Pompeo urges Poroshenko to fulfill IMF loan requirements

Ukrainian President Poroshenko held a telephone
conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo on Aug. 7, during which
Pompeo urged Poroshenko to fulfill the remaining requirements to secure an IMF
loan tranche, reports said. The last major requirement involves bringing
Ukrainian household natural gas prices in line with import parity levels, which
will cause them to surge. They also discussed strategic partnership in security
and defense issues.

“The sides stressed that political sanctions against
Russia will remain in place until the sovereignty and territorial integrity of
Ukraine is renewed, including Crimea,” the Ukrainian presidential
administration press service said. “Attempts by the Russian side to exacerbate
the situation will continue to receive an adequate response and raises the cost
of the ongoing aggression.”

The same day, Poroshenko ordered the National Security
and Defense Council to prepare to counteract Russian interference in the
Ukrainian presidential election campaign. He said on Twitter that he reached an
agreement with EU and U.S. leaders “to tightly coordinate their efforts and
cooperate on all levels” to counteract “hybrid challenges.” “Without a doubt,
the Kremlin will try to interfere in the elections in Ukraine, but this time we
will be ready to counteract interference of any character, regardless of
whether it’s a disinformation campaign or cyberattacks.”

Zenon Zawada: Besides the critical IMF loan tranche, at the top of the agenda of
this discussion was preserving stability ahead of the presidential elections
scheduled for March 2018 and preventing Russia from destabilizing them. It’s
positive to see Western diplomats aware of the potential dangers and taking
steps to prevent them. Nonetheless, Poroshenko’s record of pressuring NGO
leaders and political rivals, and failing to provide adequate security for
activists and journalists, shows that he could resort to unfair and
undemocratic tactics to secure his victory, which may ignite a public revolt.
It’s our expectation that Western politicians will be pressuring Poroshenko to
keep the elections as free and fair as possible, which is the best guarantee of
stability.