Lukewarm
President Viktor Yanukovych desrves lukewarm credit for a bold legislative move to increase the pension age.
President Viktor Yanukovych’s government and ruling majority deserve lukewarm praise for adopting changes to the pension law on June 17 in a first (not yet final) reading.
Joining 187 lawmakers from the pro-presidential Party of Regions to support the bill were respectable numbers of lawmakers from other factions.
Officials said the hotly contested legislation will be adopted in a final vote in July.
While details were sketchy as this edition of the Kyiv Post went to press, it is believed that the proposed changes – while unpopular – are necessary to plug gaps in a flawed and under-funded pension system.
It is expected that the retirement for women will be gradually increased from 55 to 60 years of age.
This painful condition will certainly cost Yanukovych’s party votes in next year's parliamentary election, but it was necessary, according to economists.
If credit is to be given, Yanukovych deserves a bit for this bold move. Ultimately, however, he had little choice.
More thanks goes to the International Monetary Fund for refusing to unlock additional billion-dollar loan tranches that Yanukovych’s government needs to stay financially afloat unless the nation's leaders deliver on austerity measures.
Attention is, however, also greatly needed to stop the financial bleeding.
As Ukraine’s main creditor, the IMF should also set conditions that end massive corruption at the highest echelons of government.
These schemes appear to be robbing the nation’s riches at the expense of 45 million struggling citizens.
Impunity still reigns as the rich get richer and the poor remain mired at the bottom.
A government that allows cronies to get rich unfairly at the expense of principles of fairness, transparency and compassion is not deserving of international support.
President Viktor Yanukovych’s government and ruling majority deserve lukewarm praise for adopting changes to the pension law on June 17 in a first (not yet final) reading.
Joining 187 lawmakers from the pro-presidential Party of Regions to support the bill were respectable numbers of lawmakers from other factions.
Officials said the hotly contested legislation will be adopted in a final vote in July.
While details were sketchy as this edition of the Kyiv Post went to press, it is believed that the proposed changes – while unpopular – are necessary to plug gaps in a flawed and under-funded pension system.
It is expected that the retirement for women will be gradually increased from 55 to 60 years of age.
This painful condition will certainly cost Yanukovych’s party votes in next year's parliamentary election, but it was necessary, according to economists.
If credit is to be given, Yanukovych deserves a bit for this bold move. Ultimately, however, he had little choice.
More thanks goes to the International Monetary Fund for refusing to unlock additional billion-dollar loan tranches that Yanukovych’s government needs to stay financially afloat unless the nation's leaders deliver on austerity measures.
Attention is, however, also greatly needed to stop the financial bleeding.
As Ukraine’s main creditor, the IMF should also set conditions that end massive corruption at the highest echelons of government.
These schemes appear to be robbing the nation’s riches at the expense of 45 million struggling citizens.
Impunity still reigns as the rich get richer and the poor remain mired at the bottom.
A government that allows cronies to get rich unfairly at the expense of principles of fairness, transparency and compassion is not deserving of international support.
No credibility
The more presidential aide Hanna Herman talks , the less credibility the administration has.
The longer that Hanna Herman speaks for President Viktor Yanukovych in an official capacity, the more damage she will do to his administration’s credibility – which is quite low now anyway.
Long after the claim has been discredited, the presidential aide keeps on insisting that criminal investigations have been launched against 478 high-ranking government officials since Yanukovych took power in 2010.
Herman most recently renewed the questionable claim to counter growing international condemnation of what appear to be politically motivated criminal prosecutions of ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and other officials who worked for her.
After defending the administration’s record at a June 14 event in Kyiv organized by the U.S.-based Freedom House human rights organization, ex-Deputy Prime Minister Hryroriy Nemyria goaded her into providing proof.
She pulled out a five-page document, gave it to Freedom House executive director David J. Kramer and promptly left the meeting.
The Security Services of Ukraine document doesn’t show that 478 administration loyalists or top current officials are under investigation.
Justice Minister Oleksandr Lavyrynovych and presidential chief of staff Serhiy Lyovochkin made similar claims earlier this year.
When pressed, the general prosecutor refuses to name names, arguing that the suspects have not been found guilty yet.
This is poppycock. The names of criminal suspects are routinely bandied about by officials when doing so serves their interests.
Moreover, if arrests have been made or criminal charges filed, the state should disclose the names and reasons for depriving people of liberty.
Law enforcers routinely flout human rights in this nation, including arbitrary arrests, selective prosecution and excessive pre-trial jailing of people.
At the same event where Herman defended the administration’s record, numerous human rights activists painted a different and – in our view – more accurate picture of a democratic nation creeping back into authoritarianism.
The Yanukovych administration has monopolized political power and is persecuting political opponents while ignoring corruption in its own ranks.
The public continues to be kept in the dark about government favors to insiders, including shady privatizations of state assets and favors for friends of the Party of Regions.
The full extent of shady deals, including dirty state procurements and near-monopolization of various industries, may never be known.
Even Yanukovych, while chairing an anti-corruption meeting earlier this month, admitted the nation is looted of billions of dollars each year.
He just didn’t say by whom.
Amid signs that the presidential Party of Regions intends to stay in power at all costs, human rights activists and diplomats have put the administration on notice that the 2012 parliamentary elections had better be clean, transparent and fair.
The longer that Hanna Herman speaks for President Viktor Yanukovych in an official capacity, the more damage she will do to his administration’s credibility – which is quite low now anyway.
Long after the claim has been discredited, the presidential aide keeps on insisting that criminal investigations have been launched against 478 high-ranking government officials since Yanukovych took power in 2010.
Herman most recently renewed the questionable claim to counter growing international condemnation of what appear to be politically motivated criminal prosecutions of ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and other officials who worked for her.
After defending the administration’s record at a June 14 event in Kyiv organized by the U.S.-based Freedom House human rights organization, ex-Deputy Prime Minister Hryroriy Nemyria goaded her into providing proof.
She pulled out a five-page document, gave it to Freedom House executive director David J. Kramer and promptly left the meeting.
The Security Services of Ukraine document doesn’t show that 478 administration loyalists or top current officials are under investigation.
Justice Minister Oleksandr Lavyrynovych and presidential chief of staff Serhiy Lyovochkin made similar claims earlier this year.
When pressed, the general prosecutor refuses to name names, arguing that the suspects have not been found guilty yet.
This is poppycock. The names of criminal suspects are routinely bandied about by officials when doing so serves their interests.
Moreover, if arrests have been made or criminal charges filed, the state should disclose the names and reasons for depriving people of liberty.
Law enforcers routinely flout human rights in this nation, including arbitrary arrests, selective prosecution and excessive pre-trial jailing of people.
At the same event where Herman defended the administration’s record, numerous human rights activists painted a different and – in our view – more accurate picture of a democratic nation creeping back into authoritarianism.
The Yanukovych administration has monopolized political power and is persecuting political opponents while ignoring corruption in its own ranks.
The public continues to be kept in the dark about government favors to insiders, including shady privatizations of state assets and favors for friends of the Party of Regions.
The full extent of shady deals, including dirty state procurements and near-monopolization of various industries, may never be known.
Even Yanukovych, while chairing an anti-corruption meeting earlier this month, admitted the nation is looted of billions of dollars each year.
He just didn’t say by whom.
Amid signs that the presidential Party of Regions intends to stay in power at all costs, human rights activists and diplomats have put the administration on notice that the 2012 parliamentary elections had better be clean, transparent and fair.
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