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Eastern Europe
January 19, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 18
last and decisive element of a new anti-corruption architecture in Ukraine”.
Meanwhile, the World Bank has joined to the IMF’s pressure on the Kyiv leadership over the controver- sial bill. The Ukrainian parliment must amend the president’s submitted bill to meet the standards of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe in order for Ukraine to qualify for $800mn in lending. Most of the World Bank’s demands were the same as those mentioned by the IMF, but they most differ in what procedures must be applied to amend the legislation, according to the Yevropeiska Pravda online publication.
“The Western establishment has found the Achilles’ heel of not only the Poroshenko administration in its campaign of resisting reforms, but the entire Ukrainian oligarchy,” Zenon Zawada at Kyiv-based brokerage Concorde
Capital wrote in a research note on January
17. “And Poroshenko is resisting this Western pressure not only in his own self-interest, but
in the interests of Ukraine’s ruling elite. The president’s comments confirm this, indicating that he won’t allow Western officials to fully determine the conditions of the anti-corruption court.”
The expert believes that Poroshenko will lead the efforts to approve the legislation in line with a likely compromise with the IMF, which will enable him to avoid politically risky hikes in natural gas prices that are being demanded.
“At this point, it’s hard to say whether Poroshenko will be willing to concede more in the anti-corrup- tion court, or in the gas price hike, in his ultimate deal with the IMF to secure the next loan tranche. And it’s hard to predict what compromises the IMF itself will accept,” Zawada added.
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