Reformer of the week – Yegor Sobolev
Yegor Sobolev, chairman of parliament’s anti-corruption committee, said on Feb. 1 that he and Verkhovna Rada Deputy Speaker Oksana Syroid had registered a bill to introduce an anti-corruption court.
A politically independent court is needed because Ukraine’s corrupt old courts are incapable of delivering justice. Under the bill, European and U.S. representatives are expected to participate in the selection of judges for the anti-corruption court.
Ukrainian authorities have been dragging their feet on introducing such a court since last year, when it was supposed to be created under the judicial reform law.
Meanwhile, Sobolev’s anti-corruption committee on Feb. 8 rejected a bill that would exempt CEOs of state firms from filing electronic asset declarations. This legislation follows numerous other efforts by top officials to sabotage the introduction of e-declarations.
The committee also rejected a bill by Batkyvshchyna Party lawmaker Igor Lutsenko seeking to ban foreigners from auditing the National Anti-Corruption Bureau. The bill is seen as an attempt to prevent independent foreigners like Giovanni Kessler, director general of the European Anti-Fraud Office, and U. S. Deputy Inspector General Robert Storch, from auditing the bureau.
Vitaly Shabunin, head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center’s executive board, argues that the authorities are seeking instead to appoint loyalists to audit the anti-graft bureau in order to influence it and fire its leadership.
Anti-reformer of the week – Serhiy Knyazev
Serhiy Knyazev was appointed on Feb. 8 as the chief of Ukraine’s National Police.
Knyazev, who has worked in law enforcement for more than 20 years, is criticized as a loyalist of Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and a representative of the Interior Ministry’s anti-reformist old guard. According to the law, the National Police are supposed to be politically independent.
Yevhenia Zakrevska, a lawyer representing murdered EuroMaidan Revolution protesters, said on Feb. 5 that an Avakov protege was set to win the competition. Critics have dismissed competitions for top state jobs as rigged procedures used by corrupt interests to appoint government loyalists, while independent candidates are rejected.
Knyazev was also lambasted after journalist Denys Bigus learned on Feb. 6 that Knyazev’s ex-wife, who co-owns an apartment with him, has acquired seven apartments and four land plots in recent years. Knyazev said on Feb. 9 that he would not comment on the issue.
The quality of police reform was also questioned when police officers led by Donetsk Oblast Police Chief Vyacheslav Abroskin on Feb. 6 assaulted veterans of the war with Russia who were blockading the smuggling of goods across the war front in the Donbas.
Another setback for law enforcement reform came on Feb. 7 when Nina Yuzhanina, chairwoman of parliament’s taxation committee, submitted a bill to revive Ukraine’s notoriously corrupt tax police, which was abolished on Jan. 1.
