Ukraine’s fight against corruption

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2020

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ukraine is in the midst of a constitutional crisis. The President Volodymyr Zelensky says the judiciary are blocking anti-corruption reform. The top judges won't budge and can't be sacked. So what do we know about the President's reform credentials? In this episode, we hear from the former central bank governor Valeria Gontareva who says she’s been a victim of a campaign of harassment that has left her fearing for her life, ever since she introduced anti-corruption reforms. Former economy minister Tymofiy Mylovanov, who resigned from government this year following a disagreement with President Zelensky, gives his view on what more needs to be done to combat corruption in Ukraine. And we hear from President Zelensky’s official spokesperson Iuliia Mendel.

Produced by Joshua Thorpe.

(Image: President Zelensky. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello there, I'm Ed Butler and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service. Today, Ukraine's fight
0:08.7	against corruption and the big businessmen holding it back. Ukraine has been struggling over the last
0:15.4	30 years to become a democracy. But I think the real power continues to lie with oligarchs.
0:21.9	Senior former officials share with us what they've faced when taking on the forces of
0:27.3	dark money. Real death threats, numerous vandalism around my house. It was even coffins delivered
0:35.9	to the main entrance to the central bank of Ukraine by armed people in balaclavas.
0:42.3	The fight against corruption in Ukraine, business daily from the BBC.
0:50.4	Ask anyone in Ukraine. Corruption has been the corrosive acid on its public life.
0:56.7	Ever since the country achieved independence from the Soviet Union back in 1991.
1:02.1	It cost the nation's coffers billions in lost income every year.
1:05.9	Graft, bribes, unregulated handouts to political allies.
1:10.1	We're going to Ukraine. bribes and regulated handouts to political allies.
1:19.6	I saw the strength of public feeling about this when I visited the country's capital Kiev
1:22.1	ahead of elections last year.
1:27.4	Well, here in central Kiev, that anti-corruption message has clearly struck last year.
1:32.0	Well, here in central Kiev, that anti-corruption message has clearly struck a chord.
1:38.4	I'm now in Maidan Square, the center of the city, the heart, the historical heart of the revolution, of course, where it started more than five years ago.
1:42.2	And three or four thousand young people mostly, a lot of
1:45.7	them ex-servicemen are here protesting at the latest corruption scandal and clearly blaming
1:53.6	the president for the corruption that's being reported.
1:57.2	Well, almost every year it seems Ukraine suffers another scandal. Every election includes voters demanding
2:03.7	reform. And for those technocrats trying to bring change, life can get pretty tough. Valeria
	...

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