Ruslan Mahamedrasulov has said the situation with the National Anti-Corruption Bureau's (NABU) independence remains critical and has not fundamentally changed. Mahamedrasulov, the head of an interregional detective department at NABU, is suspected by the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) and the Prosecutor General's Office of involvement in selling industrial hemp to Russia, and previously worked on the Midas case investigating embezzlement at Energoatom, Ukraine's state-run nuclear company.
Source: Mahamedrasulov in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda (English translation coming soon)
Details: Mahamedrasulov said the events of 21 July, when there was an attempt to strip NABU of its powers, showed that attacks on the agency can occur "completely outside the law".
Quote: "The situation has not fundamentally changed. The issue of the Bureau's independence remains critical. On 21 July, we saw how they can act completely outside the law – simply make a decision, attack and do it. This is a permanent process, and it cannot be resolved once and for all."
Details: He stressed that the only real safeguard for protecting the institution remains the attention of society, the media and international partners.
"The only thing that really works is the attention of society, the media and international partners. When everyone acts like a single orchestra, institutions can be protected," Mahamedrasulov added.
He also said that in the very first days after the events of 21 July, he realised the risk of the worst-case scenario for NABU.
"At that moment, I thought: that's it – ten years of work, and we will simply be abolished or turned into a controlled body. To be honest, I had already given up. But the way society reacted came as a surprise to me," the detective noted.
Background:
- On 21 July, the SSU conducted a series of searches and detentions involving NABU and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO). One of the detainees was Ruslan Mahamedrasulov, a senior officer in a regional NABU detective unit.
- The SSU and the Prosecutor General's Office said Mahamedrasulov had been "acting as an intermediary in the sale of industrial-grade hemp to the Republic of Dagestan (Russia)".
- On 22 July, a court in Kyiv ordered that Mahamedrasulov be remanded in custody for 60 days.
- According to Ukrainska Pravda sources, he was one of the key NABU officers involved in documenting the activities of Tymur Mindich, co-owner of Kvartal 95, the Ukrainian TV production company Volodymyr Zelenskyy founded before he became president.
- Business sources told Ukrainska Pravda that NABU and SAPO investigators had managed to record Mindich in an apartment where a birthday celebration for Zelenskyy had been held five years earlier.
- On 10 September, the Pechersk District Court granted the prosecutor's request to keep Mahamedrasulov's father in custody until 21 October.
- On 12 September, the same court extended Ruslan Mahamedrasulov's detention until 21 October. The hearing has been postponed several times due to delays in notifying his defence team.
- On 15 October, the court extended the pre-trial investigation in the case against Ruslan Mahamedrasulov and his father, Sentiabr Mahamedrasulov, until 21 January 2026.
- On 3 December, the Kyiv Court of Appeal released NABU detective Ruslan Mahamedrasulov from pre-trial detention, where he had been held for five months.
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