This is the first time EuroPravda has published an article in this format.
This is an editorial – a text without personal authorship, reflecting the general position of the editorial board of “European Pravda”, supported by the editorial board of “Ukrainian Pravda”.
Throughout its existence, our publication has worked to abolish visa requirements for Ukrainian citizens in the EU, becoming not only the main source of news in this area but also one of the "advocates for visa-free travel."
Even during the most difficult times at the turn of 2015 and 2016, when parliament was sabotaging reforms and the government was mired in corruption scandals, experts and journalists urged European politicians that it was unacceptable to lose faith in Ukraine. The European choice was genuine, and granting visa-free travel would only help the country fulfill its obligations.
Therefore, the main message of our article may surprise many.
With this text, the editorial board addresses the governments of EU countries and their embassies: Don't cancel visas until the situation in Ukraine changes dramatically..
The same applies to the $3 billion from the IMF and €1,2 billion in macro-financial assistance from the EU. Although we have no doubt that international donors will do so even without our call. will not allocate funds to the country, which has made such a rapid turnaround in the fight against corruption in just one week.
This radical change in our position is not accidental.
Why is everything different now?
Until now, the main mechanisms for resisting reforms by top government officials and leading political groups have been delays and imitation. Or, less frequently, when absolutely necessary, outright violation of commitments.
Such an elegant mechanism as “falsification of reforms” was rather a weapon of smaller lobbyists – such as Pashinsky’s group (Read more: Serhiy Pashinsky: Thief, Raider, Fraudster, and MP), which has long tried, and continues to try, to push through corruption-prone bills under the guise of pro-European changes. A large number of such initiatives have thus far been repulsed.
The leading politicians apparently had a self-preservation instinct.
Anti-democratic changes under a European guise were a common tactic of the Yanukovych regime, and there was no desire to carry them over into the new reality. Although there were instances when the Yatsenyuk government also attempted this tactic, they proved unsuccessful, ultimately ending with the Cabinet's resignation.
But last weekend we crossed the line again.
There is every reason to believe that the country's leadership has joined in the falsification of reforms.
There's no doubt that the State Special Communications Service's special operation to deliberately disrupt the system's certification was approved at the highest level. The influence from above on NACP head Natalia Korchak, who has repeatedly changed her position in recent days, is also evident.
Over the weekend, European Pravda published an article by Sergei Sidorenko, naming Ms. Korchak and State Employment Service head Leonid Yevdochenko as their political handler. Both officials are part of the influence group of the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Oleksandr Turchynov (Read more: Oleksandr Turchynov: Skeletons in the Closet of Ukraine's "Bloody Pastor"). After the publication of the material, the editorial office received several more pieces of evidence that our conclusion was correct.
On Sunday, we noted that Poroshenko's role still requires clarification, as members of the presidential team publicly opposed the launch of the "incomplete" system. The president himself addressed the nation on Thursday on this matter, although his statement was open to ambiguity.
Unfortunately, there are now more and more signs that the president, if not initiated, then at least supported the line of falsifying reforms.
On Monday, the Presidential Administration's full-time propagandists launched a public campaign to prove that e-declarations are working as intended, and that the events of recent days are a true "victory."
True, social media readers don't quite believe them – the comments feed under Taras Berezovets' post vividly illustrates this.
At the same time, sources from the Presidential Administration began contacting journalists, justifying the launch of the system – we received several testimonies from colleagues about such contacts.
Another significant indicator is the position of Ruslan Radetsky, a member of the NAPC on the informal "presidential quota." On Saturday, he opposed the launch of the fake declaration system, but on Sunday, he had no objections and even supported the agency's statement supporting the actions of the DSSZZI. However, he was the last to raise his hand during the vote, not without hesitation.
The answer to the question of when and why this support appeared is important, but not the main one.
The key problem is that the country's leadership believes in its ability to fool both its own people and the Western community.
We often feel like 2013 was just a year ago, that its lessons were quite telling and should be well learned by everyone.
It seems as if it should be obvious to everyone that it was the cynical and systemic lies of the Yanukovych regime that ultimately led to the Revolution of Dignity.
