Reformer of the week: Zurab Alasania
Zurab Alasania on Nov. 1 resigned as CEO of state-owned National Television Company.
He attributed his resignation to a lack of funding and his worsened relations with the authorities due to anti-corruption shows critical of President Petro Poroshenko and other politicians. These shows, including Slidstvo.Info, Schemes and Nashi Hroshi, have been aired on state-owned First National channel since Alasania took over in 2014.
The move comes amid an increasingly hostile atmosphere for independent journalists in Ukraine.
Poroshenko’s supporters have attacked Hromadske television ever since it aired a show on the president’s offshore firms in April, while its accreditation in the war zone was briefly revoked. Journalist Savik Shuster, a critic of Poroshenko, has been thrown out of major television channels and faces a tax evasion case and problems with his work permit.
According to a VoxUkraine analysis, there are almost no negative mentions of Poroshenko on major Ukrainian channels’ Sunday news shows. Moreover, Poroshenko, who owns Channel 5, has been reportedly in talks to buy other channels.
Meanwhile, journalists’ murders remain uninvestigated. Most recently, Belarusian-Ukrainian journalist Pavlo Sheremet was killed in July.
Anti-reformer of the week: Anatoly Matios
Anatoly Matios, Ukraine’s chief military prosecutor, exposed his fabulous wealth in an electronic asset declaration filed in late October.
Matios, who has never been a businessman, declared Vacheron Constantin, Ulysse Nardin, Breguet and Rolex luxury watches and 20,000 British pounds and Hr 150,000 in cash.
Matios’ wife Iryna Barakh owns a 138,480 square meter land plot, several apartments and several businesses.
She has Hr 840,096, $250,001 and 10,503 euros on bank accounts and 25,000 euros, $525,000 and 10,000 British pounds in cash. Barakh has also lent Hr 20.4 million to third parties.
Ukrainian officials have often registered their assets to their family members to avoid graft accusations.
Meanwhile, Prosecutor General Yury Lustenko has praised Matios and transferred major non-military graft cases to his department.
Matios, an ex-top official of former President Viktor Yanukovych’s administration, has also been accused of fabricating cases against volunteer fighters and blocking those against top generals, which he denies.
