"Trojan Horse" of Zelensky’s Office: Who Is Andriy Smyrnov and What Do the Courts and the Treason Case Against Poroshenko Have to Do with It

"Trojan Horse" of Zelensky’s Office: Who Is Andriy Smyrnov and What Do the Courts and the Treason Case Against Poroshenko Have to Do with It

Andriy Smyrnov, deputy head of Zelensky’s Office, may have influenced the judges’ lenient decision regarding the fifth president of Ukraine, and here’s why

The course of Petro Poroshenko’s case is now moving not in the interests of the authorities and the President’s Office, and many political analysts claim—Zelensky’s defeat is owed to his own associates, in particular deputy head of the Presidential Office Andriy Smyrnov. We looked into who Smyrnov is and why his influence could be decisive for Zelensky in the confrontation with Poroshenko.

The return of 17 in January to Kyiv of the fifth president, Petro Poroshenko, gave the authorities a chance to show that everyone is equal before the law, and therefore such an influential figure as a former president can and should be held accountable under the law if involved in violations.

However, already on 19 January it became clear that the president lost the first round, since the Pechersky Court of Kyiv imposed the minimum preventive measure on Poroshenko—personal recognizance. Experts name Zelensky’s associates, his close people in the President’s Office, as the reason for such a lenient judicial decision. The key figure, according to political scientist Vadym Karasev, is deputy head of the Presidential Office Andriy Smyrnov. Karasev is convinced: Andriy Smyrnov not only failed to do his job on the Poroshenko case, but may even have sided with him.

“The case of ex-president Poroshenko is now proceeding contrary to the expectations of Zelensky and the President’s Office: the Pechersky Court chose personal recognizance for Poroshenko on suspicion of treason and aiding terrorist organizations. This is undoubtedly a defeat for the authorities. That is, the arrest the Presidential Office expected did not happen. What actually happened and why did this happen? Rumor has it that in Zelensky’s team this matter was handled by Andriy Smyrnov, deputy head of the Presidential Office. As sources told me, he not only did not work effectively on this case, but could play both on Zelensky’s side and on Poroshenko’s side, a servant of two masters,” Vadym Karasev wrote on his Facebook page.

Karasev reported that Smyrnov began working in the Presidential Office back when Andriy Bohdan was head and in the corridors was considered Bohdan’s man:

“As a lawyer, he could be seen defending politicians from different camps—from former-regionals like Lukash and Yefremov to Dmytro Yarosh from the Right Sector. What now? I think Zelensky has faced the reality in which we live in Ukraine—he lacks professional personnel, and those who are there perform their work taking into account Ukrainian reality. This will likely lead to personnel changes in the President’s Office,” Vadym Karasev noted.

What Andriy Smyrnov is generally known for, and what his influence on different vectors of state power is.

Andriy Smyrnov’s successful path

Andriy Smyrnov, after obtaining a higher legal education, founded his own law firm in 2003—“Business Yur Consulting.” It lasted only a couple of years. However, the closure of his first venture could only have strengthened Smyrnov’s belief that success requires maximum connections, which he proceeded to build by entering public service—first in the Zaporizhzhia land resources administration, then in the legal department of the State Reserve Committee, and soon even becoming deputy head of the economic administration of the SBU.

Smyrnov then left for private legal practice, developing further career options. In 2012 he became a freelance adviser to the head of the State Agency on Investments and National Projects (Gosinvestproject), Vladyslav Kaskiv. It is known that Gosinvestproject was allocated half a billion hryvnias from the state budget for various initiatives. But the projects remained only projects, and the funds may not have been directed to state initiatives. NABU even showed interest in the case.

Smyrnov did not stay long with Kaskiv. In 2012 his friend, lawyer Valeriy Karpuntsov, entered the Verkhovna Rada from the UDAR party, and Smyrnov became his assistant.

The Euromaidan period opened new opportunities for the current deputy head of the Presidential Office. Andriy Smyrnov began appearing frequently on the Maidan and served as a defense lawyer for Euromaidan activists. After meeting Right Sector leader Dmytro Yarosh, Smyrnov began working closely with the Right Sector, and then became an authorized representative of the CEC with an advisory vote when Yarosh ran for president in the 2014 election. In the same year he ran for parliament but failed to gain votes.

However, Andriy Denysenko, one of Right Sector’s leaders, entered parliament and invited Smyrnov to be his assistant. Soon Smyrnov himself became a deputy—not in the Rada, but in Dnipropetrovsk, where he came in 2015 from the UKROP party. By the way, a political step as a local council deputy could have allowed Smyrnov to further expand his circle of connections, getting closer to Hennadiy Korban.

In December 2015 Smyrnov headed the commission on communal property and housing and utilities.

The “Korban case,” which the Prosecutor General’s Office handled in December 2015 when Korban was detained, allowed Smyrnov to demonstrate himself as a professional lawyer. In that case Smyrnov allegedly became close with Andriy Bohdan, who headed the legal defense group for Korban.

