Page 12 - bne IntelliNews Ukraine Country Report May 2017

published on April 4.
Overall, 18 of 29 countries assessed had declines in their Democracy Scores – the second biggest decline in the 22-year-old survey’s history after the drop following the 2008 global financial crisis – but two countries had an overall score improvement, Ukraine (18th place) and Belarus (came sixth from last but showed some progress in 2016).
Ukraine saw some progress in judicial independence, corruption, and local democratic governance , but its civil society score declined due to the growing influence of extremist groups, the report said.
“Ukraine continued to make progress in 2016, but there are troubling signs that an old guard resistant to building an accountable state could still defeat reforms,” said Nate Schenkkan, project director of Nations in Transit. “Ukraine’s international supporters need to continue the ‘tough love’ approach of the last three years.”
Ukraine this year scored 4.61 on a scale of 1 to 7 , with 1 representing the highest and 7 the lowest level of democratic progress. While still at the lower end of the scale, this compares favourably with almost 5 points the country scored under the kleptocratic regime of former president Viktor Yanukovych. (The worst scoring countries, all above 6, were the former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan Tajikistan, Belarus, Russia and Kyrgyzstan). Any improvement also carries more weight in a country like Ukraine, which has seen huge upheavals since 2014, said Freedom House.
“Passionate and professional civil society groups have kept the pressure up on the government , with the backing of the United States, the European Union, and the International Monetary Fund.”
2.6 Politics - misc
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) is investigating possible illegal enrichment of the leader of the Radical Party parliamentary faction, Oleh Liashko . The Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) recently handed over to NABU an illegal enrichment case, the bureau's head Artem Sytnyk told journalists on April 24. The next day, Liashko visited the NABU headquarters in Kyiv for questioning. The move followed the brief detention of another influential politician, Mykola Martynenko, a close associate of Ukraine's former prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and ex-lawmaker of the People's Front parliamentary faction, on suspicion of possible embezzlement of funds from a state-owned company.
A court in Kyiv refused on April 21 to arrest Mykola Martynenko , a close associate of Ukraine's former prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and ex-lawmaker of the People's Front parliamentary faction, releasing him on bail guaranteed by several ministers, officials and lawmakers. The Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) asked the court to arrest Martynenko for 60 days 60 days unless he posted a UAH300mn (€10.5mn) bail. Among those who provided the personal guarantees are the country's Youth and Sports Minister Ihor Zhdanov, Deputy Head of the Central Election Commission Andriy Mahera, lawmakers from the People's Front parliamentary faction.
12 RUSSIA Country Report April 2017 www.intellinews.com