Zelensky administration employs more Yanukovych-era officials

The Zelensky administration has appointed more
officials of the administration of former President Yanukovych to high-ranking
government posts, despite the lustration law forbidding their return to office
until 2024, according to the Jan. 30 broadcast of the Skhemy television news
program. These officials include Serhiy Kamyshev, who was appointed in December
as Ukrainian ambassador to China, and Inna Yemelianova, who was appointed as
the deputy head of a working group on developing legislation on organizing the
judiciary and implementing justice. On Jan. 20, State Bureau of Investigations
Acting Director Iryna Venediktova appointed as one of her deputies Oleksandr
Babikov, who served as a defense attorney at several court hearings for former
President Yanukovych related to EuroMaidan crimes. Appeals against Babikov’s
appointment have been filed.

Zenon Zawada: Faced with
a lack of experienced officials (partly owing to its wholesale removal of
Poroshenko-era officials), the Zelensky administration has resorted to
recruiting Yanukovych-era officials since its very first months.
It’s natural that among them are those officials that President’s Office Head
Andriy Bohdan has a positive personal experience in working with. And many of
these officials also served in the Poroshenko administration (like Ruslan Demchenko and
Volodymyr Yelchenko, Ukraine’s recently appointed ambassador to the U.S.).
These personnel decisions reflect the Zelensky administration’s overall lack of
consistency in policy and strategy, largely resorting to pragmatic decisions
aimed at short-term gains. Though recruiting Yanukovych-era officials won’t
offend southeastern Ukrainians (the president’s core electorate), other recent policies do, further
reflecting this inconsistency.

In this strictly pragmatic (and largely
inconsistent) approach to politics, the Zelensky administration is not only
abandoning any lustration requirements. It has also decided to avoid seriously
dealing with any of the messes that prior administrations failed to address. It
won’t be prosecuting any of the big unresolved crimes, including the EuroMaidan
murders, the murder of journalist Pavel Sheremet, the corruption of
Yanukovych-era officials and the alleged state treason by various high-ranking
officials. In this spirit, we can also expect a pragmatic approach to resolve
the war in Donbas.