Page 44 - bne_August 2020_20200810

44 I Eastern Europe bne August 2020
Confidence in the Z-Dream of rapid, deep and far-reaching reforms by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is dying fast.
Reforms stall as Zelenskiy actively undermines NBU independence
Ben Aris in Berlin
Confidence in the Z-Dream of rapid, deep and far-reaching reforms by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that will transform Ukraine has almost totally evaporated following the unexpected resignation
of the governor of the National Bank
of Ukraine (NBU), Yakiv Smolii. And now the bad news is quickly gathering momentum.
“News flow in Ukraine over the past 24h has turned decidedly negative. Indeed, I think it’s now fair to ask the question whether hopes of economic reform under President Zelenskiy are completely and utterly dead, as he seems to be setting a course in
the opposite direction – towards and in favour of the forces of populism and state capture,” Tim Ash, senior sovereign strategist at BlueBay Asset Management, said in a note to clients.
www.bne.eu
Even Ukraine’s supporters have finally turned on Zelenskiy, after six years
of blindly rebuffing any criticism of the leadership, playing up any reform initiative, but blatantly ignoring any corruption or negative news.
Smolii quit citing “systematic political pressure” but he later clarified in an interview that he didn’t jump; he was pushed. Smolii met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on June 30, when the president sacked him, Smolii told Sonya Koshkina and Oleg Bazar, the editors-in-chief of LB.ua in
a long interview.
"The president did not say:” Enough! I'm tired of you, let's write a statement.” But I understood from the context
[of the conversation at the June 30 meeting] that I had to leave. We are
all adults. It was clear. So I asked
him directly. He answered in the affirmative,” Smolii said.
First, the deputy governor of the NBU, Oleh Churiy, failed to secure the backing of the NBU Council and the President for a second term in office. This means two of the six-member board are being replaced now by Zelenskiy. He only needs to force one other board member out to have full control over policy, given the casting vote of the governor.
“Given the campaign of intimidation being waged against NBU board members it is easy to imagine that one or all of the remaining four NBU board members will eventually opt to resign,” says Ash.
And that campaign is already in
full swing. Smolii has already been suffering from continuous harassment