Investigation Reveals Controversial Ukrainian MP Dubinsky Sought EU Citizenship in 2017

08 May 2020 19:04

A Slidstvo.info agency investigation has revealed that Ukrainian MP Oleksandr Dubinsky who is affiliated with oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky sought Romanian citizenship for money in 2017.

Dubinsky, now a Servant of the People lawmaker and formerly a presenter on 1+1 TV-channel, applied for Romanian citizenship using a simplified procedure that requires having Romanian roots. The company Dubinsky allegedly used offered to "find these roots" for around 5-6 thousand euros.

Such companies offering Romanian, Polish, Bulgarian, and other European Union countries' citizenships in exchange for a pretty penny operate in Ukraine quite freely, despite Ukraine forbidding dual citizenship. Acquiring another country's passport requires renouncing your Ukrainian citizenship. And non-Ukrainian citizens are not allowed to serve as lawmakers.

Dubinsky became an MP in summer 2019 when Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Servant of the People party won the parliamentary election by a landslide.

In a conversation with the author of the investigation and a Slidstvo.info journalist, Dubinsky brushed off the accusations saying that he only has Ukrainian citizenship. Slidstvo.info could not establish whether Dubinsky received the passport but did manage to get hold of his registration number provided by the Romanian Ministry of Justice upon application.

The fact of Dubinsky's application was also confirmed to Slidstvo.info by a source close to the ministry.

Dubinsky was among the seven MPs who filed most of the 16,335 filibustering amendments to the bank bill, colloquially known as the "anti-Kolomosky bill," that would not permit the return of PrivatBank to the oligarch.