Better Regulation or Blatant Corruption? Zelenskyy on Thin Ice

Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump made headlines when he boldly asserted that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was not a democratic leader, but rather an authoritarian dictator. While his claims are certainly still questionable, the Ukrainian leader might be giving them credence. Earlier this year, Zelenskyy had approved a bill to place multiple Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies under his control. The legislation, signed on July 22 of this year, would strip autonomy from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), Ukraine’s two largest anti-corruption agencies. However, this action didn’t last long. Ukrainians, enraged at their president’s perceived corruption, took to the streets in protest, and on August 1, Ukraine’s parliament approved a law repealing the recent changes. This law will soon go into effect, and Ukraine’s anti-corruption measures will remain the same. 

This, however, is not the first time Ukraine has experienced a corruption crisis. Ukraine has been facing a judicial crisis, and on October 27, 2024, Ukraine’s Constitutional Court ruled the powers of the National Agency for Preventing Corruption (NAPC) to be unconstitutional. The court would use this ruling to deconstruct Ukraine’s asset declaration system: the system by which Ukrainian officials had to disclose their earnings and assets to the public. Even worse, the court removed virtually all penalties for lying in asset declarations. Asset declaration had been a massive step forward in Ukraine’s anti-corruption push, and the court had set them back quite a bit with these efforts. With growing concerns mounting from international conservative leader regarding Ukraine’s martial law extensions, Zelenskyy is already on thin ice. It’s unclear whether the passage of reversals will be enough to satisfy the Ukrainian people and the international community, but one thing is clear: Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the entire nation of Ukraine have work to do going forward. 

Extemp Analysis by: Ty Tan

Question: Will Zelenskyy’s authoritarian tendencies lead to another Euromaidan in Ukraine?

AGD: For this, I think there are two options

1. Strong Historical/Protest Narrative / Story, where you describe statements made by people or delve into fears of corruption like the past

2. A joke about Zelenskyy and how he’s falling into bad habits of corruption or smth

Background:

For your background, there’s a few key things you need to define here and develop. To develop this context I would go:

1. Context of former protests vs corruption (ie Euromaidan revolution)

2. Zelenskyy during Ukraine Civil War — mandate of control

3. New actions = authoritarian (ie trying to take control of anti-corruption institutions) → possible new revolution

Depending on how you set up your background, your answer could go either way

Answer: No (I think personally you could answer both ways, as current events point toward Yes, making it easier to address burdens even if it may not be the most factually true)

1. History of Democratic Resillience

2. Reversal Concessions

3. Protect the War Effort

Analysis + Concluding Thoughts

On this answer, I want to expand particularly on the third point. The first two are a bit more straightforward with how they explain Ukraine’s democracy in resilient (point 1) or that Zelenskyy is already making concessions in the face of protests, rather than pushing forward reform (point 2). However, Point 3 could be truly nuanced. In particular, it could focus on how mass movements usually destabilize politics and governance. Since defending Ukranian sovereignty is so important, any action that destabilizes the government would destabilize the war effort and signficiantly hurt the fight against Russia. So, the war itself tampers the appetite for a Euromaidan style revolution in Ukraine from erupting again, or risk allowing Ukraine to become engulfed by Russia, rather than the flames of revolution. 

Those are my ideas, I hope you try this question and take it the way you best see fit. Happy extemping!

Read More Here: 

• Emily Channel-Justice, Harvard Research Institute

• Joanna Kakissis, NPR

• Shaun Walker, The Guardian