THEHEPublished U by theKRAINIAN Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal W non-profit associationEEKLY Vol. LXXXVI No. 1 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JANUARY 7, 2018 $2.00 Ukrainian activist lawyer Dismantling of oligarchic economy stabbed to death in Kyiv main goal for 2018, say experts RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service by Mark Raczkiewycz gram for Ukraine, weren’t implemented. At issue is the establishment of an inde- KYIV – Ukraine’s foreign affairs minister KYIV – Ukraine can expect to see its pendent anti-corruption court – a body has called the killing of an activist attorney economy grow only modestly over the pre- that could administer justice in graft cases. in Kyiv “a challenge to the state” as the vious year by 2.9 percent, or to $113 bil- That’s something the existing judicial authorities, facing public outrage, opened lion, if declared, albeit muted, reforms con- branch historically has failed to do, includ- a murder investigation into the death of tinue, say three Kyiv-based policy centers ing after the 2014 Euromaidan popular Iryna Nozdrovska. and an economist in Washington. uprising that saw the Moscow-backed for- The Kyiv regional prosecutor’s office Despite Russia’s unprovoked war that mer President Viktor Yanukovych abandon and the National Police executive said on Kyiv has managed to contain, the country’s office and leave the state treasury dry and January 2 that they are closely monitoring biggest internal national security threat 100 civilian deaths in his wake. the investigation into what they called a remains corruption from within, they say. It Moscow illegally annexed Crimea in “murder” the day after Ms. Nozdrovska’s includes existing quasi-monopolies that the March of that year and invaded the two body was found floating in a river in Kyiv’s oligarch-economic machine has managed easternmost regions of Donetsk and Vyshhorod district. to preserve, and a disjointed judicial sys- Luhansk, severing 7 percent of Ukraine’s The lawyer was reported missing on tem that enables the takeover of businesses sovereign territory. December 29, 2017, after she helped to and land from their rightful owners, “Businessmen often complained that the make sure the man convicted of causing domestic or foreign. Prosecutor General’s Office and the Security If the current model for running the the death of her sister was not released Service of Ukraine (SBU) engage in aggres- country is kept in place for 2018 – or what sive corporate raiding,” added Mr. Aslund. from prison. The high-profile case was Iryna Nozdrovska in a photo from economists refer to as the lack of “structur- Indeed, the two biggest pro-business seen as a test of the Ukrainian justice sys- Facebook. al reform” – then the country will continue advocacy groups in Ukraine – the American tem’s ability to fairly prosecute people sible must be brought to justice.” to fall short of its much-touted potential. Chamber of Commerce and European with links to people in power. The demonstrators in Kyiv on January 2 “Domestic and foreign investors lost their Business Association – also complain of the Foreign Affairs Minister Pavlo Klimkin demanded that the murder investigation rising confidence in Ukraine,” Swedish econ- persistent practice of “raiding.” underscored the national significance of be conducted by Kyiv city investigators, omist Anders Aslund, a senior fellow at the When it comes to battling bribery and Ms. Nozdrovska’s death on January 2, call- saying they did not trust regional law Washington-based Atlantic Council, said on extortion, the newly created National Anti- ing it “a challenge to the state.” enforcement officers. They also demanded January 2, referring to the dashed hopes of Corruption Bureau has only about 800 This is “a test of our society’s ability to the resignation of Internal Affairs Minister the post-Euromaidan government. employees in comparison to the 15,000 protect female activists and to ensure jus- Arsen Avakov. “Investors began to realize that the complex that the static Prosecutor General’s Office tice as a whole,” Mr. Klimkin said in com- Regional police chief Dmytro Tsenov judicial reform that was under way would has under the leadership of Yurii Lutsenko, ments on Twitter on January 2 that came met with the protesters in front of the not cleanse the judicial system, and thus, reli- who never attended law school. as the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv expressed building of the Kyiv regional police head- able property rights would not materialize.” Thus, amid a threefold drop in the “shock” over the killing and hundreds of quarters and told them that a special team It’s also partially why Ukraine got only $1 national currency’s value to the U.S. dollar people rallied in Kyiv demanding a thor- of experts was set up to investigate Ms. billion of the envisioned $4 billion in 2017 since 2014, the nation is “angry,” said