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Opinion
April 26, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 21
In general the whole judicial system needs overhauling. Donors have pushed for a new system that is independent of the government to fight corruption.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has already been set up. NABU is the investigative part of a triumvirate that also includes the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), which carries out prosecutions in parallel to the General Prosecutor’s Office, but is also en- tirely independent from the government’s control. What is missing is an independent court to hear the cases investigated by NABU and prosecuted by SAPO – the anti-corruption court (ACC) that Po- roshenko has been so energetically resisting.
Return to reform
The list of other reforms is long as over the last 30 years Ukraine has failed to make many of the changes that most of the other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) have at least started.
The exceptions are the banking sector clean up which has started, and both the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and the Ministry of Finance have been praised by donors for making real progress.
Indeed, observers have been encouraged by the high profile given to former finance minister Oleksandr Danylyuk in Zelenskiy’s new team. Danylyuk was one of the prime movers behind the nationalisation of PrivatBank in 2016 – a
bank owned by Zelenskiy’s oligarch backer Ihor Kolomoisky. Danylyuk showed himself to be a liberal reformer and competent pair of hands and his inclusion will be well met by the investment community at least.
The final team will be presented soon, according to the president-elect, but he has also made it clear that he doesn't intend to interfere with the leader- ship of the NBU, which will also encourage inves- tors, especially as Ukraine has a heavy borrowing schedule ahead of it over the next five years.
gas tariff hikes forced on Poroshenko as part of the IMF package are “not in the presidents competence” which is to say Zelenskiy is suggesting he won’t undo any of the reforms already imposed at the IMF’s insistence.
He has also said that he will serve only one term and if this is true he could continue the reform program unfettered by the need to try and get re-elected.
Wither Kazakhstan with Professor Alexey Malchenko
Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev surprised everyone and no one by stepping down from office last month after nearly three decades in power. We are now in a transition phases where Nazarbayev eases himself out of office, but clearly he intends to remain fully in control of the process.
On April 9 a snap presidential election was called that will be held in June and is likely to confirm interim Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as the permanent head of the country.
What is not clear is what happens next? Will he continue Kazakhstan’s policies? Will he strike out in a new direction? Will he go after regional integration?
bne IntelliNews editor-in-chief Ben Aris talks to Professor Alexey Malashenko, the chief researcher at Dialogue of the Civilizations
in Moscow, about that could happen next.
Professor Alexey Malashenko,
the chief researcher at Dialogue of the Civilizations
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Zelenskiy has said the widely hated domestic