Government officials arrested for corruption on live TV

Ukrainian police have detained the head of the state emergency service and his deputy on suspicion of extorting bribes, during a televised government meeting in the capital Kiev.

Ukrainian police clad all in black barged in on a live-televised government cabinet meeting and arrested two senior officials on charges of corruption.

The country’s prime minister, Arseny Yatsenyuk, tweeted images of the arrest, saying that “this will happen to everyone who breaks the law and sneers at the Ukrainian state.”

The arrests of the head of the state emergency service, Serhiy Bochkovsky, and his deputy, Vasyl Stoyetsky, are part of a larger anti-corruption clampdown.

The country’s Interior minister Arsen Avakov said the officials were being investigated for bribe extortion from fuel companies.

Avakov said the detention was “not a show” and “not theater.” It was clearly a calculated decision though.

“We decided it was necessary to do it this way, during the cabinet meeting, as inoculation, as a preventative measure against corrupt officials, of whom we unfortunately have many,” said Avakov.

Bribery has plagued the Ukrainian political system for years, and is one of the factors stifling the country’s troubled economy. The country’s political establishment also has a penchant for dramatic flair, with its lawmakers notoriously starting brawls in parliament.