17 September 2014
Ukraine’s parliament voted on Sept. 16 approve the nation’s first lustration law, which forbids former members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and those determined to have persecuted the EuroMaidan from holding high state office. Prior to the vote, nationalists burned tires outside the parliament building as a signal of what to expect should the legislation fail. Although the lustration law gained 231 votes (out of a needed 226), parliament failed to muster enough votes to approve anti-corruption legislation, which would have established a permanent anti-corruption bureau.
Zenon Zawada: The lustration law is equally historic in our view as the day’s other legislation because it marks the first legislative attempt to remove Russian agents from the Ukrainian government, who have acted to undermine Ukrainian statehood. That it took 23 years since independence to approve such legislation is quite unfortunate and reflective of the difficult position Ukraine finds itself currently. Regarding the anti-corruption legislation, even anti-corruption leaders such as Tetiana Chornovol criticized it as inadequate, giving pro-EU MPs the pretext to reject it. Yet such criticism can’t also serve as a pretense to avoid pursuing better legislation in a timely manner.