This would presumably raise some hackles, if confirmed:
The Crimean blockade will reformat and the number of participants reduce reduce, said Refat Chubarov, one of the blockade’s organizers and the head of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis.
“Our people [will be] in far smaller numbers and will stay very close to customs officers [and] to border guards. They will only observe that the governmental decree is carried out, that there is no smuggling,” Chubarov said.
The blockade, organized by activists, began on September 20. On December 16, the Ukrainian government adopted a resolution "on limiting supplies of certain goods from temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine and/or from other territories of Ukraine to temporarily occupied territory." The document comes into force 30 days after its publication.
Writing for Reuters, Josh Cohen says, "Corruption in Ukraine is so bad, a Nigerian prince would be embarrassed."
United States Vice President Joe Biden has never been one to hold his tongue. He certainly didn’t in his recent trip to Kiev. In a speech before Ukraine’s Parliament, Biden told legislators that corruption was eating Ukraine “like a cancer,” and warned Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that Ukraine had “one more chance” to confront corruption before the United States cuts off aid.
Biden’s language was undiplomatic, but he’s right: Ukraine needs radical reforms to root out graft. After 18 months in power, Poroshenko still refuses to decisively confront corruption. It’s time for Poroshenko to either step up his fight against corruption — or step down if he won’t.
When it comes to Ukrainian corruption, the numbers speak for themselves. Over $12 billion per year disappears from the Ukrainian budget, according to an adviser to Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau. And in its most recent review of global graft, anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International ranked Ukraine 142 out of 174 countries on its Corruption Perceptions Index — below countries such as Uganda, Nicaragua and Nigeria. Ordinary Ukrainians also endure paying petty bribes in all areas of life. From vehicle registration, to getting their children into kindergarten, to obtaining needed medicine, everything connected to government has a price.
The worst corruption occurs at the nexus between business oligarchs and government officials. A small number of oligarchs control 70 percent of Ukraine’s economy, and over the years have captured and corrupted Ukraine’s political and judicial institutions. As a result, a “culture of impunity” was created, where politicians, judges, prosecutors and oligarchs collude in a corrupt system where everyone but the average citizen benefits.
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