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INSIDE: l Talks in Berlin aim to end war in Ukraine – page 3 l Crimean Tatars call for blockade of Crimea – page 4 l Our community: Saskatoon, Sacramento and more – page 14 THEPublished U by theKRAINIAN Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal W non-profit associationEEKLY Vol. LXXXIII No. 38 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2015 $2.00 Saakashvili, Yatsenyuk spar Corruption alleged over Ukrainian reforms at top government rungs by Zenon Zawada see what such a coalition is doing and what good is it for the country.” KYIV – When it comes to reforms, Just as the latest accusations were Ukrainians are more concerned about cor- lobbed came the latest wave of arrests of ruption than any other issue, according to allegedly corrupt officials. Among them a poll conducted in late July by Kyiv’s was Yaroslav Kashuba, the head of the Razumkov Center and the Kucheriv State Employment Service, who was Democratic Initiatives Fund. arrested – along with two of his deputies – When asked to choose five spheres of on charges of bribery and stealing state reform as most important, about 65 per- funds on September 14, just nearly two cent of the 2,011 respondents cited anti- months after the agency was created. corruption reform, about 58 percent cited Two days later, Social Policy Minister legal reforms and about 40 percent select- Pavlo Rozenko announced he dismissed all ed pension and social security reform. of the service’s central and regional direc- Yet the very leaders of Ukrainian politics tors. and business remain as engrossed in cor- In addition, the latest batch of anti-cor- ruption as ever, if the accusations they’re ruption legislation came through the The Odesa Oblast’s governor, Mikheil Saakashvili, and Ukraine’s Prime Minister flinging at each other on a weekly basis are Parliament’s pipeline this week. Arseniy Yatsenyuk, as seen in their profile photos from Facebook. to be believed. The latest such attack came Though it failed to muster enough votes on September 15 from Vice Prime Minister to accept Mr. Voshchenskyi’s resignation, ‘Oligarchic interests’ RFE/RL Valerii Voshchevskyi when alleging to the the Verkhovna Rada approved a bill on Ukraine has long been beset by political September 15 that reforms state tenders A war of words has erupted between Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s Parliament, infighting and ruthless jostling for power (auctions of state assets) to confirm with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy that the president exclusively controls the among its tycoons, a caste from which Mr. international standards, which will limit Yatsenyuk and former Georgian President energy ministry. Poroshenko, a billionaire chocolate manu- corruption risks and enhance public Mikheil Saakashvili, now governor of “The rivalry between the two heads of facturer, emerged to win last year’s presi- access. Ukraine’s Odesa Oblast, over the pace and the executive government is so obvious dential election after ex-President Viktor For instance, the bill improves transpar- depth of reforms being implemented by the that they are not only disrupting the ener- Yanukovych fled the country amid mass ency by requiring the disclosure of the final government in Kyiv. gy sphere, but all of Ukraine,” said Mr. unrest. owners of companies participating in state Mr. Saakashvili lashed into Mr. Voshchevskyi, a member of Oleh Liashko’s Tensions between Messrs. Yatsenyuk tenders. Yatsenyuk’s reform agenda during a Radical Party who submitted his resigna- and Poroshenko – as well as other oppo- Yet these measures don’t impress Mr. September 3 television interview with tion on September 1. nents of the previous regime – have sur- “In that locomotive called the govern- Oleshchuk. Very few arrested state officials Ukraine’s Channel 5 network, saying govern- faced since the Euro-Maidan protests that are put on trial or convicted, he said, “and ment institutions were suffering from “paral- ment, there are two conductors: one on helped oust Mr. Yanukovych, a Kremlin ally, Bankova, and the other on Hrushevskoho. they’re usually replaced with someone ysis” and accusing officials in Kyiv of “sabo- in February 2014. more desired.” tage” against his own reform efforts. And each is driving but that locomotive These fissures are widely seen as capa- isn’t going anywhere. It’s standing. That’s Meanwhile, transparency in tenders “Decisions about reforms are not being ble of derailing reforms and plunging the doesn’t mean much when prosecutors and made,” Mr. Saakashvili told the network the problem today.” country into further political turmoil at a [Editor’s Note – “Bankova” is a reference judges won’t do anything with this infor- owned by Ukrainian President Petro time when Ukraine continues to battle pro- mation. Poroshenko, who tapped the former to the Presidential Administration while Russian militants in the east of the country “Hrushevskoho” refers to the Cabinet of “Nothing will come of the fight