Lobbying for big business interests: Media coverage of Yuzhanina's role in the tax committee of the Verkhovna Rada.

MP from the "European Solidarity" faction, Nina Yuzhanina has been working in the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Taxation and Customs Policy for nearly 10 years. Under Petro Poroshenko, she led this committee and is currently a member of its legislative division. Throughout this time, Yuzhanina has repeatedly found herself embroiled in scandals related to lobbying interests of various trade and industrial business groups, some of which had corrupt origins. This is noted by Facts.

International detective agency Absolution has reported on Yuzhanina's close ties with the "Avtomagistral" private enterprise, one of the main contractors for the "Big Construction" project. However, these are not the primary issues that Yuzhanina lobbies for. Let’s take a closer look at them.

In June 2019, the politician received the anti-award "Golden Scythe" from activists for lobbying the interests of the tobacco industry. This came after numerous publications from various public organizations and media regarding her connections with monopolists.

The head of the NGO "Ukrainian Center for Tobacco Control," Andriy Skipalsky, stated at that time: “For some reason, any head of the tax committee immediately becomes overly loyal to tobacco corporations. When excise taxes were discussed in 2015, it can already be said that the price of the tobacco lobby, Ms. Yuzhanina, was around 1.5 billion hryvnias, as her position was to increase excise taxes by 20%. We and the Cabinet fought for 40%. If they had raised it by 20%, we would have received 1.6 billion less.”

According to a study by Transparency International Ukraine, it was stated that Yuzhanina, along with MPs Maksym Kuryachyi, Mykhailo Kobtsev, Taras Kozak, and committee secretary Serhiy Sholomytsky, have stable connections with tobacco companies. They promote legislative initiatives and regulations beneficial to tobacco companies and actively criticize and neglect bills that do not favor tobacco corporations. Furthermore, some of them systematically fought for low tobacco excise taxes. They were supported by the corrupt head of the State Fiscal Service, Roman Nasirov.

The coalition of public organizations "For a Smoke-Free Ukraine" picketed the committee meeting, which had not reviewed bills (No. 2430-1) for more than a year since 2015, blocking the inclusion of the anti-tobacco bill No. 2820 on the agenda of the Verkhovna Rada.

In October 2016, Yuzhanina had a falling out with her deputy in the committee, MP from "Samopomich," Andriy Zhurzhiy. The reason was his statement on one of the TV channels that all issues contradicting the "party policy" (BPP) were not considered in the committee. Later, Zhurzhiy published a message from Yuzhanina, which he received after the broadcast. In it, the BPP parliamentarian called him a “rare scoundrel” and “vermin.”

Things escalated further. In 2018, during the presentation of the draft law on amendments to the tax code, Yuzhanina attempted to promote an amendment that provided for VAT exemption on imported equipment until the beginning of 2020, which would only benefit those companies already ready to purchase such equipment, particularly the firms of oligarch Rinat Akhmetov.

In 2017, Yuzhanina was the initiator of abolishing the amendment limiting subsidies "in one hand" for agricultural holdings. As journalists from Bihus.info noted, this helped agrarian oligarch Yuriy Kosyuk to extract nearly 1 billion hryvnias from the budget. Each Ukrainian paid the businessman 23 hryvnias.

In 2016, the head of the Radical Party, Oleg Lyashko, claimed that Yuzhanina was involved in creating offshore companies for President Petro Poroshenko. He labeled it particularly cynical that the president appointed her to lead a working group aimed at combating offshore schemes. This was echoed by Yulia Tymoshenko, the leader of the "Batkivshchyna" party, who accused Yuzhanina of involvement in money laundering through offshore companies during a committee meeting chaired by Yuzhanina. For this reason, she is delaying the adoption of anti-offshore laws.

The parliamentarian herself responded that she is not a business partner of Poroshenko. However, in 2014, Yuzhanina was involved in corn trading, where the director is a Russian national, and the contact details relate to the firms "Premo Exim" of Nina Yuzhanina and Petro Poroshenko.

Such actions by Yuzhanina led journalists to closely investigate the property status of the MP. In 2017, Yuzhanina was spotted at a joint event with the convicted for corruption Mykola Zlochevskyi (Burisma Group), posing for a joint photo in Monte Carlo. Moreover, the event was organized by the British research institute named after Adam Smith, which belonged to a Russian firm. This institute also covered the trip to Monaco and the accommodation at a luxury hotel, as the visit was unofficial—such a "gift" from the organizers constitutes a violation of the law.

In December 2018, journalist Alexander Dubinsky reported that Yuzhanina, with the help of her daughter-in-law, concealed from NABU the acquisition of a travel company, LLC "A LA CARTE TRAVEL," purchased in 2017. The firm was owned by Kazakhstani citizen Gulnaz Boshugulova—wife of Yevhen Yuzhanin. The girl immediately increased the company's charter capital by 12 million hryvnias.

After marriage, the girl decided not to change her surname. This was because Gulnaz became the owner of an apartment in the very center of Kyiv. As journalists from "Secret Materials" established, in the same building, Yuzhanina's husband bought two parking spaces. The journalists' investigation showed that the MP herself resides in the elite building.

Thus, the position of a member of the tax policy committee helps Yuzhanina improve her financial situation and negatively impacts the economy of Ukraine. However, law enforcement agencies have not shown any interest in Yuzhanina's activities so far.