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Oksana Markarova, the former Finance Minister, has been nominated to serve as Ukraine’s next Ambassador to the United States​. Trained in public finance at Indiana University, Markarova worked in the Finance Ministry for five years until she was let go in the mass cabinet shakeup of March 4. As Finance Minister for two years, she saw interest rates on foreign currency bonds fall to record lows for Ukraine -- 2.22% in euros and 3.4% in dollars. Last January, Ukraine borrowed €1.25bn for 10 years with a 4.73% interest rate, once again a record low rate. Mylovanov, a University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate, is known for advocating forceful, generally free market policies. Two weeks ago on the Svoboda Slova program he advocated a hard lockdown to slow down coronavirus epidemic, saying: “We should close businesses and provide them with financing. But we don’t have enough funding now. So in essence, we need to print money.” Yermak, who is recovering from coronavirus, is seen as behind the purge of pro-Western reformers since March. A fluent English speaker, Markarova has participated in numerous negotiations with the IMF, World Bank and other foreign financial institutions. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba reacted to press speculation that she was chosen to go to Washington to deal with the IMF, writing on Facebook: “The idea that Markarova is sent only to extort money from the IMF is a delusion.”
In another personnel change, the Cabinet fired on November 20 Olha Buslavets, the acting Energy Minister, replacing her with Yuriy Boyko​, her deputy at the Ministry. Buslavets had served as acting minister for the last seven months as the government did not have the votes to win parliamentary approval. Some media outlets and some Rada members accused her of acting in favour of Rinat Akhmetov, owner of several coal mines and electricity generation companies. Boyko, a longterm state employee previously was deputy director of Energorynok, the state-owned company that intermediated between energy producers and energy distributing companies, or oblenergos.
With the third departure in six weeks, the purge of pro-Western reformers from Ukraine’s defence industry continued with November 16 abrupt firing of Volodomyr Usov, the head of Ukraine’s Space Agency​. On Nov. 4, Oleksandr Los resigned as CEO of Antonov, ending four months on the job. On Oct. 6, Aivaras Abromavicˇius resigned as director general Ukroboronprom, the defence production conglomerate. All three men advocated ‘corporatization,’ or the creation of smaller, profitable companies to save an industry starved by lack of budget funds.
The collegium of judges of the High Anti-Corruption Court decided on Nov. 17 to overturn the court’s historic first ruling (in November 2019), which convicted appellate judge Nadiya Posunsia of filing a fraudulent electronic declaration, the Anti-Corruption Action Centre reported that day. This is also the court’s first ruling that has been overturned owing to the scandalous Oct. 27 judgment by the Constitutional Court, which determined the punishment for filing fraudulent declarations to be excessive. That disrupted most of Ukraine’s anti-corruption framework sponsored by Western institutions, drawing their criticism and urgings for immediate legislative repair. At least four more similar convictions for fraudulent declarations will be heard by the court, which will likely be overturned, said the centre, led by Vitaliy Shabunin.
18​ UKRAINE Country Report​ December 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com