About corrupt elites and elite corruption

What today’s Ukraine has in common with Napoleon’s France

In his inauguration speech, the fifth President of Ukraine has announced the development of the economy as one of the key priorities during his tenure. He also defined the main problem which stands in the way of this development – corruption, which has destroyed the foundation of social organisation and led Ukraine to a crisis of sovereignty.

Poroshenko’s opinion is not unique – society is united in that the economical development is necessary, and for this it is important to fight corruption (as understood in a broader sense) and carry out reforms. The second person in the country – Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk, – expressed this position quite directly: “It would be catastrophic to continue with an economy which lives on loans, therefore we have to carry out the harshest reforms possible.” 

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High school graduates have shown a shockingly low level of knowledge of the English language at the EIE.

In 2014 the future college applicants failed to show not even a high, but a satisfactory level of knowledge of foreign languages – only 0,11% managed to get a successful score. 

The Office of the Prosecutor General got interested in Yanukovich the writer

The Office of the Prosecutor General is investigating the legitimacy of Viktor Yanukovich’s salaries for his literary activities, report “Literaturna Gazeta.”

This was stated on June 18th by the acting Prosecutor General Oleg Makhnitskiy.

“An investigation is underway in the aspect of the legitimacy of the receipt by the former President Viktor Yanukovich in 2011-2012 of an authorship salary in the sum of 4,5 million dollars from the Donetsk typography ‘Noviy Mir’,” said Makhnitskiy.

As is known, just in 2011 the JSC “Publishing house ‘Noviy Mir’” (city of Donetsk) paid Yanukovich a salary on a sum of 16,4 million UAH for the property rights he had given to the publishing house for his books.

In 2012 Yanukovich received 15 million 551 thousand UAH worth of salary for his book.

Source: Zaxid

Translated by Mariya Shcherbinina

Activists Present Judiciary Reanimation Package of Reforms For Ukraine

Appeal to the Government of Ukraine, by NGO Representatives and Legal Activists: Regarding Restoration of Confidence in the Judicial System

Distrust of Ukrainian courts – the judicial system as a whole and of each judge in particular – is a sensitive topic for everyone in Ukraine. Despite the numerous events that have taken place during recent months, aimed at reforming the judiciary and restoring confidence in the court system, the level of trust continues to be low.  Instead of the promised progress, we are seeing the return of the old methods of control over the judiciary.

State authorities should increase their efforts to convince the public of their intention to guarantee every person in Ukraine the right to a free and fair trial.

There are 1.3 billion USD on Yanukovich’s blocked accounts – Yatseniuk

The State Financial Monitoring Service blocked 1 billion 340 million USD on the accounts of 19 non-resident companies tied to former President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovich and his associates. This was stated at the Cabinet of Ministers session by Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk.

The Prime Minister sated that the arrest of these funds was approved in court.

“The vast majority of these fund were directed through offshore companies to buy state loan obligations for Ukraine, and Ukraine paid 19% annual revenue in addition to the stolen funds,” stated Yatseniuk.

On orders of the government, the police and court institutions are to return the arrested funds to the state budget, added Yatseniuk.

The State Financial Monitoring Service earlier discovered 42 non-resident companies tied to former President Viktor Yanukovich and his associates.

Source: Radio Svoboda

Translated by Mariya Shcherbinina

The unsinkable member of the “Ozero” cooperative

The head of the Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin will remain on his post for three more years. 

The head of the JSC “Russian Railways” Vladimir Yakunin will remain on his post for three more years. The term of Yakunin’s contract has run out earlier, however, according to mass media, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev intends to extend it. Vladimir Yakunin’s figure has been recently under a lot of discussion by the press thanks to the anti-corruption investigations by opposition activists. The most well-know are “The Winter Olympics in the Sub-Tropics” by Boris Nemtsov and Leonid Martyniuk and the investigation of Alexey Navalniy’s Anti-Corruption Fund, which directly deal with Yakunin’s revenues and property. 

“Closeness to the Kremlin is a source of wealth.”

