Have we woken up in a police state today?

Ihor Zhdanov, Open Policy Foundation, Minister of Youth and Sports of Ukraine (2014-2019)

The adoption of yesterday's law is not just a restriction on the independence of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO). The matter is much more serious.

In fact, it is a deliberate policy of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to establish full control over anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies. Today, the "presidential power pool" already includes the Prosecutor General's Office, the State Bureau of Investigation, the Security Service of Ukraine, and the National Police. NABU, SAPO, and Bureau of Economic Security (BES) with no director appointed yet are on the way.

In other words, all the country's security forces are already under the control of the head of state, who is also the Supreme Commander-in-Chief under martial law. 

Don't you think, gentlemen, that we have already woken up in a police state? 

I don't think it's necessary to explain how this threatens Ukraine, civil society, opposition figures and civic activists. Just ask Shabunin or Poroshenko, who are political opponents of each other.

The external consequences are no less significant. 

It is unlikely that the "anti-corruption" crisis will lead to a complete halt in the supply of European weapons or financial aid, although this will be a constant topic of discussion at various high-level meetings, recovery conferences, and God forbid Ramstein.

It is clear that yesterday's move by the Ukrainian government will greatly complicate the official start of negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the European Union (in the worst case, it will simply block them) and provide additional arguments to Ukraine's opponents, such as Hungary.

As for the US position, under President Trump, the United States is steadily drifting away from a values-based approach and toward the dollarization of its foreign policy. Recently, it has been reported that American ambassadors are now prohibited from commenting on the level of democracy in their host country's elections. This is a telling moment. 

But there are enough politicians and voters among Trump's supporters who openly oppose arms supplies to Ukraine, citing the high level of corruption in our country. So why give this group additional trump cards and question the supply of American weapons and military equipment?

What can be done?

Yesterday we could have gotten out of this situation relatively painlessly. Volodymyr Zelensky could have vetoed the law or put it in a distant drawer. But today this is no longer possible.

Theoretically, the Verkhovna Rada can repeal the law adopted yesterday. But this is only theoretically. I am convinced that the majority of deputies who voted for the infamous bill yesterday have hardly ever heard the phrase “political responsibility” or “national interests” in their lives.

Now the people’s deputies are collecting signatures to send the law to the Constitutional Court. The path is quite long (we are not talking about months, but about years) and it is not a fact that it will end with the victory of supporters of effective and independent NABU and SAPO. Quite a lot of underwater political currents and legal shoals await it on this road.

But when the political class does not cope with its work, ordinary Ukrainians take up the cause. Confirmed by the history of independent Ukraine.

The civil resistance, which thousands of Ukrainians joined yesterday across the country, is an absolutely right step. But we need to realize that it is taking place in the context of a large-scale Russian-Ukrainian war and take into account the attempts of the special services of the aggressor state to use the obvious mistake of the authorities in their own interests.

In this situation, our natural allies are European partners, who have already sharply condemned the actions of the Ukrainian authorities.

I hope that the joint actions of Ukrainians and European allies will still force Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at least to think about the complete futility of the policy of curtailing democracy and building a police state in Ukraine.

For example, the fugitive president Yanukovych did not want to think about this.

And where is he now?