Brookings Institution: Ukraine fails to realize its potential

22.05.2020, Washington.

Ukraine has lost the potential it had in 1991, said Steven Pifer, a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence at the Brookings Institution, reports the Brookings Institution Press in a review on May 20.

After the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine inherited “an educated work force, some of the best agricultural land on the planet, key industries and proximity to a reforming Central Europe”, said the expert.

“It has failed to realize that potential,” he said.

The country succeeded only in building democratic institutions and holding fair and free elections, admitted Steven Pifer.

He called all efforts to reform the country as “false starts”. This refers to the reforms of President Leonid Kuchma in 1994, the appointment in 2000 of Viktor Yushchenko as Prime Minister, which viewed as a new beginning to the reforms, at the moment. Also, the Orange Revolution had not given anything to the country, said the expert.

Currently, he does not see Zelenskiy, the acting Ukrainian president, becoming a transformational leader.

“Recently, developments have taken a potentially more ominous turn. Dismissed reformers were under investigation. Ryaboshapka, who reportedly lost favor with Zelensky’s team for not prosecuting Poroshenko, now faces criminal proceedings on unspecified charges. Maxim Nefedov, a reformer who was fired as head of the Customs Service in April, faces a pretrial investigation. Serhiy Verlanov, dismissed as head of the Tax Service, had his apartment searched by security officials. And Artem Sytnik, head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, is under attack from other law enforcement agencies,” said Pifer.

Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency

Leave a Reply