Judges withdraw from Constitutional Court activity owing to media leak

At least three judges of the Constitutional Court –
who voted against the scandalous Oct. 27 ruling disrupting the anti-corruption
infrastructure – announced they will temporarily withdraw themselves from the
court’s work owing to a drafts of its ruling being leaked to the mass media,
the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported on Nov. 5, citing an anonymous source
in the court. Until the normalization of the situation involving the court by
legitimate means, the judges “view as impossible the review of certain issues
of constitutional hearings and temporarily won’t participate in the court’s
meetings,” the report said.

The media leak refers to the decision of Judge Serhiy
Sas to make public on Nov. 4 the draft of a court ruling interpreting articles
13 and 14 of the Constitution on land ownership. The official interpretation
ensures “the return of land reform to the constitutional channel and won’t allow
for depriving Ukrainians of their national wealth, the creation of large
landowners and land banks, and also won’t allow depriving Ukrainian citizens of
their private property rights to land,” Sas said, as reported by the dt.ua news
site on Nov. 4.

The court also believes that the articles deem
Ukrainian citizens to be the exclusive subjects of private property rights to
land, prohibiting ownership by individuals without citizenship, as well as by
international organizations, foreign legal entities and Ukrainian legal
entities formed by foreigners. Any decision on the ownership of land must be
conducted by the Ukrainian public by means of referendum, according to the
Constitution, the draft ruling said.

The court’s draft ruling to interpret articles 13 and
14 will lead to the destruction of Ukraine’s agrarian sector and economy, said
a statement released by the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council on Nov. 5. The
court’s course undermines the foundations of statehood, leads to a divide of
society, allows for the rule of corruption, the statement said. It destroys
mid-sized farmers and industrial agriculture, prohibiting them from acquiring
and controlling farmland. “This will return the village not even to the times
of the U.S.S.R., but the 19th century. To times when everyone, except for a
small elite, lived in poverty,” the statement said.

A complaint was filed with the Constitutional Court in
May against the launch of the farmland market by 48 MPs, very similar to the
group that attained the scandalous Oct. 27 ruling on Ukraine’s anti-corruption
infrastructure. They consist of MPs of the pro-Putin Opposition Platform For
Life party, and those loyal to billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky, who is hostile to
the IMF.

Zenon Zawada: The draft
ruling is yet another assault against Ukraine’s Western-backed institutions by
Kremlin-backed forces. Its leak was intended to thrust the issue into the daily
political discourse and muster the support of the public, the vast majority of
which was opposed to the creation of the farmland market. By returning the
market back to the daily discourse, the Kremlin seeks to earn the support of
the increasing number of Ukrainians who are frustrated with pro-Western reforms
and institutions, which haven’t brought any tangible improvement to their
lives. It is offering them more reasons to support capitulation to Russia,
should that moment arrive.

A silver lining to this cloud is that the
Constitutional Court is likely to suspend its activity for as long as the
judges remain on temporary leave. That way, it can’t do any more damage to
Ukraine’s Western-backed institutions. But if it stays dormant for too long,
the court’s lack of functioning will merely be a contributing factor to the
chaos in Ukraine, as it won’t be producing needed, positive rulings as well. In
Russia’s hybrid war on Ukrainian statehood, the assaults on the Constitutional
Court have been especially effective. And the Zelensky administration put up no
defense.