We listen to many briefings and also are connected with Ukrainians outside the capital’s bubble of unaccountable millionaires who mostly put their interests above those of the nation.
The truth: The president, prime minister and most in parliament keep blocking meaningful reforms, especially in overhauling a thoroughly discredited judicial system. They are continuing the political patronage system, stalling privatization and obstructing progress in many other areas, including civil service, tax and other reforms. Ukrainians are pushing for the changes, but getting resistance from the powerful elite.
The best idea we have heard recently involves Western economic and visa sanctions against selected members of Ukraine’s corrupt elite. The hope is that the credible threat of sanctions, combined with sweeter carrots and tougher sticks, may finally get Ukraine’s leaders to change.
Ex-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst, while no Pollyanna, undercut his recent op-ed in the Atlantic Council calling for optimism with his recognition that “no real steps have been taken to reform the Prosecutor General’s Office or the judiciary” by President Petro Poroshenko. If there is no rule of law, no reforms can last.
We agree with Sergii Leshchenko, the investigative journalist who is also a lawmaker in Poroshenko’s faction. The president’s “passivity in the fight against corruption has restored the old rules of Ukrainian politics and renewed the significance of the oligarchs. They’re his main partners now,” Leshchenko wrote, also in the Atlantic Council. Poroshenko’s control-freak governing style has prompted people to leave government after realizing that they serve merely as “window dressing” and that “the real decisions are made by the president’s cronies.” It is far more optimistic to face reality than to manufacture a cheery outlook.
