Parliament approves Sorkin as NBU chair

Ukraine’s parliament approved on Jan. 11 the president’s nomination of Ihor Sorkin as the new National Bank of Ukraine chair. The ruling Party of Regions mustered 231 votes (five above a majority) after failing to recruit a majority in the previous session to approve Sorkin’s nomination. Opposition leaders alleged the vote was unconstitutional given that many deputies cast votes on behalf of absent MPs, in violation of the Ukrainian Constitution. Sorkin is widely expected by the financial community to continue the course of his predecessor Serhiy Arbuzov, whose resignation was approved by parliament in the same session.

Zenon Zawada: Sorkin’s promotion to NBU chair, after serving as deputy chair, boosts his legitimacy in the Ukrainian government’s upcoming talks with the IMF, which have been preliminary scheduled for Jan. 24. At the same time, it doesn’t improve Ukraine’s prospects for securing an IMF loan, in our view. Sorkin’s nomination process offered the latest evidence that the ruling Party of Regions doesn’t have the same level of strong support it purportedly had when finding 252 votes to approve Mykola Azarov’s renomination as prime minister in December. This signals that many independent MPs are distancing their support for the administration of President Viktor Yanukovych, which is propped upon an increasingly unstable political and economic foundation. Meanwhile, claims of the vote’s unconstitutionality could help the opposition challenge Sorkin’s legitimacy should the IMF talks fail this month.