Page 19 - UKRRptJun19

Former Finance Minister and current Zelenskiy advisor Oleksandr Danylyuk tells Liga.net that top priorities of Zelenskiy’s first 100 days will be to “restart the anti-corruption bodies" and "restart the recruitment and certification of judges.” Other priorities will be to reform the State Security Service, or SBU, to eliminate the Tax Police, and to create the Financial Investigation Service.
Parliamentary faction leaders ignore Zelenskiy meeting. Four heads of the six current parliamentary factions ignored a May 4 meeting in the Rada building requested by President-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Those who decided to attend were Vadym Novinsky, the co-head of the Opposition Bloc (that is Russian-oriented), and Oleh Bereziuk, the head of the Self-Reliance faction (pro-Western). Also attending were Parliamentary Speaker Andriy Parubiy (People’s Front party), First Deputy Speaker Iryna Gerashchenko (Poroshenko Bloc), and Deputy Speaker Oksana Syroyid. Reprensentatives of the Poroshenko Bloc, People’s Front party and Fatherland party were also in attendance.
Internal Affairs Minister Arsen Avakov should remain in the Ukrainian government after the new parliament is formed this year, the nation's top oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky believes. On May 7, Kolomoisky said in an interview with the bihus.info news site that Avakov as the only worthy minister in the current cabinet. Kolomoisky also said in the interview that he intends to return to Ukraine after the inauguration of Zelenskiy. Zenon Zawada at Kyiv-based brokerage Concorde Capital believes that Zelenskiy’s election "has raised Kolomoisky’s public profile in Ukraine and rehabilitated his poor image, to some extent". "Kolomoisky is now regarded as a political authority whose opinions are being broadcast by the mass media and considered by the establishment," Zawada wrote in a note on May 8. "So his investment in Zelenskiy is already paying dividends."
Ukrainian President-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy assured EU commissioner Johannes Hahn in a May 7 meeting that he will defend the path towards EU integration chosen by Ukrainians, which in his words has no alternative. As his main agenda priorities, Zelenskiy mentioned a Donbas ceasefire, demonopolization of the energy sector, deoligarchization of the mass media, and “not a fight against corruption, but victory over it.” He also said he’d lead effort to readopt a law punishing illegal enrichment, which was overturned by the courts in February, and a new elections law to hold the parliamentary vote exclusively based on open party lists, eliminating single- mandate districts.
The Ukrainian government expanded a list of goods prohibited for imports from Russia by adding fertilizers, agricultural products, and vehicles on May 15. The Ukrainian government also introduced special duties on a number of Russian goods, Prime Minister Vladimir Groisman said. The country’s economy ministry said the duties will apply to all goods from Russia, except for coal, coke, gasoline, liquefied gas, and pharmaceuticals. Deputy Prime Minister Stepan Kubiv said that the duties will be in force from August 1. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow’s recent ban on imports of Ukrainian goods was introduced in retaliation against Kiev’s expansion of the ban on imports of Russian goods. “On the whole, we probably need to remember here that the previous decisions of the Russian side were provoked by the Ukrainian authorities,” Peskov said when asked about the Kremlin’s position on the new Ukrainian ban and Russia’s plan to
19 UKRAINE Country Report June 2019 www.intellinews.com