In November 2015 the SBU detained Yelena Lukash, a former minister under Azarov and former lawyer for Viktor Yanukovych. Andriy Smyrnov became Lukash’s lawyer. In the corridors it is whispered that by gaining allies among representatives of the Party of Regions, Smyrnov lost friendship with UKROP representatives, who persistently asked him to leave Dnipro and recommended he not appear in the regional council.

In 2017 Smyrnov opened the Smyrnov Law Office association. It seems Smyrnov often defended those accused of embezzling state funds. Besides Lukash, Smyrnov’s clients included the former head of Naftogaz of Ukraine, as well as Ihor Huzhva, known for his Strana.ua project, and also Oleksandr Yefremov—the former head of the Party of Regions faction, who was accused of treason. In the end, Yefremov received the very “personal recognizance” that Petro Poroshenko received by the Pechersky Court’s decision on 19 January 2022.

Andriy Smyrnov—the overseer of justice

After Andriy Bohdan was appointed head of the Presidential Office, Smyrnov was invited as his deputy, and his official functions included legal policy, law enforcement activity, and the judicial system.

“I have no doubt, for example, that the era of the previous head of state ended the moment he personally ceased to be associated with justice. Everyone has the right to give their subjective assessment of when exactly this happened. I have my own understanding, and it is connected with the temptation of personal interference in every more-or-less significant process in the country. Therefore it is very important to justify the expectations of society that entrusted power to the president and his team, to ensure fair treatment for everyone,” Smyrnov said in an interview in 2019.

After receiving a post in Zelensky’s Office, Smyrnov took up issues of the law enforcement system. For example, Smyrnov’s work allegedly helped well-known businessman Seyar Kurshutov, known as the “king of smuggling,” who is also on the NSDC sanctions list. According to media reports, Smyrnov was Kurshutov’s lawyer, as well as the lawyer for fugitive judge Mykola Chaus. Kurshutov was called the “right hand” of former BPP deputy Oleksandr Hranovskyi on a number of business and “customs” issues. Kurshutov was then Hranovskyi’s assistant and head of the “Contraband Office” in the southern region. According to Blind Trust, the damage to the state budget from the work of the so-called Hranovskyi Office amounts to about 28 billion hryvnias.

Smyrnov is also mentioned in NABU’s criminal case on Chaus’s escape from Ukraine. Chaus, according to media reports, is still defended by Smyrnov’s personal law firm Smyrnov Law Office.

“He pays for the lawyers, as in previous years, according to the kidnapped judge’s wife, former MP and Petro Poroshenko’s associate Hranovskyi,” says an article in Vesti.ua.

Apparently, a chain of connections around Andriy Smyrnov is emerging: Kurshutov—Hranovskyi—Poroshenko.

But most importantly, even after Bohdan’s departure from the Presidential Office, Smyrnov retains enormous influence because Head of the Presidential Office Yermak trusts him and grants him more and more powers.

Scandals in which Smyrnov has figured

Andriy Smyrnov appears in many scandals but nevertheless keeps his position, which may indicate his excellent negotiation skills and ability to make deals with everyone. For example, media noted that Smyrnov’s voice can allegedly be heard on the “Truba tapes”—recordings from the office of the former head of the State Bureau of Investigations Roman Truba. On the recording, a person with a voice similar to Smyrnov’s discusses possibilities with Truba regarding, among other things, persecution of ex-president Poroshenko. The recording also allegedly includes a conversation about how Oleksandr Yefremov would be pulled out of pretrial detention. By the way, three days after the conversation on 22 July 2019 Yefremov was released. NABU, according to media data, showed interest in Smyrnov, but the case went nowhere. Smyrnov himself commented on NABU’s work in an interview.

“Questions of high-profile imprisonments of corrupt officials are the responsibility of NABU. Since 4 a huge volume of materials has been under investigation. Can you name at least 5 high-profile proceedings that ended with a guilty verdict?” Smyrnov says.

Another scandal involving Smyrnov was the development of Protasiv Yar. In 2019 he represented the interests of Dnipro businessmen Oleh Levin and the aforementioned Hennadiy Korban, who invested in the construction of the Tourbillon residential complex. Then the head of the initiative group opposing the development, Roman Ratushnyi, confirmed that Smyrnov represented the developers’ interests, that he initially allegedly offered a bribe and then simply threatened Ratushnyi.

Also notable is Smyrnov’s connection to another businessman—the owner of Dnipro Agro Group, Vasyl Astion. Smyrnov’s annual declaration states that in 2019 he received a loan of 9,8 million hryvnias from Olga Astion, mother of businessman Vasyl Astion. Astion himself has an ambiguous reputation; he is accused of involvement in the raider takeover of the Khorol Infant Dairy-Processing Plant. Astion’s father-in-law, Mykhailo Koshliak, was previously head of the enforcement block of the Privat group. In 2015 Koshliak was detained by law enforcement, and his lawyer was Andriy Smyrnov.

Despite such a colorful biography, Andriy Smyrnov has for two and a half years remained one of the most influential people in Zelensky’s Office. And although many experts have repeatedly noted that Smyrnov, with his possible connections to Oleksandr Hranovskyi, Seyar Kurshutov and other figures from Petro Poroshenko’s circle, is unlikely to be playing honestly, the authorities still have not decided on reshuffles.

Stanislav Molchanov