Journalists of the "Skhemy" project discovered another Ukrainian judge with a Russian passport — this is Supreme Court judge Valentyna Simonenko, who resigned in March 2023.
They refer to an extract from Rospasport. According to journalists, the judge, when she still had the surname Smirnova, became a citizen of Russia on April 10, 2003 on the basis that her relative, husband, or parents have Russian citizenship.
At the time of receiving Russian citizenship, Simonenko was already working as a judge at the Sevastopol Court of Appeal in Crimea. As of now, Simonenkoʼs passport is listed as "invalid due to its expiration date."
Her passport was issued in the Rostov region. According to journalists, as of 2015 and 2017, Simonenko was registered in this region.
"Skhemy" suggest that Valentyna Simonenko did not leave Russian citizenship. In a comment to journalists, she denied that she had received Russian citizenship. However, she admitted that she had repeatedly traveled to the Rostov region, where her husbandʼs parents lived at that time. "Iʼm not going to lie, I was really there because we went to see his [husbandʼs] mother. She lived there," said Simonenko.
In March 2023, Valentyna Simonenko submitted her resignation.
- In 2017, the Public Integrity Council reported that Simonenko visited the peninsula several times after the occupation of Crimea, in particular on June 28, 2014 and November 20, 2014. The purpose of these visits is unknown. Simonenkoʼs husband also continued to cooperate with Svitlana Bykova, a traitorous lawyer on the peninsula.
- On October 9, 2023, the "Investigation.Info" agency reported that Simonenko will receive a lifetime allowance (about 100,000 hryvnias per month), because she has the relevant experience as a judge).
- On September 15, 2022, the "Skhemy" project published material about the Russian passport of Supreme Court judge Bohdan Lvov. "Skhemy" also found out that in October 2012, a new passport of a Russian citizen was issued in the name of Bohdan Lvov. The basis for replacing the document is reaching the age of 45. Lvov himself denied having a Russian passport, but during the investigation he was denied access to state secrets. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau started an investigation against Lviv, who did not declare his familyʼs Moscow real estate. The judgeʼs family owns an apartment in the Russian capital on the Leningrad highway. Later, Bohdan Lvov was removed from the staff of judges of the Supreme Court.