President Yanukovych to replace central bank chief Stelmakh

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych requested the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, dismiss the head of the National Bank of Ukraine, Volodymyr Stelmakh yesterday, according to a notice posted on the president’s website. Yanukovych has nominated Serhiy Arbuzov to replace Stelmakh; Arbuzov was appointed to the central bank in September and is currently the first deputy head of the institution. Stelmakh has held the office since 2005. According to Bloomberg, Arbuzov was head of Ukrainian Biznes Bank, based in Yanukovych’s hometown of Donetsk, before he went to the NBU. In separate announcements, Yanukovych dismissed the heads of the administrations in the Western Ukrainian regions of Lviv and Ternopil, Vasyl Horbal and Mikhail Tsimbalyuk, respectively. Horbal was one of the shareholders of Ukrgazbank, which was nationalized in 2009.