Editor’s Note: As Ukraine gets set to inaugurate its sixth president on May 20, the Kyiv Post is asking Ukrainians and those with Ukrainian ancestry who live abroad to send in their pictures (horizontal mug shots, please) with answers to the following three questions for publication. Please keep responses brief — no more than 200 words for each answer or 600 words in all. Include contact details for verification as well as full name, occupation and country of residence. A selection of respondents will be published periodically before Volodymyr Zelenskiy is sworn in as president. Send responses/photos with the subject header “Ukrainian Voices From Abroad” to Kyiv Post chief editor Brian Bonner at [email protected]
Igor Reshetnyak is a co-founder of the Ukraine Action Association in France and the EuroMaidan France Collective. He is researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Kyiv Post: What do you hope for most from President Volodymyr Zelenskiy?
Igor Reshetnyak: While the six million Ukrainian citizens living outside the country have sent back home more than $12 billion in 2018, they are de facto not represented in the branches of power in Ukraine. Zelenskiy’s electoral campaign was the first ever to try to reach-out in a structured manner to Ukrainians living abroad. What I hope most is that this trend will continue after his inauguration and, as guarantor of Constitutional rights, Zelenskiy will care more than his predecessors about the diaspora and its rights. Starting, for example, from the voting rights as less than 1 percent of Ukrainians living abroad take part in the elections due to truly archaic procedures.
Kyiv Post: What is the No. 1 priority facing Ukraine?
Igor Reshetnyak: While the Russian aggression in the Donbas and the occupation of Crimea are long-term challenges facing Ukraine, the keys to their resolution are in the Kremlin and it is doubtful that a major breakthrough on these fronts can be achieved while Vladimir Putin remains president. At variance, internally many things can be improved. Here, the main priority is the reform of the judiciary system. Even major international companies such as Safran have had difficulties defending their rights in Ukraine’s courts. Furthermore, many information technology start-ups prefer to register themselves abroad not only to have easier access to the European and US markets, but also to avoid losing their ownership. Reforming the judiciary and raising the trust in it will, therefore, have an immediate impact on Ukraine’s economy bringing more investments and inciting successful businesses to stay in the country.
Kyiv Post; What is the biggest obstacle that the new president must overcome to achieve success?
Igor Reshetnyak: The structure and the ability to function properly of Zelenskiy’s team remains unclear. Many sources indicate that there is already some level of in-fight between different groups of influence and if the new president fails to control this without going into micro-management his administration can become anarchic and inefficient.