Iryna ough investigation. Nozdrovska’s death. from the Washington-based International Bekeshkina, a director of the Ilko Kucheriv In a blunt message on Twitter, the U.S. The lawyer was the target of threats for Monetary Fund’s economic bailout pro- Democratic Initiatives think tank. Embassy in Kyiv said it was “shocked and her efforts in the case of Dmytro gram. Significant “benchmarks” of the IMF, “That’s why the successive realization of saddened by the death of activist Iryna as the international bank refers to the con- the variant that ‘let it be what it will be,’ is #Nozdrovska” and said that “those respon- (Continued on page 6) ditions tied to the overall $17.5 billion pro- hardly possible this year,” she said in a col- umn written on the group’s website on December 31, 2017. Ms. Bekeshkina’s “baseline” scenario Anne Applebaum receives honorary doctorate at NaUKMA which underlines current trends foresees that Ukraine will “march in place” and main- Kyiv Mohyla Foundation tain the status quo in 2018. The reason: the presidential and parliamentary election KYIV – Anne Applebaum, journalist, historian and campaigns will start later this year, with both Pulitzer Prize-winning author, received an honorary taking place no later than March 31, 2019. doctorate at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla She noted that the oligarchic-economic Academy (known by the acronym NaUKMA) during machine lost its “main beneficiaries” after a ceremony on December 16, 2017, in a packed uni- the Euromaidan, yet has “come to its sens- versity auditorium filled by over 750 students. es” and has “reanimated” old schemes. Many of the students asked excellent questions “And as the situation on the military after Ms. Applebaum’s lecture based on her book, front has stabilized, it became increasingly “Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine” about the clear that the number one enemy was cor- genocidal Holodomor of 1932-1933. ruption,” she continued. Ms. Applebaum’s visit to Ukraine included a Although the Donbas war has been stat- NaUKMA fund-raising event at the Kyiv Art Arsenal, ic amid two truces that have never taken a press conference, a book presentation, and meet- hold between Kyiv and Moscow, 192 ings with media and civil society reformers, as well Ukrainian members of the armed forces died as members of the executive and legislative branch- last year, according to the Defense Ministry. es of the Ukrainian government. The author also Kyiv Mohyla Foundation That figure doesn’t include servicemen in had an extensive private meeting with Ukraine’s Dr. Andriy Meleshevych, president of the National University of Kyiv- the Security Service of Ukraine, the Border President Petro Poroshenko. Mohyla Academy, bestows an honorary doctorate on Anne Applebaum. (Continued on page 13) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JANUARY 7, 2018 No. 1 ANALYSIS Crimean peninsula as playground Mattis on weapons for Ukraine and Mr. Poroshenko discussed the danger- ous situation in the Donbas, and particular U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said attention was paid to Russia’s decision to for Russian-Ukrainian spy war that the U.S. role in Ukraine is not changing leave the Joint Center for Coordination and and Russia has no cause for concern about a order to disrupt the tourist season on the Control. The Presidential Administration by Ridvan Bari Urcosta U.S. decision last week to supply new weap- peninsula. According to the Federal also reported that further steps were coor- Eurasia Daily Monitor ons to Kyiv. “As long as no one wants to Security Service, one FSB agent and a sol- dinated to advance the initiative of deploy- invade Ukraine, hopefully it won’t have any A Russian court in occupied Sevastopol dier died in the operation to capture the ing a U.N. peacekeeping mission through- big impact. They’re defensive weapons,” Mr. back on November 16, 2017, sentenced alleged saboteurs and several Ukrainians out the occupied Donbas area, including Mattis said on December 29, 2017, in his Ukrainian former military expert Dmitry were arrested and were undergoing inter- the uncontrolled part of the Ukrainian- first remarks since the U.S. State Shtyblykov to five years imprisonment in a rogation. Ukrainian officials denied all such Russian state border. Minister Freeland Department announced approval of strict penal colony (Regnum, November allegations and accused the Kremlin of “enhanced defensive capabilities” for also informed the Ukrainian president 16). Mr. Shtyblykov worked at the think spreading disinformation (RBC, August 8, Ukraine on December 22. Moscow has about the close coordination of approaches tank Nomos, which, prior to the illegal 2016). with the United States, in particular during annexation of Crimea in 2014, operated in denounced the move, saying it “crossed a Several incidents also came to light in line” and was “clearly pushing [Ukraine] a meeting held with U.S.