The Impeachment Saga Is Over, But Zelenskiy Can’t Rest in Ukraine
The Impeachment Saga Is Over But Zelenskiy Can’t Rest in Ukraine
(Bloomberg) -- It seemed Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy could breathe a sigh of relief as Donald Trump’s impeachment ended with his acquittal by the Senate.
A phone call between the two presidents over military aid had handed Zelenskiy a starring role in the saga. But the political novice -- until last year his homeland’s most famous TV comic -- navigated the storm deftly by largely keeping quiet.
The calm that followed lasted just a month.
On the domestic front, a cabinet revamp irked voters and sent foreign investors already spooked by the coronavrius dashing for the exits. In the U.S., the Super Tuesday comeback by Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden trained the Republicans’ spotlight back on the former vice president’s dealings with Ukraine.
“The reshuffle was negative for the investment community as it threatens cooperation with the International Monetary Fund, but it also disappointed liberal voters seeking reforms,” said Oleksandr Parashchiy, head of research at investment firm Concorde Capital in Kyiv. “And now there’s the risk the Trump or Biden camps try to pressure Zelenskiy to back their own political interests. The president should stick to his neutral position to avoid serious damage.”
In Kyiv, Zelenskiy is defending government changes that swept away young newcomers picked to clean up Ukraine’s notoriously murky post-Soviet politics -- a major departure from an election campaign that emphasized injecting new blood.
The replacements are experienced hands, hired to reinvigorate a slowing economy and secure a long-delayed $5.5 billion loan from the IMF.
The problem is that, in one of Europe’s most corrupt nations, previous administrations are tainted by accusations of malfeasance. One new mininster even worked briefly under Viktor Yanukovych, the ousted leader who was backed by the Kremlin and represents everything Zelenskiy was elected to end.
Zelenskiy, who took office last May, says his personnel changes have been misconstrued and have only one aim -- to get things done more quickly.
“We needed to react to the cabinet’s effectiveness,” Zelenskiy said in an interview late Friday in his office. “When you’re making such deep changes in the country, you can’t fail. It’s not about your personal ratings, it’s not that you can be kicked from power, it’s that Ukraine may not ever have a chance again to do this.”
Convincing people of the merits of the shakeup will be tricky.
There’s concern about the departures of respected ministers and a prosecutor general backed by Western donors and local activists. Some fear the new arrivals will boost the sway Ukraine’s billionaires have long reveled in, with incoming Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal a former manager at an energy company owned by Rinat Akhmetov, the country’s richest man.
Zelenskiy, who’s repeatedly rejected anything untoward in his ties to controversial tycoon Igor Kolomoisky, denies oligarchs have influence over his government.
“They own 70%-80% of assets in this country,” he said. “Every manager in Ukraine worked for one of them or is somehow linked to one of them. And they hire the best -- we should understand that.”
The backlash at the reshuffle hasn’t gone unnoticed, however.
Zelenskiy’s new team immediately re-committed to the planned IMF program, with Shmyhal and his finance minister to visit Washington in the coming weeks.
But it’s in the American capital that further unpleasantness could yet unfold. With Biden now the front-runner to challenge Trump for the presidency, Republicans are poring over every detail of his time in post-revolution Ukraine, as well as work there by his son, Hunter.
That risks dragging Zelenskiy back into the hyper-partisan world of U.S. politics just as his focus turns to domestic priorities like ending the Kremlin-backed war in his nation’s east and pushing through crucial land-reform legislation. It could also clog up his new chief prosecutor’s agenda.
Zelenskiy’s chances of staying out of the fray look slim: even Mitt Romney, the only Republican senator who voted to convict Trump earlier this year, on Friday backed a probe into the company where Hunter worked.
To contact the reporters on this story: Volodymyr Verbyany in Kiev at vverbyany1@bloomberg.net;Daryna Krasnolutska in Kyiv at dkrasnolutsk@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, Andrew Langley, Balazs Penz
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