What did Ukraine's Constitutional Court ruling mean for anti-corruption rules?
A look back at the position on 30 October 2020, two days after a court decision that reshaped asset declaration and anti-corruption oversight.
What was Ukraine dealing with on 30 October 2020? Mainly the aftermath of a ruling by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, handed down on 28 October 2020. As reported at the time, the decision meant the end of electronic asset declaration, and removed the powers of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention to carry out full checks and to monitor officials' lifestyles.
The ruling also meant the cancellation of liability for illicit enrichment, of the confiscation of assets acquired through corruption, and of liability for false declarations. Taken together, these were core tools of the country's anti-corruption framework, and the decision removed them in a single step.
The regional backdrop was also tense. On 29 October 2020, Belarus abruptly closed its borders with Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine, while leaving its border with Russia open. This came amid continuing protests against Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, who said the move was meant to limit the spread of COVID-19.
For Ukraine, the two developments were distinct, but they landed within a day of each other. The domestic one concerned the legal basis for scrutinising officials' wealth; the external one concerned a neighbour's border policy.