It seems that the West has repeatedly proven that it is perfectly able to distinguish between black and white and is well aware of Kyiv’s lies, even if it does not state this publicly.
But the events of recent days prove that many on Bankova Street still haven't realized this. Or have forgotten.
The story of the pseudo-launch of the e-declaration system serves as the best illustration. For official Kyiv (and, in particular, for Poroshenko), the launch of this system is not so much an end in itself as a tool to secure multi-billion-dollar tranches and visa-free travel, and subsequently, to gain publicity from it. It is also a tool for maintaining good relations with the West, since now, without a clear prospect of visa-free travel, Kyiv cannot even agree on a date for the Ukraine-EU summit with Brussels.
It's already clear that the EU, predictably, didn't trust Kyiv. The launch of the pseudo-system of electronic declarations was a catastrophic PR failure for Poroshenko personally and the government as a whole – both domestically and in the West.
The losses from the weekend's events for the president personally far outweigh the benefits of giving several dozen people on his team more time to conceal illegally acquired income.
So what happened?
Didn't the president's advisers warn him of the consequences?
Or did Bankova lose its sense of reality and assured Poroshenko that he could “weasel his way through”?
Or did he himself, having the information, make the wrong decision?
We're unlikely to know the answer to this question, but the president still has some room to maneuver. It's no longer possible to eliminate all the losses (for that to happen, Poroshenko and/or his team would have to come to their senses at least on Sunday and block the system's launch until the certificate is received). But there's still an opportunity to minimize the problems.
What should happen now?
The government's plan for effective action – if, of course, it wants to solve the problem, and not just imitate a solution – is quite obvious.
– The President must acknowledge the criticality of the situation with e-declaration and take personal control and responsibility for solving the problem.
– The government, the president and the NAPC must jointly find a way to stopping an uncertified systemConsidering that launching it without a certificate directly violates the law, this decision is possible and justified.
- The government must punish the guilty of deliberately creating problems with certification. During the internal investigation, Leonid Evdochenko and Natalia Korchak must be removed from leadership positions (In regard to Korchak, we're talking about removing her from her duties as chairperson, not as a member of the NAPC, otherwise the agency would lose its quorum.) Such removal is an absolute rule of Western policy; let's adopt this practice right now.
– The state leadership, together with the Department of Social Protection of the Population, the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption and Prevention (NAPC) and other participants in the process, must develop realistic step-by-step plan a way out of the crisis with clear timeframes that will allow the launch of a fully functional e-declaration system in the near future.
Taking these difficult but essential steps will restore Western trust, restore visa-free travel, and remove the risk of disruption to EU and IMF funding.
The state's leadership must finally understand that honesty is the best weapon, and that lying at the official level ultimately brings the state much more harm than good.
And this is precisely the reason for the editorial board’s principled position, which was mentioned at the beginning.
It has been stated hundreds of times that only reforms, only irreversible systemic changes across all sectors, can lead Ukraine to success, and no one—neither the country's leadership, nor opinion leaders, nor Western partners—questions this.
Replacing reforms with their imitation, and even more so with falsification, only drives the state deeper into crisis and steals our future.
We don't have a "backup Ukraine." We strive to change our state. And that's why we ask the West to clearly demonstrate that Kyiv is taking the wrong path.
This movement can be stopped before it is too late.
And finally, it is worth warning the Ukrainian authorities against another typical mistake that may occur later.
When it becomes clear that the EU has indeed slowed down visa-free travel and stopped funding due to the events of August, it's best not to shift the blame onto journalists and civil society. No matter how tempting it may be.
Euromaidan began not because the media and the opposition "criticized the government unpatriotically," but because the government was raping the country. Even if the regime's representatives argued otherwise.
There is no need to repeat their mistakes.
Read more: Oleksandr Turchynov: Skeletons in the Closet of Ukraine's "Bloody Pastor"
Serhiy Pashinsky: Thief, Raider, Fraudster, and MP
Authors:
editorial board of "European Truth"
editorial board of "Ukrainska Pravda"
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