When will the fight against corruption begin in earnest?
Soon, President Petro Poroshenko said on Sept. 11.
When will the billionaire businessman sell his assets, as he pledged to do when he became president 15 months ago?
Soon, Poroshenko replied.
When will the war be over?
Soon, Poroshenko hopes.
And so it went at the opening of the 12th annual
Yalta European Strategy, opened by
Poroshenko in Kyiv’s Mystetskyi Arsenal.
Poroshenko also struck a defiant tone on Sept. 11, saying
his faith in the Minsk peace process is being vindicated by reduced fighting – no shelling in the last 24 hours — and
progress toward a diplomatic settlement, with talks set for October again.
“I was an optimist when everyone was a pessimist. Where are your voices now?” Poroshenko
challenged.
The president said that, despite attacks on him for
launching decentralization of political power and constitutional reform, he
will stick with the Minsk agreements – which he said must be completed by the end of
the year, including Russian withdrawal of troops and heavy weapons as well as
the return to full control of the borders to Ukraine.
He said that he would not support delay of the peace
process into 2016, but didn’t say how he could prevent it.
“We have cease-fire and we have peace and this is real
evidence we should follow the way of the Minsk agreement,” Poroshenko said. “There
is no any other alternative.”
Poroshenko said that Ukrainians living in Russian-occupied
areas of the eastern Donbas no longer believe the Russian propaganda that the separatists “are
defending them from a Ukrainian junta.” He said that because of the “disastrous
humanitarian conditions,” he set up stores near the war front where civilians
can buy essential goods at subsidized prices.
The president, however, hedged his predictions, admitting
that Russia still had tens of thousands of heavily armed troops who could launch
a full-scale invasion of Ukraine if President Vladimir Putin wanted to do so.
“The drama is still far from being over,” Poroshenko
admitted, but said he’s proud of having built “one of the strongest and bravest
armies in Europe.”
Poroshenko spent less than an hour on stage of the
conference, organized and funded by billionaire Victor Pinchuk, who introduced
him. The president then answered a half-dozen questions from Gideon Rachman,
the chief foreign affairs columnist for The Financial Times.
He then held a brief conference outdoors mainly for
Ukrainian news media.
None of the questions asked by Rachman delved into any
complexities of Ukrainian corruption, such as the failure of the prosecutors to
launch any trials against suspects in multibillion-dollar theft from
Ukrainians.
Poroshenko said that anti-corruption agencies would become
“operational in the nearest future.”
But the answer did not address criticism of Poroshenko for
keeping Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who has failed to obtain any convictions
of high-level defendants and who has actually been accused of obstructing
justice.
Rachman asked Poroshenko why, after more than 15 month in
power, the billionaire businessman still hasn’t lived up to his pledge to sell
his assets, which many critics say pose a direct conflict of interest to his
presidential duties.
“This is very difficult to sell anything in a country in the
state of war. If anybody can help me doing that, you are welcome. My Russian
assets are under arrest,” Poroshenko said. “I am absolutely confident in a very
short period of time we will have news.”
He admitted that Ukrainians are dissatisfied with the slow
pace of change.
“The Ukrainian people are thirsty for reform and will not
forgive even a minimal delay,” Poroshenko said.
He cited creation of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and
another national agency for corruption prevention as proof that he’s making
headway in the corruption fight. He said the “symbol” of progress “is the new
police you can see on the streets of Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa and in the nearest time on
the streets of other cities.”
Poroshenko said the new anti-corruption agencies “will get
operational in the nearest future, equipped with adequate tools.”
Critics believe that the developments represent cosmetic,
rather than a substantive fight against Ukraine’s endemic corruption, and that
these bodies will still remain subservient to politicians and not truly
independent.
Kyiv Post chief editor Brian Bonner can be reached at [email protected].
