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Eastern Europe
February 8, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 16
Zawada also wrote in the note that Russia
will also be looking for opportunities to take advantage of election-related chaos. "These tensions are further heightened by Poroshenko being anathema to either Tymoshenko (his long-time enemy) or Zelensky (backed by rival oligarch Kolomoisky) becoming president."
Nato referendum, "zero tax declaration"
Last week, Zelensky disclosed the main points of his election programme, according to which the candidate is going to hold a referendum on the country's joining Nato. "Ukraine's progression
to Nato and other security alliances is a guarantee of our safety, in which I believe and which should receive confirmation by means of a referendum,"the document reads.
The army should be "a prestigious service, where the skills and knowledge obtained would be successfully used in the real sector of the
economy as well," and the budget for the army should stop being a "feedbox" for "cabinet generals", but provide adequate service conditions and development for serviceman instead. "My objective is to ensure that servicemen's salary
is at the level of the Nato standards," Interfax news agency quoted Zelensky as saying in his programme.
"Law enforcement agencies should cease economic pressure on the business community and return to fulfilling their proper duties of ensuring security of citizens. It's time we restore trust in law enforcement authorities which we cherished in the beginning of the reform. The SBU [Ukrainian Security Service] will not deal with economic crimes," the candidate added.
Zelensky is also going to introduce a one-time "zero tax declaration" for businesspeople who declare and legalise their incomes.
More controversy as Rosstat upgrades Russian GDP growth to a six-year high
Ben Aris in Berlin
More questions were raised over the veracity of the Russian State Statistical Service’s (Rosstat's) results after it upgraded its estimates of growth in the construction sector that led to a revision of 2018 growth from 1.6% to 2.3% — the best result in six years, the service said on February 4.
The changes were part of the detailed reporting on the make-up of growth in the previous year that Rosstat releases every year in January
and are supposed to reflect the most accurate estimates. The agency always releases preliminary results around the end of the year but they are usually revised after the full breakdown for all sectors of the economy are calculated.
However, this year’s revisions to the construction sector – one of the three key drivers of the economy – were unusually large.
Russia is emerging from a “silent crisis” that was caused by the collapse of oil prices at the end of 2014, and the 2.3% growth figure would be the best result the economy has put in since 2012, the same year as the petro-driven economic growth model was exhausted and saw growth sink to zero in 2013, even before the clash with the west started and the first sanctions were imposed in 2014.
However, analysts queried the results as the accuracy of Rosstat’s results have been questioned