‘Like being in an electric chair’: Ukraine’s female chief prosecutor on task of tackling country’s corruption

Iryna Venediktova tells Diplomatic Editor Kim Sengupta that there are no plans to reopen Hunter Biden probe

Iryna Venediktova (Marc Cohen)

“We  live in a state where there is  corruption, we live in a strong oligarchic society , that’s why we have such tough challenges”,  said Iryna Venediktova. “ I knew this job was not going to be easy when I took it,  in this country the Prosecutor General’s seat is a bit like sitting on an electric chair.”  

The problems Ukraine’s first woman chief prosecutor faces are wide ranging. The endemic graft and malpractice ; the often malign influence of tycoons;  politicisation and attempted manipulation of the judicial system and the need to provide accountability abroad.

The issues have an international dimension. The IMF had made the continuation of the vast loans it makes to the country conditional on instituting sweeping reforms. Separately, there is an audit of what’s happening being taken by the European Union.