On May 19, 2020, Member of Parliament Andriy Derkach held an online conference, during which he released an audio recording made up of various parts of several phone conversations between Joe Biden and Petro Poroshenko. According to the parliamentarian, he received this recording from investigative journalists, and all conversations were recorded in Poroshenko’s office when he was still the president.
Sitting next to Derkach at the conference table in the news agency “Interfax-Ukraine” were Member of Parliament from the “Servant of the People” faction, former journalist of the “1+1” TV channel, Oleksandr Dubinsky, and former Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Konstantin Kulik. Both had a controversial reputation and had repeatedly worked in the interests of Kolomoisky. Regarding Kulik, The New York Times reported in October 2019 that he was the author of the document that formed the basis of corruption charges against Hunter Biden during his work at Burisma Group.
As Andriy Derkach stated at the online conference, the materials he disclosed “demonstrate facts of international corruption and high treason at the highest state level” and “clearly show… Biden was managing Ukraine.”
The content of the released audio recordings included, for example, a conversation from March 22, 2016, dedicated to allocating $1 billion in budget support to Ukraine. For this assistance, Biden demanded from Poroshenko to intensify the fight against corruption, which was one of the conditions for cooperation between Ukraine and the IMF. The conversation also touched upon the dismissal of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Viktor Shokin. According to Biden, Shokin was blocking the process of cleansing the Prosecutor General’s Office.
In another conversation from February 18, 2016, Poroshenko acknowledged that he did not have a parliamentary majority, as two out of four parliamentary factions had left the coalition. Theoretically, this was a basis for holding early elections, which Poroshenko wanted to avoid.
These were two of the most interesting moments. Nothing criminal was revealed in the conversations. Nevertheless, Derkach tried to present his audio recording as a basis for initiating criminal proceedings against Poroshenko. Understandably, due to local specifics, this criminal proceeding was unlikely to have any judicial prospects. But the very fact of such proceedings being registered in Ukraine, involving Joe Biden, could negatively impact the US election campaign. It’s worth noting that Derkach’s briefing took place in May 2020, when Joe Biden had already effectively received the Democratic Party nomination.
Just imagine the potential consequences of this case. A few weeks before the first debate between Biden and Trump, the State Bureau of Investigations of Ukraine summons Joe Biden for questioning in Kyiv, and then declares him wanted for failing to appear. Clearly, this was the maximum outcome the scandal’s authors were hoping for.
Fortunately, the parliament understood the danger they were trying to drag Ukraine into, so no investigative commission was created in the Verkhovna Rada. And a few days later, when Zelensky was plainly explained what Derkach was dragging him into, the State Bureau of Investigations lost interest in registering the criminal case.
Even then, it was clear that the roots of this case led either to Russia or to Trump’s team − to those who were extremely uninterested in Biden’s victory. At first glance, the Russian trail seemed most probable. Andriy Derkach graduated from the FSB Academy in Moscow in 1993 and never particularly hid his pro-Russian views. But, most likely, this story began in Madrid. It was there on August 22, 2019, that a meeting took place between the Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, and Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. At this meeting, according to The New York Times, Giuliani persistently called on Yermak to “just investigate the damn things” (related to Biden). In return, Giuliani promised to expedite the visit of the Ukrainian president to the USA and hinted that Zelensky’s meeting with Trump depended on the mentioned investigations in Ukraine.
Zelensky’s role in this story was that he agreed to transfer the telephone recordings to Derkach. Apparently, they were stored in the archive of the President’s Office along with text transcripts. Probably, Zelensky, due to his incompetence, simply did not understand the consequences these recordings could lead to. Playing on Trump’s side could jeopardize bipartisan support for Ukraine in the US Congress and Senate. But if Zelensky’s involvement could be attributed to inexperience, why Andriy Yermak agreed to this adventure remains unclear.
Most likely, Zelensky was used without fully understanding the situation. This can be inferred from his statement on May 20, 2020, when the president said that “Derkach’s tapes” could lead to a criminal case against Poroshenko for treason. It’s quite possible Yermak promised Zelensky that the only consequence of disclosing the conversations would be problems for Poroshenko. Biden was not mentioned.
