Ukraine’s justice minister has appointed a
23-year-old law graduate, Anna Kalynchuk, to lead a campaign to purge officials tainted by corruption
of the ousted regime. The “lustration” move was a key demand of anti-government
protests in Ukraine that culminated in the then president, Viktor Yanukovych,
fleeing the country in February 2014.
The justice minister, Pavlo Petrenko, said on
Wednesday that Anna Kalynchuk had been appointed director of the lustration
department on merit.
Last week, the interior minister, Arsen Avakov,
appointed a 24-year old woman as his deputy. He was accused of promoting his
protégé, who has posted naked pictures of herself online. The appointments of
young candidates with little experience follow high-profile resignations of
foreign-born reformist politicians earlier this month, including the Odessa
governor, Mikheil Saakashvili, and the police chief, Khatiya Dekanoidze.
“Ukrainian politics looks increasingly like a circus
show in which clowns come to succeed frustrated professionals,” Kiev-based
independent political analyst Vadim Karasyov said Wednesday. “The resignations
of top professionals and new scandalous appointments send a bad message both to
society and western partners who expect from Ukraine quite a different outcome
of the reforms.” Avakov said his appointment had been vetted by several top
Ukrainian officials but presidential adviser Iryna Gerashchenko said that
wasn’t true.
“The nude pictures are not the problem,”
Gerashchenko said. “The appointment of a deputy minister on the integration
with Europe has not been vetted by the deputy prime minister in charge of the
Europe and Atlantic integration.”
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