Ukraine top officials accuse each other of corruption

Top state officials engaged in a scandalous conflict at a Dec. 14 meeting of the president’s National Reforms Council. Odesa Regional Administration Head Mikheil Saakashvili presented a report in which he accused top state officials of corruption, drawing accusations afterwards from Internal Affairs Minister Arsen Avakov that he too indulges in corruption, as reported by Petro Poroshenko Bloc MP Serhiy Leshchenko on his Facebook page. In his turn, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk labeled Saakashvili a traveling showman and advised him “to get out of Ukraine.” Saakashvili, recently deprived of his native Georgian citizenship, responded that he’s a Ukrainian citizen and unlike Yatsenyuk, hasn’t stolen from the country. During the conflict, Avakov reportedly spilled water from a glass on Saakashvili. Poroshenko witnessed the conflict and tried to calm the warring sides before closing the meeting pre-emptively, Leshchenko reported.

Zenon Zawada: This is the latest embarrassing conflict after the brawl in parliament on Dec. 11, when an MP demonstratively tried to remove Yatsenyuk from the parliamentary tribune after his campaign to hold a no-confidence vote was rejected. The rival between the teams of the president and prime minister have been apparent throughout the year and spill over every few months. Besides the threat to stability and reform efforts, this rivalry could lead to early parliamentary elections in 2016. We believe the West could back a new political party for these elections after the failures to reform by the oligarch-sponsored parties.