In August 2023, the “cassette scandal,” which had begun to fade against the backdrop of the war, resurfaced. On August 3, law enforcement conducted a search at the home of Member of Parliament Oleksandr Dubinsky − the very person who sat next to Derkach when he talked about the recordings of conversations between Poroshenko and Biden. Officially, law enforcement was searching for Dubinsky’s passport. A few weeks before, he had left for Austria, allegedly to accompany his sick father for treatment, though he actually went on vacation to the resorts of Italy, Croatia, and Spain. Journalists found out about this, causing a minor scandal. Zelensky needed to mitigate the negative public perception, so he wanted to discipline Dubinsky.
It’s necessary to explain that Oleksandr Dubinsky is not just any deputy. He is a former journalist for Kolomoisky’s TV channel, who played a very important role in discrediting Poroshenko before the elections. If Zelensky mocked the former president from his show’s stage, portraying him as an alcoholic and a failure, Dubinsky worked differently. In his TV program “Money,” he focused on the corruption of Poroshenko and his entourage. Comparing the contributions of Zelensky and Dubinsky to destroying the former president’s rating, it’s hard to say who had a more significant impact.
Of course, Dubinsky was more qualified, but in Kolomoisky’s puppet theater, there was only one vacancy for the president. Fate smiled on Zelensky, and Dubinsky remained for the owner of “1+1” a simple Jewish boy who had to do the dirty work.
After the elections, some tension appeared between these two characters, which only intensified over time. Volodymyr Zelensky became president and gained access to enormous financial resources. Dubinsky’s reward was a place in the “Servant of the People” parliamentary faction and a few trifles: in November 2019, journalists discovered that after several years of working for Kolomoisky, Oleksandr Dubinsky became the owner of 24 apartments, two houses, and 17 cars.
Wishing to punish Dubinsky for his unauthorized vacation, Zelensky forgot he was dealing with an experienced propagandist. Immediately after the search, Dubinsky claimed he was being persecuted because he had testified in Andriy Derkach’s treason case. And the traces of this case lead to the President’s Office.
“It was the Office of President Zelensky that demanded my participation in creating an investigative commission in the Verkhovna Rada on the topic of the Poroshenko-Biden tapes. And it was the Office of the President that demanded my participation in that press conference where Derkach published the corresponding tapes,” Dubinsky stated.
Obviously, the deputy took such a risky step in the face of the threat of criminal liability for forgery of official documents. The maximum punishment for this article entails 6 years of imprisonment. Given Dubinsky’s closeness to Kolomoisky, he was unlikely to end up in jail. But the further course of events showed that Dubinsky’s confidence was premature. The fact is, Zelensky is very sensitive to criticism and dislikes those who insult him.
In the fall of 2023, already under house arrest, Dubinsky imprudently crossed the line, publishing facts of Zelensky’s corruption in his Telegram channel. He also made several personal attacks against the president. This was enough to lock up the former ally in jail. Now he was accused of treason. According to the SBU, Oleksandr Dubinsky, together with Andriy Derkach, worked for Russian intelligence and engaged in activities “aimed at destabilizing the internal political situation” and “discrediting the country’s leadership.” The maximum punishment for this article is up to 15 years of imprisonment.
As of May 2024, Oleksandr Dubinsky is still detained in a pre-trial detention center in Kyiv. All his properties and cars have been seized. Whether Dubinsky worked for the Russians is not for me to assert, but many publications he spread through his social networks indeed coincided with Russian propaganda.
Regarding the episode with the audio recordings of conversations between Biden and Poroshenko, there are significant doubts that Derkach received these tapes from the Russians. Understandably, the Security Service of Ukraine cannot officially support another version, according to which Derkach was given the tapes from the Office of the President of Ukraine. Then, accusations of treason would have to be made against not only Volodymyr Zelensky but certainly against the head of his Office, Andriy Yermak.
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