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into politics, not in the list of any party, but to the people, with whom I will work in my vision of Ukraine’s development." The Ukrainian president can decide to dismiss the prosecutor general and nominate a new candidate, for parliament’s approval.
A member of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s economic team slapped down the suggestion last week by oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky that Ukraine should default on its obligations to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Accelerating inbound investments with the aim of boosting Ukraine's economic growth will become impossible if state defaults on its debt, said Oleg Ustenko, an advisor to Zelenskiy on macroeconomic policy. "This is definitely not the time to refuse cooperation with the IMF. This will cut us off from foreign markets for borrowing capital. This is extremely dangerous, considering that investment is the main bet now on the opportunity to get impetus for further economic growth. And this is quite clearly articulated by president Zelenskiy," Ustenko told news agency Interfax on May 27. The statement followed May 26 statement made by Zelenskiy close associate, Kolomoisky, who urged the president to reject IMF’s austerity programme and to default on its external debt. "In my opinion, we should treat our creditors the way Greece does," Kolomoisky told the Financial Times. "That’s an example for Ukraine." In its stand-off with creditors in 2015, Athens became the first developed country to fail to repay an IMF loan, albeit temporarily.
Zelenskiy has restored former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili’s Ukrainian citizenship, granted and then stripped again by his predecessor Petro Poroshenko's after the two men had a falling out. Zelenskiy signed a special decree on May 28. In February 2018, Saakashvili was deported from Ukraine for violation of migration regulations. The move followed the cancellation of his citizenship by Poroshenko.
Ukrainian special anti-corruption prosecutor’s office has opened a criminal case against the former president, Petro Poroshenko, and a number of other top officials over abuse of office. "The decision has been made and information entered to the unified register of pre-trial investigations," the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office said on its Facebook page. The affair concerns the appointment of officials in one of the leading electric power producers in Ukraine, Tsentrenergo. The anti-corruption prosecutor’s office suspects that the energy company was defrauded of $228mn. If found guilty, those responsible may face a prison term of five to eight years and stripped of the right to take certain jobs. Earlier, the State Bureau of Investigation also opened a criminal case against Poroshenko over the Kerch Strait inciden, accusing him of treason by trying to provoke Russia into war.
President Zelenskiy and his wife Olena earned $570,000 last year, according to his online assets and income declaration. His production company Studio Kvartal 95 paid him $160,000, less than half of his $380,000 total earnings. His wife earned much of her $190,000 total earnings from Kvartal 95. The couple has extensive real estate holdings: a UK apartment with a 2014 purchase price of $2.8mn; an Italian villa with a 2015 purchase price of $4mn; and three apartments and one house in Kyiv with a total estimated value of $872,000. The president has $190,000 and €107,000 euros in cash, and accounts at several banks, including PrivatBank.
Newly-elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy should initiate the replacement of National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) governor Yakiv Smolii, ex-PM and Batkivshchyna party leader Yulia Tymoshenko believes. According
17 UKRAINE Country Report June 2019 www.intellinews.com


































































































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