Thread by @mattia_n

Excellent news. Today, Artem Sytnyk, former head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), was appointed as the deputy of Ukraine’s National Corruption Prevention Agency (NACP). Sytnik is one of the most able anti-corruption fighters.

A small 🧵

/1
pravda.com.ua/news/2022/05/1…

The chairman of the NACP (or NAZK in 🇺🇦) Novikov writes on FB:
"Sytnyk is a man with unique experience in Ukraine. His return to the anti-corruption front of Ukraine is important for the complete overcoming of corruption risks in wartime and postwar together…” /2

Sytnyk will serve as the NAZK’s first deputy and will represent the director when he is on leave.

It is fair to say that Syrnyk is one of the most feared and hated figure among the (old) Ukrainian political elite because his agency headed many high-profile investigations. /3

For those joining Ukraine a little bit later, the agency Sytnyk lead, the NABU, investigated high-profile (political) corruption and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutors (SAP) oversaw the investigation and brought the cases to the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC). /4

For all those who just lazily repeat that 🇺🇦 is “so corrupt”, wake up and please also focus on the institutional gains made after 2015.

For the first time since independence (very much unlike Russia), corrupt officials had to fear being investigated and prosecuted. /5

Before you @ me, yes the speed, the amount of indictments and most importantly the number of corrupt officials in jail are nowhere near satisfactory but the direction was correct, the institutional framework was in place and simply put: it got harder and riskier to steal. /6

I would even go as far as to say that Ukraine has a lot to teach the region including the EU: in how to set up specialized anti-corruption agencies and how to appoint them properly. The latter is extremely difficult but blueprints (participation with int. experts) exist. /7

Before Russia’s full-blown invasion, Ukraine was about to embark on the most difficult part: cleansing the corrupt judiciary. Here A LOT of work remains to be done but @DEJURE_UA, @ANTAC_ua and @TI_Ukraine_eng (to name few) were fighting like lions and winning first battles. /end

PS: (Anti-)Corruption and 🇺🇦’s fight against corruption from within and outside is one of the topics I passionately care and can talk hours about. Studying how a deeply corrupt elite is pushed by civil society and international actors is what drew me to 🇺🇦 as a young researcher.

Oh bozhe, I called the director of the NABU Sytnyk accidentally "Syrnyk". That's my beloved breakfast (сирник). Вибач, Артем!