Ukraine’s parliament has taken on the oligarchs.
On Thursday — barely 24 hours after a failed assassination attempt on President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s top aide — 279 out of 450 members of the Kyiv parliament passed a bill that not only defines the term “oligarch,” but also decides who gets to have that label. The bill must be signed into law by Zelenskiy.
Henceforth, the National Defense and Security Council will have the power to ban oligarchs from financing political parties and participating in privatization, Bloomberg reported. The council will be looking at four criteria: an individual’s participation in public life, their influence over mass media, ownership or control of a monopoly, and assets exceeding 2.4 billion hryvnia (€74 million).
Zelenskiy said the changes were needed to protect the country from powerful businessmen who have corrupted Ukraine for decades, according to Reuters. Zelensky’s office also suggested the attempted hit on the president’s aide was an effort by the law’s opponents to derail the legislation.
Opposition lawmakers, such as Oleksiy Goncharenko, have panned the new rules as “creating huge scope for corruption” as they could be applied selectively to weaken political opponents. Indeed, the law could hurt one of Zelenskiy’s main political rivals, former President Petro Poroshenko, who owns TV channels and a confectionery empire.
Top-level officials, even the president and the head of the central bank, will now have to disclose any dealings they have with oligarchs.