Former Ukrainian PM Azarov summoned to Kyiv for questioning
KYIV. Aug 4 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office summoned former Prime Minister Mykola Azarov to the Main Military Prosecutor's Office for questioning on August 9.
The summons was posted on the Prosecutor General's Office website.
Azarov was summoned for 2:00 p.m. on August 9 to take part in procedures related to a criminal investigation into the misappropriation of assets belonging to Ukrnafta and Ukrgazvydobuvannya worth two billion hryvni by a criminal organization led by former President Viktor Yanukovych, the document said.
Mykola Azarov's son, Oleksiy Azarov, was summoned for questioning in the same criminal case for 4:00 p.m. on August 9.
Azarov himself said in commenting on the news that he did not consider the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office a legitimate authority. "After the coup, the Prosecutor General's Office, as a body overseeing the observance of the law and constitution in Ukraine, has not existed in Ukraine. After Ruslan Kotsaba, Olena Hlyshchynska, Alla Aleksandrovska, Oleksandr Yefremov, and a lot of others were arrested, the prosecutors have lost a moral and an actual right to prosecute on behalf of the state of Ukraine. That's why its accusations should be treated correspondingly," Azarov said on Facebook.
Mykola Azarov led the Ukrainian government from March 2010 to the end of January 2014. After the change of government in Ukraine, he left the country.
At the present time, Azarov is apparently staying in Russia. "I am here, in Moscow, a former Ukrainian prime minister, but I am not a former Ukrainian politician," Azarov said at a press conference in Moscow in February this year.
Transparency International said in a report in April that a lot of facts demonstrated that Yanukovych and Azarov had been granted Russian citizenship and were under state protection.
Ukraine put Azarov on an interstate wanted list on suspicion of embezzling public funds.
Alexei Azarov, the former prime minister's son, was a member of the 7th Verkhovna Rada.