Corruption in Ukraine: Drifting Offshore

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is facing a crisis of confidence after his name appeared in the Panama Papers leak and the country's prime minister, with whom he clashed, stepped down. Poroshenko rose to power on an anti-corruption platform following the 2014 Euromaidan revolution, but many of his supporters are disappointed in the slow pace of reforms and an apparent unwillingness to crack down on corrupt officials. A confectionery magnate before becoming a politician, Poroshenko promised to sell his candy business during his election campaign to avoid a conflict of interest. But he has yet to do so, and this failure became headline news when the Panama Papers indicated that he had set up an offshore holding company to shield his assets from taxation. VICE News correspondent Simon Ostrovsky went to Kiev to witness the embattled president push through a new fragile government, as allegations swirled around his offshore holdings.

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Politically Exposed Persons: new public database will help financial institutions all over the world to identify high-risk clients from Ukraine

Ukrainian activists has announced the launch of publicly available Register of Politically Exposed Persons – pep.org.ua, an exclusive public online database designed to help to withstand money laundering from state Ukrainian budget through international banks. Register will help international financial institutions to understand whether their current and potential clients from Ukraine are so called politically exposed persons (PEPs) or their close associates whose transactions should be checked with an enhanced due diligence according to Financial Action Task Force Anti-Money Laundering recommendations. Register is a tool developed by the Anti-corruption Action Centre – NGO which carries out anticorruption investigations of abuses on tender procurement procedures and money laundering schemes of Ukrainian officials. It already contains over 10 000 of records of individuals and and 2,500 of legal entities, among with 2409 – of state Ukrainian enterprises and 172 – private ...

A $250 000 bribe and 40 court hearings

A case against Serhiy Golovatiy in February 2016 became one of the two that were mentioned by the President Petro Poroshenko in his letters to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, Prosecutor General’s Office and the Cabinet of Ministers calling to actively engage against corruption. Since April 2016 – the case has been in Podil District Court of Kyiv city. Since then there have been around 40 hearings. On the one hand, compared to other cases – this one shows good dynamics. On the other hand – taking into account how creative the defense is in dragging the process, it will take long to come to an end. In Spring of this year the court finished researching the evidence provided by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. In particular, the court was provided with videos showing how former Head of the Unit of State Expertise of Dual-Use Goods of the Department for State Expertise of the State Service of Exports...

Russia’s Nationalists: Putin’s Critical Children

Russia is seeing a potential challenge emerging to Putinism, but it is coming from the unlikeliest of places: instead of pro-Western liberals, it is the nationalists, ones whom the Kremlin tried, but failed, to court, who are offering an alternative political vision. To a large extent, this is Vladimir Putin’s own fault. He has created a toxic and dangerous dichotomy in emerging Russian politics, one that has been thrown into sharp relief by the renewed drive for the creation of a nationalist opposition movement. Any wellsprings of genuine liberalism as understood in the West have been systematically poisoned or dammed by the Kremlin. Meanwhile, the dominant domestic model of economically liberal politics is championed by kleptocrats who are invested in better relations with the West but, for all their talk of rule of law at home, want to retain their freedom to steal. Much as the West may approve of such figures as former finance minister Alexei Kudrin, former prime minister Mi...

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