Poroshenko appoints Rasmussen as non-staff advisor

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced on May 27 that he appointed as a non-staff advisor Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who served as NATO secretary general between 2009 and 2014.

“As an advisor to the president, my goal is to ensure bilateral cooperation,” Rasmussen told the Reuters news agency in an interview published on May 29. “On the one hand, I will convince European leaders that Ukrainians have already conducted serious reforms. On the other hand, I will inform the president what my colleagues are telling me so that the Ukrainian government clearly understands what the priorities are in Western capitals.”

In the future, it will be easier for Ukraine to convince EU member-states to extend sanctions against Russia if it demonstrates progress in conducting reforms and combatting corruption, Rasmussen said. It’s not fair to say that Ukraine is “falling behind,” he said. Under Poroshenko’s leadership, Ukraine has conducted more reforms than in the prior 20 years, but the process is supposed to continue to extend Western support, he said.

Zenon Zawada: Rasmussen is the second high-profile Westerner to advise top Ukrainian officials, after Polish economic legend Leszek Balczerowicz became an official adviser to president in April, as well as his official representative to the Cabinet of Ministers. All this inspires hope for reform, but the looming question is whether the will is present among the president and the new Cabinet to blaze the trail further for reforms.

As we’ve stated, we believe the will is there to do the bare minimum to satisfy Ukraine’s Western overseers. But even that is called into question sometimes as the IMF mission left Kyiv earlier this month unimpressed with reform efforts. We view it possible for some EU member-states to begin adopting a policy of dropping the sanctions against Russia by the year end.