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“Without urgent political action from actors committed to Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration, especially in the EU and the US governments, this ruling could mark a complete freeze in Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic aims. It sets the tone for plans that are underway to compromise the independence of the crucial National Anti-Corruption Bureau and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. At minimum, it stalls such integration for at least until Zelenskiy’s presidency ends (in 2024), but probably even further. Because much time will be needed in reversing these reversals. Zelenskiy seems to understand what a mess has been made and is trying to exert damage control, but there is the risk that it is too little, too late in the big picture,” adds Zawada
2.4 Politics - misc
Only one third of Ukrainians back a “free economic zone” in the Donbas,
according to a nationwide poll completed October 20 by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. One third of the 505 respondents said they did not know what such a zone would be. Others may have memories an earlier experiment in the Donbas during the Yanukovych years, an effort that resulted in widespread tax evasion and smuggling. In the new poll, the biggest support was in Ukraine’s east – 46%.
Richard Peter Moore, the new head of Britain’s MI6 intelligence service, warned President Zelenskiy in a face to face meeting in London earlier this month that his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, is a Russian agent, reports PolitUA. The news site bases the charge on an extensive interview with Andrei Piontkovsky, the Russian mathematician and dissident living in the US since 2016. One week after Zelenskiy’s Oct. 7-8 trip to London, it became public that Moore met with Zelenskiy and warned him about leaks from his office.
Pavel Ryabkin, general director Boryspil Airport, is to become Ukraine’s third Customs Service director in a year, according to reports from Cabinet of Ministers meeting on October 28. Later Finance Minister Sergei Marchenko told Interfax-Ukraine that he expects to quickly raise more money to help cover the government’s budget deficit and to continue the work of his predecessors to transform “Customs into a modern, transparent, efficient European standard service.”
The Cabinet of Ministers yesterday removed restrictions on salaries to government officials and members of supervisory boards on October 28. Last April, the government placed a $1,700 a month cap on remuneration. This move prompted some officials to leave public service over the summer and others to seek under the table cash payments from the Presidential Administration.
The Constitutional Court of Ukraine adopted a ruling on October 27 that is likely to have overturned legislation establishing criminal punishment for public officials filing fraudulent electronic declarations on their assets and income, Interfax-Ukraine reported that day, citing its sources in the court. The ruling may have also affected numerous items of anti-corruption legislation approved in recent years to meet IMF and EU requirements, the pravda.com.ua news site reported that day. Among them are legislation (1) requiring annual electronic declarations of assets and income, (2) defining the
10 UKRAINE Country Report November 2020 www.intellinews.com