against Georgian leader to head the Odesa region despite a fragile ceasefire reached in Minsk corruption without a complete overhaul of in May. “What the government is calling Ministers.] in February. It’s the failure of Ukraine’s top leaders to the entire legal system along the lines of reforms, I can’t call reforms.” Mr. Saakashvili, a longtime friend of Mr. Georgia,” Mr. Olehshchuk said. “They’re Speaking in Russian, Mr. Saakashvili deal with their own rivalries, and the cor- Poroshenko’s, is widely credited with con- ruption at the center of these rivalries, that simply using this fight against corruption added that he had heard Mr. Yatsenyuk “call ducting sweeping reforms in his native as a smokescreen for resolving their own raising tariffs reforms.” has hindered attempts to address graft on Georgia, including a harsh crackdown on all other levels of society, observers said. personal issues.” “I don’t call those reforms,” he said. “I call drugs and government corruption. that the consequences of the economic cri- “Corrupt politicians were trusted with Petro Poroshenko He has appeared committed to launch- the fight against corruption, which is at the sis, the consequences of what is happening ing similar efforts in Odesa, whose epony- root of the problem,” said Petro Oleshchuk, The Ukrainian president is under con- in the country. Tariffs indeed need to be mous main city is a notorious hub for crime a political science lecturer at Shevchenko stant criticism for pursuing his business raised. But this is not reform.” and drug trafficking and has come under National University in Kyiv. interests while serving as president, which Mr. Yatsenyuk responded sharply at a additional pressure with the arrival of is forbidden for state officials to do in most The corruption has gotten so bad that in September 4 Cabinet meeting, describing Ukrainians displaced by war to the east. developed countries. his remarks, Mr. Voshchevskyi called for Mr. Saakashvili’s criticism as “deceitful A recent petition posted on the His Roshen confectionary retail chain the government to resign, as did former accusations” that will only hamper Ukrainian president’s newly launched has swelled since he became president, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, the Ukraine’s reform efforts. online initiative to court voters’ ideas pro- opening new stores in Kyiv, Kharkiv and leader of the Batkivshchyna parliamentary “I understand how difficult things are for posed appointing Mr. Saakashvili to Mr. throughout Ukraine, even reaching towns faction, just a day earlier. him,” Mr. Yatsenyuk said, according to an Yatsenyuk’s post in order to speed reforms. such as Liubar in the Zhytomyr region. The “Either this coalition ends its corruption official transcript. “They’re difficult for The petition had garnered 550 signa- company didn’t respond to a request by and dismisses this absolutely unprofes- everyone. We can all agree on this. For that tures as of September 4, well below the The Ukrainian Weekly to confirm how sional and corrupt government, and forms reason, emotions and baseless accusations 25,000 required for consideration by the many new stores have been opened. a new government with people who have play into the hands of those who are government. He’s also been exposed for pursuing against reforms in the country and those dignity, morality, honor and intellect to who are against real change in Ukraine.” (Continued on page 8) build the country,” she said. “Or we don’t (Continued on page 8) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2015 No. 38 ANALYSIS Ukraine’s pro-government parties Court extends Savchenko’s detention Petition wants Saakashvili as PM MOSCOW – A Russian court on KYIV – Former Georgian President September 15 ruled that Ukrainian helicop- Mikheil Saakashvili’s supporters in Ukraine join forces ahead of local elections ter pilot Nadia Savchenko must stay in a have collected more than 26,000 signatures by Oleg Varfolomeyev popular support has hovered at just 2-3 Russian jail for at least another six months on a petition recommending him to Eurasia Daily Monitor percent among the electorate (Forbes.net. as her trial continues. Ms. Savchenko, become Ukraine’s prime minister, it was ua, August 31). already in pre-trial detention since June reported on September 9. Mr. Saakashvili, The parties of President Petro With UDAR and the People’s Front polit- 2014, faces up to 25 years in prison for who has been governing Ukraine’s Odesa Poroshenko, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko and ically neutralized, Mr. Poroshenko’s team what Russian authorities allege was partici- Oblast since May, has said that he did not Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk have can now presumably concentrate on fight- pation in the 2014 killing of two Russian see himself as Ukraine’s prime minister. joined forces ahead of the local elections ing the Opposition Bloc in the densely pop- war correspondents in eastern Ukraine.

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