The new head of the Presidential Administration, Andrii Bohdan, falls under the law on lustration and probably cannot hold this position.
Bohdan held several major positions during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych.
In particular, Bohdan was Deputy Minister of Anatoly Tolstoukhov’s Cabinet of Ministers. In February 2011, the position was eliminated.
In addition, he served as Commissioner for Anti-Corruption Policy under the Cabinet of Ministers since July 2013.
This means Bohdan falls under the law on lustration, which prohibits those who were officials under Yanukovych to hold office.
Zelensky’s team, however, probably used a loophole created in the days of Petro Poroshenko. In particular, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption established that the Presidential Administration is not an independent state body, and therefore it is not subject to laws that impose restrictions on the state service.
Updated. Bohdan personally stated that he holds his post legally, as he was removed from the law on lustration.
According to TSN, Bohdan claims that he "absolutely unfairly” fell under the lustration to begin with.
In particular, he insists he was the one to thank for exposing the corruption scheme, which was used to withdraw billions of dollars from the state budget.
As “Apostrophe” reported earlier, Volodymyr Zenelsky appointed Bohdan as Head of the Presidential Administration on May 21. Zelensky also made a series of other appointments.