Editor’s note: Sasha Drik is the head of Declarations Under Control civil watchdog and a member of Civic Control Council of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine. In this video, produced by the Ukrainian Channel 24, she explains how the 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine can affect the country’s fight against corruption.
Over the last five years, a tremendous effort has been put into establishing anti-corruption infrastructure in Ukraine. Yet five years after the Revolution of Dignity, not a single high-profile official has been convicted for engaging into pervasive corruption. And the higher has been the society’s demand for results of the anti-corruption fight, the more severe became the obstructionism.
The source of this obstructionism has often been the president and the parliament. It had led to the situation where more time and energy is spent on protecting what has been created than on moving forward. And as the anti-corruption reform is experiencing a major backsliding, this year’s elections in Ukraine become crucially important.
