With respect to Russia, sanctions have to be tightened and deadlines set for Russia to comply with its Minsk commitments — namely a cease-fire, withdrawal of its troops and weapons, return of eastern borders to Ukraine and unfettered access by international monitors. The United States and the United Kingdom, signatories to the 1994 Budapest Memorandum guaranteeing Ukraine’s security, need to take responsibility for their commitments and join Germany and France in the peace process.
With respect to Ukraine, well-meaning Western ambassadors need to get beyond sunny and superficial statements of “optimism” about Ukraine’s future as they ignore inconvenient facts that threaten any bright future.
Westerners are effectively siding with Ukraine’s leaders in propping up a corrupt oligarchy through tolerance of impunity and and no rule of law. The new corruption-fighting institutions are window-dressing when anyone delves into the details of their resources and legal powers. The constitutional changes in courts will take years to come about — giving obstructionists and oligarchs plenty of time to kill changes.
This nation, meanwhile, is being fleeced. One of the latest examples is the alleged theft of $40 million before the National Bank of Ukraine (tardily) closed Mikhailovsky Bank, a piggy bank for Gulliver shopping center owner Victor Polishchuk. This is part of national banking losses of $3 billion and counting, much of it through theft, that have gone unpunished since 2014. Taxpayers must foot the bill – yet still the International Monetary Fund is on the brink of approving a $1.7 billion loan even though law enforcement and regulators have not brought any owners of insolvent banks to justice, through criminal or civil means.
The latest outrage involving on the criminal side involving cronies of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych is the deliberately botched probe against Yuriy Ivaniushenko. (See story page 1).
These and numerous other cases show President Petro Poroshenko is leading the drive to obstruct, not obtain, justice. Western powers must intervene, with public “naming and shaming” sanctions on corrupt people that law enforcement refuses to bring to trial. The West must also offer more legal help to find and try the criminals.
Otherwise, weak conditionality of Western aid only props up Ukraine’s corrupt leaders at the expense of its justice-seeking citizens.
