People’s Deputy of Ukraine Oleksandra Ustinova presumes that the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak protects the Ukrainian oligarchs instead of fighting them. In addition, Andriy Yermak deliberately misleads Ukraine’s western partners by telling them about the alleged fight against Ukrainian oligarchs.
She expressed her opinion when talking to our publication.
“In Ukraine, people know that Andriy Yermak in order to please the Ukrainian oligarchs including Rinat Akhmetov and Igor Kolomoisky, changed and with the assistance of the presidential faction controlled by the Office of the President, amended the law directed against them. These changes completely neutralize this law and make it inoperative and even absurd. The law was adopted hastily, contains legal incidents and, in fact, is declarative,” says Oleksandra Ustinova.
According to Oleksandra, many specialists, lawyers, including Western institutions, as well as representatives of anti-corruption organizations, initially worked on the law on oligarchs.
Andriy Yermak and the Office of the President, by agreement with the oligarchs, completely adapted it so that Ukrainian oligarchs would not be afraid of the law, and the law itself was aimed at fighting the media and journalists.
“The register of oligarchs will be formed and maintained by the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine, which is controlled by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the head of the President’s Office Andriy Yermak. They get a monopolization of influence over the media. This means that you will never reach justice, you will not be able to defend your point of view anywhere. Andrey Yermak’s aim is to clean up the media in order to ensure the re-election of Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2024 and get rid of possible competitors.”
Many amendments to this law were not included. The Office of the President gave clear instructions to their deputies from the “Servant of the People” faction to vote against those amendments. Also, the criteria for “oligarch” status are rather vague. The work on judicial reform is also deliberately slowed down,” Oleksandra Ustinova believes.
The deputy adds that she hopes that the law will be finalized and the necessary amendments will be made to it.
We remind, the Ukrainian parliament adopted the “law on oligarchs” at the end of September 2021. It was finally adopted immediately in the second reading. It was supported by 279 deputies, 54 voted against, and 27 abstained. Zelensky’s office said earlier that the law does not violate the fundamental rights of those who fall under the definition of an oligarch. The term of this law is limited to ten years.