If Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s advisers become the new oligarchs, Ukraine will slam into another spate of corruption, Financial Times reports.
Ukrainian anti-corruption activist Daria Kaleniuk told the Ukrainian press on this issue:
There is a danger that new oligarchs will emerge through connections with the authorities and the use of embezzlement schemes. The only way to prevent this is to build strong institutions. It is necessary to complete the reform of the judicial system.
The head of the Kyiv branch of the National Democratic Institute non-profit organisation (NDI) Marcin Valetsky also noted that Ukraine still has “very soft restrictions on lobbying activities and high upper limits of corporate donations to MPs”. Moreover, MPs’ incomes from side activities are not controlled in any way, according to Financial Times.
The expert believes that the systemic principles behind the attractiveness of corruption in Ukraine have not changed significantly. He noted:
In the end, we just might move from a system of monopolistic corruption to a competitive corruption system.
The issue of fighting corruption is a cornerstone of Ukrainian society and politics. Western countries, which regularly provide Ukraine with financial and military aid, expect real results from Kyiv and insist on more autonomy for the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP). The USA and the EU openly state that they will strictly control where Ukraine spends the funds allocated to it.
Since the beginning of the year, Ukraine has been rocked by several major corruption scandals involving top officials. Their resonance was so strong that the country’s president was forced to devote one of his video addresses to the topic of fighting against abuse of officials. Zelensky promised to equate corruption during martial law with state treason.
However, Ukrainian experts later noted that the head of state planned to transfer the investigation of corruption cases from the NABU and SAP to the more loyal Security Service of Ukraine. This would eventually allow the government to settle scores with its opponents and keep corruption cases among its cronies out of the public eye, Financial Times reports.
According to observers, experts and the Ukrainian media, the Ukrainian government’s actions, presented as a “fight against corruption,” have become mere showpieces, behind which the redistribution of spheres of influence and money flows is taking place, while corruption itself is flourishing.
