When President Volodymyr Zelensky banned three pro-Kremlin television channels on Feb. 2, many thought it was his decisive turn towards the West. Now it’s clear that it was not.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) suspended talks on a $700 million tranche with Ukraine on Feb. 13 partially because the Ukrainian government is against a decisive role for foreigners in reforming its corrupt judiciary.
On Feb. 15, the Cabinet of Ministers also submitted a bill seeking to fire Artem Sytnyk, head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), before his term expires in 2022 and to let Zelensky control the selection of a new NABU chief. This was a violation of the IMF’s condition that the NABU should be independent.
The attempt to fire Sytnyk was a reaction to the NABU’s high profile corruption cases into Zelensky’s deputy chief of staff Oleh Tatarov and embezzlement during COVID‑19 vaccine purchases, according to the Kyiv Post’s sources.
Some of Zelensky’s allies argue that accepting the IMF’s conditions on the NABU and judicial reform would be tantamount to neo-colonialism and “selling out” the country to the West. This is nonsense and part of an irrational Kremlin-driven narrative.
First, this is just a stupid excuse for protecting corrupt vested interests. They essentially seek to protect their “sovereign right” to plunder the Ukrainian budget from foreign experts who want to introduce the rule of law.
Second, it’s up to the IMF to dictate conditions because the money is theirs. If Ukraine doesn’t want to accept the lender’s conditions, the IMF doesn’t owe it any money.
It’s also a difference in values. The West and Ukraine’s civil society want independent and honest institutions. Zelensky and his administration want loyal and subservient puppets at their beck and call.
If the Zelensky administration fires Sytnyk and fails to carry out genuine judicial reform, it will effectively opt for abandoning Western support and may look for help elsewhere — such as the aggressor country. This would be a fatal mistake.