The hard luck of the book about Vladimir Putin’s regime: the university publishing house fears plaints on part of the Russian government. 

The Cambridge University publishing house refused to publish the book of its long-term author Karen Dawisha called “Putin’s Kleptocracy: Whom Does Russia Belong To?” The publishers do not doubt the reliability of the investigator, however they fear possible court plaints on part of the Russian government. 

Monica Macovei: The EU has to be harsher in its sanctions against Russia

Member of the EU Parliament Monica Macovei called to enforce the sanctions of the European Union against Russia because of Moscow’s support of pro-Russian separatists in the east of Ukraine, and also called the EU to confidently get rid of fuel dependence on Moscow. Monica Macovei who held the post of Minister of Justice in the Romanian government before the country joined the EU in 2007, says that the period of meeting the demands to join the EU and the NATO is the best for eliminating corruption in post-communist states. 

The “honest” rating: TOP-20 officials that do not live on what they make

Transparency International has calculated who out of the officials in 2013 spent more than they have earned. We have outlined the most generous ones. Three are still working. 

On June 6th on the website of the Ministry of Justice, a bill “Regarding corruption prevention” has been uploaded for social discussion. The document presumes the emergence of yet another anti-corruption institution – the National Committee for the Prevention of Corruption. One of the functions of the future committee is controlling the governors’ expenses. This might become an effective instrument to counter corruption.

On June 10th at the roundtable talks “How to organise effective control of welfare” the representatives of the Ministry of Justice and the international organisation Transparency International presented a rating of Ukrainian officials whose expenses are several times larger than their officially declared salaries. When calculating the expenses, they accounted for the movable and immovable assets belonging to the officials, expenses for the purchase of personal items, education and provision for members of their families, hobbies, travel and leisure, formal events and so forth. The revenue was taken from annual declarations. Overall, more than 400 high-standing officials were analysed, there are 69 finalists who have spent an indecently large sum.

The Western Choice of the Russian Government

Aisen Tacho, April 25th 2014

It was noticed a while ago that the children of our patriotic governors live and study in the West. Parents send their children to live in the West, buy property there, send money there, and even have dual citizenship… All this happens for one simple reason: they despise Russia, her people, and they have long since given up on the country they rule. The list of Russian governor`s children who live practically permanently in the West is huge, and I will give just a few examples.

AT THE BEGINNING

I will briefly list the family members of Russian governmental officials and the places where they live.

1. President V. Putin’s family

Very little is known about the President`s family, considering their private lifestyle. He was married, then divorced. In the early 90s, Putin returned to Leningrad [St. Peterburg] and sent his daughters back to Germany to study in the prestigious German gymnasium Peterschule. They came back to Russia in the mid-90s, and moved to Moscow in 1996. But even here his daughters did not leave the German path. Their German School of Moscow is now situated in Embassy City on Vernadskiy Prospect, ringed by a fence and video cameras, with the inscription “Achtung!” everywhere. In the early 2000s, both of Putin’s daughters were officially registered as students of St.Petersburg State University, but no one ever saw them there. It is known that youngest daughter Yekaterina lives permanently in Munich, Germany. In 2013, Yekaterina Putina reportedly married Yoon Joon-won (a Korean).

Wedding of Katerina Putina and Yoon Joon-won Source: http://v-n-zb.livejournal.com/7084365.html

According to some sources the wedding ceremony was held in a Morocco hotel, and was grand in scope. Older daughter Mariya lives in the Netherlands, in the city of Voorschoten, which is close to The Hague. She does not live alone, but with 33-year-old Dutchman Joritte Faassen. The couple lives in the Krimwijk Heet area. Mariya Putina lives in a luxury building, where she occupies the penthouse on the top floor. Both of Putin’s daughters often in Italy at the invitation of Silvio Berlusconi, Putin’s family friend. More about Putin’s family: http://echo.msk.ru/blog/expertmus/1197344-echo/

2. The Family of Premier-Minister Dmitry Medvedev