Reformer of the week: Tetiana Kozachenko
Tetiana Kozachenko, the head of the Justice Ministry’s lustration department, has fought hard against attempts to derail the lustration law, under which officials linked to ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, the Soviet Union and those with undeclared property are supposed to be fired.
She has been a ruthless warrior against the corrupt bureaucracy and has taken a principled, uncompromising stand on lustration.
Thanks to the efforts of Kozachenko and the Civic Lustration Committee, at least half of Yanukovych-era officials are no longer working in government. Kozachenko has also pushed for firing judges who have made unlawful rulings and advocated a thorough overhaul of the courts to make them independent and capable of delivering justice.
Anti-reformer of the week:Oleksiy Dniprov
Oleksiy Dniprov, a deputy presidential chief of staff, should be fired under the lustration law because he was a deputy education minister under President Viktor Yanukovych, according to the Justice Ministry.
However, President Petro Poroshenko has failed to fire him for political reasons, critics say.
Poroshenko’s opponents argue that the situation with Dniprov symbolizes the president’s blatant disregard for the law and his disrespect for civil society.
Dniprov was also the chief of staff to Education Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk, a Yanukovych crony with pro-Russian views who fled to Russia after the EuroMaidan Revolution. Tabachnyk also faces a corruption case in Ukraine. He is suspected of abuse of power in a public procurement scheme.
