers as a political effort to help U.S. President Donald Trump's reelection bid.
He called Biden a "Friend and ally of Ukraine" and criticized Zelenskiy for eroding Western support for Ukraine to Moscow's benefit.
The Biden campaign declined to comment on the latest Ukraine developments.
Derkach alleged Tuesday that Biden promised Poroshenko in 2015-16, when both were still in office, $1 billion in loan guarantees in exchange for "Keeping Burisma's schemes and international corruption in place" by ousting then Prosecutor General Victor Shokin to prevent him from investigating the company.
On the tape Derkach released, the two men introduced as "Vice President Biden" and "President Poroshenko" discuss replacing Shokin as a condition for the loan guarantees, but make no mention of Burisma.
https://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-investigate-leaked-tapes-ex-185947899.html
The tapes, which are yet to be authenticated, were released on Tuesday by Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii Derkach, who long has aired unsubstantiated corruption accusations against Biden and his son, who used to serve on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma.
The recordings don't appear to contain anything that would incriminate Biden or his son and were seen by some observers as a political effort to help U.S. President Donald Trump's reelection bid.
He called Biden a "Friend and ally of Ukraine" and criticized Zelenskiy for eroding Western support for Ukraine to Moscow's benefit.
The Biden campaign declined to comment on the latest Ukraine developments.
Derkach alleged Tuesday that Biden promised Poroshenko in 2015-16, when both were still in office, $1 billion in loan guarantees in exchange for "Keeping Burisma's schemes and international corruption in place" by ousting then Prosecutor General Victor Shokin to prevent him from investigating the company.
On the tape Derkach released, the two men introduced as "Vice President Biden" and "President Poroshenko" discuss replacing Shokin as a condition for the loan guarantees, but make no mention of Burisma.
https://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-investigate-leaked-tapes-ex-185947899.html
No comments:
Post a Comment