“Dear friends; Ukraine’s grace period for tackling cronyism may have run out,” The Economist, February 13 (http://www.economist.com/news/europe/ 21692917-ukraines-grace-period-tackling-cronyism-may-have-run-out-dear-friends):
…Ukraine’s Maidan revolution was supposed to roll back corruption and cronyism. Mr. [Ukraine’s economy minister, Aivaras] Abromavicius, a Lithuanian-born investment banker, was one of several foreigners invited into government to change the old ways. He ran up against vested interests in the circles of both the president and the prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk. Mr. Abromavicius is the second economy minister since the revolution to quit for similar reasons, and the fifth minister to resign from the current government. Western ambassadors lamented his departure. …
Yuri Lutsenko, the head of Mr. Poroshenko’s parliamentary bloc, says the country now faces a “full-blown political crisis.” A Cabinet shake-up is inevitable. A collapse of the ruling coalition and early parliamentary elections look increasingly likely. …
Dissatisfaction with the country’s direction is rising and trust in the authorities is falling. Not a single government institution has a positive trust rating, according to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. Investors are worried, says Tomas Fiala, the head of Dragon Capital, Ukraine’s largest investment bank.
…There is a circular quality to Ukraine’s reforms. Mr. Poroshenko was among the “lyubi druzi” [dear friends] of a previous president, Viktor Yushchenko, after the 2004 Orange Revolution. This time, many had hoped that real work on reforms would begin after local elections last autumn. The opposite has proved true. Mr. Yatsenyuk has focused on saving his job, despite approval ratings in single digits. Mr. Poroshenko, facing a backlash over his support for an incompetent prosecutor general, has seen his credibility steadily eroded. …
“Ukraine should heed its economy minister’s warning on corruption,” editorial, The Washington Post, February 15 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ukraine-should-heed-its-economy-ministers-warning-on-corruption/2016/02/15/eb7af9e6-cea3-11e5-88cd-753e80cd29ad_story.html):
… a fresh warning to Ukraine’s leaders… came from the economic development and trade minister, Aivaras Abromavicius, 40, a technocrat and dedicated reformer brought in 14 months ago to help make a decisive break with the past and point Ukraine toward a long-overdue economic overhaul under President Petro Poroshenko. …
He declared that businessmen close to Mr. Poroshenko were seeking to infiltrate the oil and defense industries and attempting to put their own people in government and corporate posts. “It has become clear that any kind of systemic reform is decisively blocked,” Mr. Abromavicius said. “I refuse to be part of this system. Neither me nor my team are prepared to serve as a cover-up for the schemes, old or new, that have been set up in the private interest of particular political or business players.” …
The outburst was a needed shock to the status quo in Ukraine, and the question now is whether Mr. Poroshenko will do anything about it. Ambassadors from the United States, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Lithuania, Sweden and Switzerland demanded in a statement that Ukraine put the vested interests that have dominated it for so long “squarely in the past.” The International Monetary Fund has indicated that Ukraine’s fiscal lifeline could be cut off in the absence of clear government action. Ukraine’s leadership must not ignore the warnings. Oligarchic capitalism was a messy first phase after the collapse of communism, but to survive, Ukraine must bid it farewell.