Recently, the Verkhovna Rada renewed, by adopting the relevant law, mandatory electronic declaration for civil servants and employees of local governments. The document, among other things, provides for the submission of declarations for 2021-2023. However, the main amendment on the immediate opening of declarations for public access was not approved. The declaration register will remain closed for another year. Read about why this decision caused extreme indignation in society and what it entails.
The West continues to actively discuss the interim results and prospects of the Ukrainian counteroffensive. The probability of a breakthrough of the entire Russian defense in the south is 40-50% by the end of the year, Trent Maul, director of analysis at the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency, said just now.
“Limited ammunition and worsening weather will make the task of breaking through Russian defenses very difficult. If Ukraine can expand the front around Rabotino, hold its position and continue the flow of ammunition, then it will be well positioned for a new breakthrough in 2024,” The Economist quotes Mr. Mol.
The magazine also cites the opinion of an unnamed representative of the Biden Administration, who believes that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will be able to advance for about six to seven weeks. That is, according to their calculations, it should be completed before the end of October. At the same time, there are disagreements in the US leadership about what progress can be achieved during this time. Some believe that the Ukrainian army, which threw most of its reserves into battle even before breaking through the second line and suffered heavy losses trying to break through, is unlikely to go far.
At the same time, in Ukraine they demonstrate that they are committed to a long war, which is manifested in the strengthening of mobilization measures. Just now, Zelensky said that starting from October certain categories of women will not be able to leave Ukraine. Thus, the representative of the head of state in parliament, people's deputy from the Servant of the People Fyodor Venislavsky, said that women doctors and pharmacists are required to register for military service from October 1, so their travel abroad may be limited. Representatives of other specialties can register voluntarily, he recalled. There are no plans to expand the list of specialties yet.
And against this background of global and local, mobilization and other problems, the legislators of the warring Ukraine demonstrate, to put it mildly, cynicism as it is. What are we talking about? That the ruling team is in no hurry to implement the recommendations of our Western allies related to the introduction of additional anti-corruption standards. On the one hand, the Verkhovna Rada recently resumed the electronic declaration of officials, previously suspended during martial law: on September 5, bill No. 9534 was supported by 329 people’s deputies. On the other hand, the law introduced a provision that full access to declarations will be restored only after a year. Whether or not to open their own data now is up to the declarants to decide for themselves.
Ambassadors of the G7 countries reacted almost instantly, criticizing the amendment to delay the declaration and calling for an exception to protect information only for the military. Diplomats also again emphasized the importance for the course of reforms of the adoption of the law on PEP (politically exposed person or a politically exposed person who is exposed in his position, first of all, to the risk of corruption - ed.). The point of this initiative is to introduce lifelong control over PEP’s financial transactions in Ukraine. The draft law was on the agenda for the meeting on September 5, but it was pushed to the end of the plenary session and did not have time to be considered. “The reason is banal: there are no votes yet,” Yaroslav Zheleznyak, people’s deputy from Golos, wrote in his Telegram channel. Representatives of the pro-government Servant of the People also confirm this in informal conversations. When commenting on the declaration case, people's deputies from the ruling team are trying to sign exclusively for themselves. “We discussed the law on declaration quite vigorously and for a long time, we adopted it. Unfortunately, they accepted it with closed declarations. I voted for the edit to open the registry. But there were only 199 colleagues like me along with me, and we could not make this decision,” First Vice Speaker Alexander Kornienko said with a mournful expression on his face during the telethon. At the same time, he added that “we have made fairly good progress in implementing the seven European integration recommendations.” In their recommendations, we note that the real, and not declarative anti-corruption state policy is also spelled out in black and white. “Two promises have been counted, two more are at the 95% stage. But as far as the fight against corruption and money laundering is concerned, this always worries our European partners and continues to worry us,” stated Mr. Kornienko.
“This” worries not only our Western partners, but also ordinary citizens. The failed vote for an amendment that would have opened the declaration bins of mandate holders caused a flurry of public bewilderment. Including in the ranks of the military. Exactly after the decision of the parliamentarians to put a lock on their declarations for another year, a soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, an infantryman of the battalion named after Dmitry Kotsyubailo, Alexander Yabchenko, wrote the following on his Facebook: “With this vote, the deputies hid their fortune from us. In other words, it looks like “it’s none of your business where I got my money.” This is bad? In my opinion, this is a slap in the face of us, the voters. Is it bad when people spit in your face? Well, as an amateur, I, for one, don’t like it. Are the deputies who did not vote to blame? Undoubtedly, those who did not support the corresponding norm are to blame. But part of the responsibility for this failure lies with me. After all, this is my parliament. Therefore, I would like to remind all voters that voting in parliament is the responsibility of the voter. What am I going to do about it? I will watch the roll call vote and will never vote for any of those who did not give their vote.” Somewhat later, Alexander Yabchenko registered a petition on the official website of the president, in which he calls on the current guarantor of the Constitution to veto the scandalously half-hearted law on declarations adopted by the Rada. The petition received more than the required 25 thousand signatures in favor in a record three hours. The numbers under the document change every minute and now the number of Ukrainians who supported the petition has exceeded 80 thousand. “The more votes there are on the petition, the greater the chance that the president will not sign the bill on declarations closed for another year,” notes the author of the document, Yabchenko, calling on everyone who has not yet signed their autograph to do so.
