Less than a year ago, Igor Bilous was a symbol of hope and change for Ukraine. The 36-year-old investment banker's appointment to lead the country's tax service seemed to confirm that the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych's corrupt regime would mark a generational shift and a radical cleanup of the Ukrainian state. Today, however, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk suspended Bilous and two of his key deputies pending a corruption investigation.
Bilous's fall bodes poorly for the stability of the current Ukrainian government. But Yatsenyuk and President Petro Poroshenko must see the investigation through. If they can't win a war against Russian President Vladimir Putin, they at least have to show they can defeat corruption.
WNU Editor: I have lost count on how many times I have mentioned in this blog the pervasive and endemic nature of corruption in Ukraine. It is the primary reason why I choose to live in Canada rather than in Ukraine when I made a decision on where to live over 20 years ago ... and reading this Bloomberg post only confirms that even though the weather in Ukraine is better than Canada's cold winters .... who in his right mind would want to live in that corrupt place.
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