Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv will approach Venice Commission for expertise on the controversial ‘anti-oligarchs’ law.

In his interview for ‘Fakty tyznya’, the Ukrainian president said  the Venice Commission president Gianni Buquicchio was  ‘surprised’ they were sent the law before it was passed in its second reading.

‘He wanted to see the final document signed by the president of Ukraine so that we all here could get their judgment’, claimed  Zelensky.

The Ukrainian president took a swipe at the ousted speaker of the Verkhonva Rada claiming that Dmytro Razumkov wanted to buck the MPs on the issue trying  to get them ‘not to vote for the legislation  in its second reading’, which was ‘petty and erroneous’ step.

Challenged over the legal inaccuracies of the newly adopted law,  Zelensky said that he called Buquicchio to promise he would submit the law for expertise of Venice Commission once he signed it himself.

 

What makes the ‘anti-oligarch’s law so controversial?  

The oligarchs law, a pet project of the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky,  drew somewhat  mixed reactions from international experts. Fareed Zakaria, a leading US political commentator and journalist,  provided his judgment on the issue  at the  September YES forum in Kyiv.

Zakaria, who was making an appearance as a guest speaker at the event,  stressed importance of having  different media channels owned by different people and warned against policies that can deprive  civil society and the private sector of freedom of the press.

Swedish economist Anders Aslund also voiced his concerns about the‘de-oligarchization’ policy at the time it was  submitted to the Verkhovna Rada for its first reading. He argued Zelensky was following in  the Rusian president footsteps copying  his 2000s policy  that saw  media assets snatched up from Borys Berezovsky and other oligarchs to be later handed over to more loyal close circle of  businesmen.

Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Liudmyla Denisova joined the chorus  of  the policy critics admitting the policy has ‘several critical failings’. She argues the parliment needs to adress the situation when powers of a president and Security Council exceed limits of their authority.