In the interview for ‘Prymyi’ TV channel, the former Ukraine’s Security Council Secretary Oleksand Turchynov said that ‘no law-enforcement agency of Ukraine claims a legal responsibility for these tapes. Why? If this format was part of real investigations and within legal framework of Ukraine, criminal cases [on it] should have been launched at the time when this information surfaced’.

Turchynov called for investigation on failure of law-enforcement agencies to timely address the issue.

‘It should be detected if it was a Ukrainian ‘mole’ getting this information or it was coming from Russian side. Why did they fail to open concrete criminal cases when the information was received?’ noted he.

‘Seniors of Security Service never reported that they had Medvedchuk tapes’ archive. Moreover, journalists who are spreading the news about it, they are neither citing court rulings, nor Ukrainian intelligence service announcements, which are currently being more and more politicized. They are referring to ‘temnyki’ (crafted talking points) that are fed to them by anonymous sources… This information could have come their way later and it can related to judgment of  this administration and governmental officials who are not directly mentioned. As for the quote citing ‘chief’, it is clear that for Medvedchuk it has always been Putin,’ stressed Turchinov.

On May 11, Ukraine’s chief prosecutor Iryna Venediktova issued a ‘notice of suspicion’ for two ‘Opposition Platform for Life’ MPs – Viktor Medvedchuk and Taras Kozak.  The latter is alleged to have earlier fled to Russia, while Medvedchuk who is known for his close ties to Russia’s president Volodymyr Putin is now under house arrest.