On February 27th, Interfax [a private Russian news agency that is generally considered reliable] reported that a criminal investigation has been opened up by Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation regarding alleged pressure put on Ukraine’s former prosecutor Viktor Shokin by former Vice President Joe Biden.
The investigation was opened in response to a motion filed by Shokin. The State Bureau of Investigation was court ordered to register the case.
In his motion, Shokin spoke of pressure put on him by Biden, Teleshetsky said.
“The reason for the pressure was the investigation being conducted by the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine into grave crimes of international corruption linked with the activities of former Ecology Minister of Ukraine Mykola Zlochevsky and top managers at the Burisma company,” he said.
Shokin’s motion was filed with the State Bureau of Investigation back on January 28, 2020, but information about the criminal offence was added to the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations only on February 24 after the country ordered the bureau to register the case, Teleshetsky said.
The case was opened on the charge of interfering in the work of an official of a law enforcement agency, he said.
Even though Shokin included Biden’s name in the motion, which prompted the opening of the case, the investigation itself mentions only a “U.S. citizen,” without giving any names, Teleshetsky said.
The State Bureau of Investigation is also handling criminal cases opened in response to Shokin’s motion on charges of disclosing pretrial probe secrets to employees of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, he said.
“Bearing in mind the fact that a possible suspect in all three of these criminal offences could be Joseph Biden, as a person who, in our opinion, is involved in these events, we deem it necessary to merge all the cases into one, in order to ensure an effective investigation and set up a competent investigative group, as well as a group of experienced prosecutors who can ensure the investigation within a reasonable period of time,” Teleshetsky said.
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The Russian news agency, TASS, conducted a comprehensive interview with Vladimir Putin on 20 different topics for the 20th anniversary of his initial election as Russian president. It will be a multi-part video series to be posted at intervals through the end of March. Below is a link to the first video with English subtitles. Unfortunately, I could not embed the video.
https://putin.tass.ru/en?_ga=2.127845517.142265297.1581953885-311200542.1578148349