Page 14 - bne IntelliNews Ukraine Country Report May 2017

to Kyiv, region accumulated UAH2.6bn (€90mn) in unpaid electricity charges, Reuters reported. Vadym Chernysh, Ukrainian Minister for Temporary Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons, said Russia is able to supply electricity to the affected territory from a 500 kV substation located on the state border between Russia and Ukraine. "We knew that this is an alternative way of supplying electricity," Chernysh said in an interview with Interfax news agency. "Another question is that this territory is under control of Russia and militants and we do not know the exact volumes." Meanwhile, Russia's representative to the trilateral OSCE-Russia-Ukraine contact group for the settlement of the Donbas conflict, Boris Gryzlov, said on April 25 that Kyiv's decision to cut off power supply to Luhansk "is in the vein of other actions actually alienating certain regions of Donbas from Ukraine", Russian media reported. He added that the Russian authorities will ensure power supply to the Luhansk region as "humanitarian assistance" to Moscow-backed territories.
Ukraine anti-corruption bodies haven’t produced results, IMF says The creation of new anti-corruption bodies in Ukraine hasn’t led to significant results in this effort, the IMF reported in its comments on third review of its USD 17.5 bln loan program with Ukraine made public on April 3. “Corruption needs to be tackled decisively. Despite the creation of new anticorruption institutions, concrete results have yet to be achieved,” IMF Acting Chair David Lipton said. The prior day, National Anti-Corruption Bureau Head Artem Sytnyk told a television interview that the Poroshenko administration is politically pressuring the body in its attempts to appoint a favored candidate to an independent auditing committee. He said these attempts are a reaction to the bureau’s work in interfering with corruption. The bureau is currently reviewing the legality of the National Bank’s decision to refinance Ukrainian commercial banks and how these funds were spent, Sytnyk said, referring to measures taken following the economic collapse of 2014. “A large part of the costs that were offered as refinancing were transferred to offshore accounts or foreign banks,” Sytnyk said in the interview, estimating such as in the billions. Sytnyk’s work has the support of key reformers in the Ukrainian parliament, as well as much of the NGO community. On the other hand, the Poroshenko administration has repeatedly demonstrated attempts to interfere with anti-corruption efforts that restricted its authority ever since taking office in June 2014. We see the risk that the president will continue to obstruct anti-corruption efforts that restrict his authority and influence, regardless of the effect on Ukraine’s image among its creditors.
2.7 Polls & Sociology
“IRI’s polling data shows clear improvements in the quality of public service delivery and good governance at the local level ,” said IRI Regional Director for Eurasia Stephen Nix. “While incremental progress has been made at the national level, the research shows that the most noticeable breakthroughs since Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity in 2014 have occurred locally. These improvements underscore one of the basic principles of IRI’s work: that grassroots engagement is the foundation of a robust, participatory democracy.”
In more than half of the cities surveyed, the proportion of respondents who think things are headed in the right direction in their cities has
14 RUSSIA Country Report April 2017 www.intellinews.com