Greg Krasovsky's comments on Foreign Policy's "Dethroning Ukraine’s Oligarchs: A How-To Guide":
- I agree, It's bad news when an oligarchy controls the government and even the fourth estate (journalists and news media) in a country where opposition groups can be persecuted under the guise of fighting terrorism, separatism and foreign aggression.
- How can you talk about dethroning oligarchs when an oligarch is the president of Ukraine?
- the recent anti-offshore media coverage, including that on the Panama Papers, already has demonstrated the selective nature of Western "deoffshorization" anti-money laundering and anti-corruption efforts,
- For decades, if not centuries, America and its allies have supported friendly oligarchs and dictators throughout the world -- oligarchs who opposed American policy have been vilified and undermined.
If the current anti-corruption/oligarch drive is aimed primarily or exclusively at pro-Russian or anti-US/EU/NATO oligarchs, then the Ukrainian people may end up with a truly untouchable new class of oligarchs who will enjoy Western protection and indulgences.
- If the present breed of Ukrainian oligarchs is replaced by transnational financial groups who will benefit from privatization and government contracts (to spend moneys borrowed from foreign creditors like the IMF, World Bank and etc.) while avoiding domestic taxation by using formally legal tax avoidance schemes, then the Ukrainian people -- who at the end will be end up repaying those foreign loans from their taxes and social benefits just like the citizens of Greece -- will have jumped from the frying pan into the fire.
- As long as Ukrainian oligarchs have a "get out of jail card," refuge and a place to stash their wealth either in the West (US/Europe), North (Russia) or even the rising East, any Ukrainian domestic anti-corruption/tax evasion/money laundering efforts will have very limited effect, especially when foreign money is allowed to seep into Ukraine's political system and buy corrupt politicians and civil servants.
- Given to the reality of today's geopolitics concerning Ukraine, Ukrainian citizens, voters and taxpayers are forced to choose the lesser of two evils: supporting either pro-US/EU/NATO oligarchs and their pocket politicians or the pro-Russian variety.
What is the true lesser evil is not something that Ukrainians should expect to learn from domestic and foreign establishment media or so-called think-tanks -- including Foreign Policy (a self-proclaimed "Trusted Advisor for Global Leaders When the Stakes are Highest") -- sources of information that are controlled by their own transnational oligarchs and financial-industrial groups who have their own agenda and ulterior motives for Ukraine and whatever wealth it still has.
Selected Excerpts:
"None of the country’s reforms can succeed while the oligarchs still rule. Here’s how to take them out.
Ukraine’s oligarchs are its biggest problem. If there is a single obstacle to establishing a functioning state, a sound economy, and true democratic accountability, it is the tycoons who control the country.
The oligarchs first emerged in the years following Ukraine’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. They grew rich by gaining privileged access to the gas market, expropriating companies from private owners, trading with state enterprises on advantageous terms, and privatizing those same firms at pennies on the dollar. The crooked dealings that lie at the root of their fortunes give them a vital interest in keeping state officials corruptible, the economy rigged, and the rule of law weak. A world in which regulators abide by the rules, prosecutors and judges behave scrupulously, democratic procedures hold leaders accountable, and market competition works as intended is one in which the oligarchs cannot live and work.
Calls to finally stamp out their influence are growing ever louder and more numerous. But few observers have offered workable plans for doing so. With that in mind, we present a roadmap for how it can be done.
...
Western countries can help. First, they can deny Ukraine’s reprobate political class access to the billions in aid that enable it to stay in power. Far from supporting reforms, Western aid has propped up the country’s rulers and freed them from the need to build a functioning state and market economy. Continued aid will only prolong the elite’s hold on power. Assistance that bypasses the government and supports civil society should continue. And all aid could resume once genuine reformers come to power and install a government free of oligarchs and their hirelings.
Second, the West is home to the world’s two biggest offshore tax and secrecy jurisdictions, the United Kingdom and the United States. These and a slew of other tax havens in Western Europe shelter the fortunes of oligarchs and kleptocrats from Ukraine and elsewhere. If the plea-bargain strategy is to work, Ukrainian prosecutors must gain access to information about the oligarchs’ offshore holdings.Ukrainian prosecutors must gain access to information about the oligarchs’ offshore holdings. Western law enforcement agencies can assist their Ukrainian counterparts in this task.
But the first step is for the people of Ukraine to eject their political masters and replace them with competent outsiders and professional technocrats. Without this, none of the other measures we propose can succeed. It won’t happen this year. But Ukrainians are seeing as never before the necessity of replacing rather than just reshuffling their rulers. With the right leaders, a few good policies, and a little help from the West, Ukraine’s interminable reign of rot may yet come to an end."
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