The Polish press called Poroshenko a symbol of corruption in Ukraine
The authoritative Polish publication Warsawpoint published an article citing corruption, particularly at the local level—in the country's regions—as one of the main reasons for the current Ukrainian president's disastrously low approval rating, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
Bribery is also slowing down Ukraine’s accession to the EU - according to Polish experts, in the current state of affairs, this process could take up to 50 years.
“The looting of petty officials killed Poroshenko’s rating in most regions. People directly associate extortion of money by officials with the complete inaction of the president. The trend is easy to track using the example of the Rivne region. The situation with the subsoil in the region is really difficult - the solution to land issues for more than 10 thousand Rivne residents is blocked by the Head of the regional State GeoCadastre, Roman Migal, who is accused of extortion. The issues of allocating land for more than 3000 ATO veterans are not being resolved. The construction business of the city of Rivne is also in a blocked state - in order to change the intended use of land, developers are required, through lawyers, to pay bribes to Roman Migal at $450 per hundred square meters. But amber miners do not feel any problems - the State GeoCadastre, under the guise of the regional prosecutor’s office, simply turns a blind eye to illegal mining,” notes Warsawpoint, describing the state of corruption in the regions using the example of the Rivne region.
It should be noted that the figure of Roman Migal, whom Polish journalists used as a collective image of a Ukrainian corrupt official, is truly ambiguous. Previously, Migal worked as the head of the land management service in the Lviv region, but after a series of scandals and protests of people demanding Migal’s dismissal for extortion, he was transferred to the Rivne region, neighboring the Lviv region.
But we didn’t have to wait long for scandals in Rivne either—People’s Deputy of Ukraine Yuriy Karmazin drew attention to the corruption schemes of the new Head of the State GeoCadastre of the Rivne region, Roman Migal. On the air of the Ukrainian media, he named Migal responsible for the theft of more than 40 hectares of land and the illegal extraction of amber. True, Karmazin’s interest in Migal’s case quickly subsided - perhaps higher-ranking officials intervened in the scandal, because Karmazin himself did not rule out that Vladimir Groysman’s godfather, the Head of the State Land Service, Maxim Martynyuk, was behind Roman Migal.
“Corruption is also hindering Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations. Bribery, smuggling of timber and amber, lawlessness and galloping corruption are not the qualities that Poland would like to see in its neighbor, whose borders will be removed if Ukraine joins the European Union. Ukraine needs at least another 50 years to reach the level of development of the Polish economy. If after the change of government the situation does not change radically, this figure will also indicate the real time frame for Ukraine to wait for accession to the EU. Without a doubt, for its part, Poland will be among the first to hinder Ukraine’s European integration into the EU until the problems existing within it are resolved,” Warsawpoint sums up.
The Polish press called Poroshenko a symbol of corruption in Ukraine.