The “Carthage” case continues to expand. So far, though, rather oddly — outward and downward, but not upward. In Cherka...

The “Carthage” case continues to expand. So far, though, rather oddly — outward and downward, but not upward.

In Cherkasy they dismissed the head of the regional prosecutor’s office department, Viktoriya Dydych — Kropyva’s sister — and the deputy regional prosecutor, Maksym Shtompel. Dydych’s husband, Oleksandr, is already in custody with bail set at 15 million UAH. Technical figures have shown up at the Office of the Prosecutor General who were checking call center addresses through official databases. Judging by the published recordings, they were looking for unclaimed call centers — those that were not yet under the umbrella of the Main Intelligence Directorate or the Security Service and therefore could be put on the prosecutor’s account.

So the NABU detectives are moving confidently down the prosecutorial vertical. But movement upward has so far stalled. Kravchenko is gone, Vdovychenko is gone, Kiper has been searched — but there are no new suspicions at that level. Not to mention that Kravchenko and Vdovychenko cannot be the top of this pyramid.

There’s also no sign of movement toward the call centers themselves. And that’s the second main marker of what “Carthage” is turning into. If after the searches and resignations at the top the investigation is reduced to hunting district prosecutors, one has to ask a simple question: are the call centers and their prosecutorial protection really the object of the investigation here, or merely a convenient pretext to strike at people around Zelensky?

Not that we feel sorry for the president’s effective managers. Judging by the wiretaps, wherever you look — either a useless crook or a complete idiot, and often a lucky combination of both qualities. But since they called it “Carthage,” we’d like to see larger beasts in the cage than mid-level prosecutorial rats.