Let us note that by law, the head of state is not obliged to “rigorously” satisfy the request of the signatories of a particular petition, even if it received the required number of votes. On the other hand, there are clear time frames that, given the resonance, will not allow Vladimir Zelensky to bury this highly sensitive topic for society. “The consideration of an electronic petition is carried out urgently, but no later than ten working days from the date of publication of information about the beginning of its consideration,” says the president’s website.
And if you can delay the start of the review procedure indefinitely, with a strong desire, then with the law, everything is different. For the law to come into force, the signature of the president is required. Just a decision from the Verkhovna Rada is not enough. But the president has the right not only to sign, but also to veto the draft and return it to parliament for revision with his comments. He has 15 days to do this. If the head of state does not do this within this period, the law is considered automatically approved. All these procedural nuances are enshrined at the constitutional level.
Thus, Zelensky has two weeks to do everything. So far, the current owner of Bankova, commenting on the fuss that has arisen around the declaration law, said that he will think more about what to do and how to proceed, after consulting with the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olga Stefanishina. That is, Ze clearly hinted that he was primarily interested in the reaction of foreign partners. The president did not comment on the petition, although social networks are literally “on fire” with conversations about it. “The Ukrainian authorities are asking for help and receiving tens of billions of dollars, preferential loans and grants from more than fifty foreign countries. The Ukrainian authorities take almost all the money from local governments to plug holes in the state budget. Tens of millions of people in Ukraine and around the world donate billions of dollars to defense and humanitarian needs. And at this majestic moment, when they give everything, when hundreds of patriots die every day, when the Third World War is going on, when millions of Ukrainians have lost their property, two and a half hundred people’s deputies of Ukraine refuse to restore the mandatory publication of declarations of their wealth, the state of other government officials and employees of the President's Office. This is very petty humanly. This is a public insult to everyone who helps and sends us money and resources from abroad. This is a humiliation to the memory of tens of thousands of patriots who gave their lives for the honor and dignity of Ukraine. This is a desire to act without control and disrespect for both society and our Western allies, for whom it is important to see transparency and honesty in power. I hope that the president will condemn this criminal vote of the parliament, veto the bill, and call on the parliament and his monoparty, which supported the bill, to vote differently - as this is required by conscience and honor,” notes the famous journalist Yuri Butusov.
In turn, political scientist Vitaly Bala, asking the question of why people’s deputies did not want to open electronic declarations of officials, states: “Answer options: officials increased their wealth due to corruption and pro-government deputies were ordered not to vote so that citizens would not see the declarations.” got rich" during the war, because it will look very strange, to put it mildly. Well, another option is to continue to engage in corruption, and to be on the safe side, equate corruption to high treason in order to classify all possible cases in the SBU.”
Political scientist Alexei Golobutsky puts forward his own ironic and sarcastic version: “The deputies postponed for a year the opening of registers of declarations of officials and rejected the declaration of advisers of the President’s Office (this edit was made by the people’s deputy from Eurosolidarity Vladimir Aryev - ed.) Well, they did everything right: that’s what the deputies did care about the health of the population. They don’t want to cause an excessive shock with information that is absolutely unnecessary for people. Moreover, elections are possible. Truly, the voter should sleep peacefully!”
“The President now has a chance to win back the game with the opening of electronic declarations purely in his favor and appear before the collective West as the savior of the anti-corruption agenda. The public noise caused by the declaration bill and negotiations with US Secretary of State Blinken may become an additional argument,” says political scientist Oleg Posternak.
In general, the ball is now in the presidential half of the field and Vladimir Zelensky faces a difficult choice from an electoral point of view. On the one hand, it is obvious that he cannot avoid an avalanche of public criticism if he signs his autograph to the notorious bill, giving it a start in life. On the other hand, if he sends the document back to the Rada with a demand to vote on the immediate opening of the register (veto of proposals), such facts about the owners of mandates who became rich during a full-scale war may come to the surface that, in general, within the spacious walls of Bankova, the president will become realistic closely. Because, although de jure Ukraine is a parliamentary-presidential republic, de facto, all the reins of government, and accordingly, responsibility for what is happening in the country is now in the hands of the Office of the President.
