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city Kharkiv was in the red zone, which involves prohibiting the activity of public transport, educational institutions, shopping malls, and restaurants.
Central bank governor Kyrylo Shevchenko was in Washington in the week of November 9 trying to revive the stalled IMF deal. Against that background, Concorde Capital’s Evgeniya Akhtyrko writes: “A significant increase of interest rates for 3-month bonds helped to raise more auction receipts. However, the limited number of bidders for these bonds implies that most of the hryvnia receipts at the auction are still being generated by state-owned banks.”
Pro-EU parties won most of the votes in the Kyiv City Council election.
The ranking was: European Solidarity -- 20.5%; Klitschko’s UDAR -- 20%; Unity -- 9%; Pro-Russia Opposition Platform – For Life -- 8%; Zelenskiy’s Servant of the People -- 7.5%; Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivschyna -- 7.5%, and Golos -- 6%.
Vitali Klitschko has been re-elected for a third term as mayor of Kyiv, the local election commission announced. Friday. In the Oct. 25 election, Klitschko won 50.5%, or 365,161 votes, escaping a runoff.
German investors believe that the main problem in Ukraine is not corruption, but courts and judicial agencies, Germany’s ambassador to Ukraine Anka Feldhusen tells Interfax-Ukraine. “What always scares our investors is bad examples when even large German companies in Ukraine are under pressure from law enforcement agencies,” she says in an interview. “This is closely related to judicial reform. Our investors tell me that corruption is no longer such a big problem.” While big German companies can afford to fight the lawsuits and raid attacks, small and medium companies are scared away, said the Ambassador who is on her third posting to Kyiv since 1994.
At least 200 Rada members have signed a petition demanding that all Constitutional Court judges resign. Venislavsky, the Rada member, threatened: “If they do not do that, the parliament will do it. And if the parliament does not do that, the street can do it.” A judge can only be fired through a vote of two thirds of his or her colleagues. Another Rada bill would raise the quorum for a ruling to 17 judges. Virtually a law until itself, the Court can reject as unconstitutional any law passed by the Rada to restrict its powers. It is unclear if Zelenskiy has the 226 votes in the Rada for a bill that would fire all the judges.
A Ukrainian has successfully declared bankruptcy for the first time,
according to a Ukrainska Pravda report on a decision last summer by Kyiv’s Economic Court. Previously only a legal entity or sole proprietor could declare bankruptcy. After a new law on bankruptcy came into effect one year ago, 142 individuals have filed for bankruptcy. The pioneer sought to reschedule a foreign currency mortgage. "The court created a precedent according to which the Ukrainians were able to settle their financial problems -- the debtor can pay off debts on a comfortable schedule and not lose his property,” said Georgy Grigoryan, co-founder of the law firm BezBorgiv [Without Debts]. “Ukrainians now have a legal opportunity to zero their debt. Previously, only legal entities and private entrepreneurs could go bankrupt in Ukraine.”
20 UKRAINE Country Report December 2020 www.intellinews.com
