by Oui
Sun Jul 21st, 2019 at 11:44:20 AM EST
Heading into Ukraine's July 21 parliamentary elections, new President Volodomyr Zelenskiy is riding a high. Having swept into office in late May with 73% of the vote, Zelenskiy is poised to take a commanding share of the Ukrainian Rada (parliament), if not an outright majority.
Most polls have his Servant of the People Party with somewhere between 42% and 48% of the vote, figures that are unheard of in a system in which a top party rarely wins more than one-third. The next most popular party, the pro-Russian Opposition Bloc, has only 15% of the vote according to polls. [Source: Brookings Institute]
○ How Pro-Russian Oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk Is Regaining Power in Ukraine
Ukraine parliamentary vote: Fresh start or a U-turn? | DW |
Radical plans
Sunday's election will be decisive for Zelenskiy: For his radical fresh start, the former comedian needs a broad majority. Zelenskiy wants to reform almost all sectors, press ahead with digitization and fight corruption. He has also hinted at a reckoning with the legacy left by former President Petro Poroshenko.
Continued below the fold ...
He has already fired several officials left over from Poroshenko's days in office [pro-western outlet Atlantic Council], and proposed to extend a current ban preventing officials from the Yanukovych era from working in the public service to Poroshenko and his team. A draft bill to this end is already before the parliament. Legal prosecutions also seem possible, especially as the Servant of the People party would like to abolish the general immunity enjoyed by parliamentarians. A majority of the population is likely to welcome such a move.
Zelenskiy's party also wants to limit the influence oligarchs have on Ukrainian politics. But it's not clear whether this will also apply to Ihor Kolomoyskyi, with whom Zelenskiy was associated before his election, at least business-wise. Critics have accused Zelenskiy of being politically allied with the businessman as well, something both men deny. Yet the presidential office is headed by one of Kolomoyskyi's former lawyers, and one of the top candidates of the Servant of the People party is the managing director of Kolomoyskyi's TV station .
[Links added are mine - Oui]
From the diaries here @EuroTrib ...
○ Right Sector leader Dmitry Yarosh built good ties with Eastern oligarch Igor Kolomoyskyi (Aug. 2014)
○ Oligarchs making gains: the costly nationalization of Ukraine's PrivatBank
Ukraine reverses nationalization of Israeli tycoon's bank | Times of Israel |
A Ukrainian court on Thursday [April 19, 2019] ruled that the 2016 nationalization of a major bank owned by a tycoon was illegal, sending shockwaves through the country's financial community.
Privatbank, Ukraine's biggest lender, was nationalized in 2016 after authorities discovered a capital shortfall of more than $5 billion. The bank was owned by tycoon Ihor Kolomoyskyi, who was appointed governor of a Ukrainian region by President Petro Poroshenko but later fell out with him.
Related reading ...
○ Biden's Ukrainian Oligarchs and Corruption by Oui @BooMan on Aug. 6, 2017
○ Ukraine in 'Very Active' Talks With IMF Over Longer Aid Program | Bloomberg - June 2019 |
Commenting on the legal battle over No. 1 lender Privatbank, which was nationalized in 2016, Markarova said the government will continue to "defend its position" against former owner Igor Kolomoisky.
○ Oligarchs Weaponized Cyprus Branch of Ukraine's Largest Bank to Send $5.5 Billion Abroad | OCCRP - April 2019 |
○ Ukraine's PrivatBank Sues Billionaire Kolomoyskiy In U.S. Court | RFERL - May 2019 |
Rule of the day: To win a democratic election, one needs a Privat oligarch, bankers preferred.
