In practice, the lustration law — passed by the country's legislature Sept. 16 — will initiate reviews of up to a million civil servants and government officials. Among other things, individuals' work history and finances will be scrutinized. Officials who held top positions under the government of ousted President Viktor Yanukovich are likely to fail the screening, as are incumbents of certain positions within the Soviet-era Communist Party and secret services and those who are found to have been reportedly involved in corrupt practices. Vitaly Yarema, Ukraine's prosecutor general, has publicly said that the law does not comply with Ukraine's Constitution and violates international laws. The bill, however, was not amended to alleviate his concerns.
Poroshenko signed the lustration bill weeks before the country's parliamentary elections on Oct. 26, both in an attempt to appease activists and an effort to create room within the country's bureaucracy for his own supporters. Since the fall of the Yanukovich government, some activists — mostly from the Maidan movement and the militant Right Sector group — have raised concerns over corruption and the need for a full-fledged transition of power. As a result, members of these movements, as well as some sections of the public, have repeatedly called for a large-scale turnover of personnel within Ukraine's governing bodies. Protesters arguing in favor of a lustration bill burned tires outside Ukraine's parliament Sept. 16. Around the same time, members of pro-Western parties, which came to power after Yanukovich's fall, fought to put their own supporters in key positions within the country's bureaucracy.
Selective Housekeeping
While many government officials and civil servants will be screened for eligibility, the lustration law will likely be applied on a discriminatory basis — as in most former communist and Soviet states. Ukraine simply does not have the resources to effectively investigate the backgrounds and finances of a million government employees. Moreover, the current leadership has a vested interest in removing civil servants whose loyalty is to the previous government, or who can be easily replaced with Poroshenko loyalists.
At the same time, however, some members of the former Party of Regions, as well as individuals with ties to the Soviet-era Communist Party, are now political allies of Poroshenko and the new government. Many of Ukraine's elites — regardless of political orientation — have a history of financial corruption that, if the law were to be fully implemented, could bar them from holding office. As a result, lustration will be implemented on a highly selective basis, serving as a tool for achieving political aims while preserving the interests of the current leadership.
Poroshenko's decision to sign the lustration law highlights the constraints he faces going into the parliamentary elections, even as a fragile cease-fire between Ukrainian forces and Russia-supported separatists continues in the country's east. On one hand, the Ukrainian government is trying to appease Ukrainians that had high expectations for political change after the fall of the Yanukovich government — many of who came from the Europe-leaning west and would be willing to return to the streets should Poroshenko's government fail to deliver on its promises. On the other hand, Kiev is also working to appeal to citizens and elites in places such as Odessa and Kharkiv, which were not vehemently opposed to the Yanukovich government. The lustration bill is therefore one element of the Kiev government's struggle to balance its need to deliver on promises made to those who brought it to power while retaining the ability to create flexible alliances with different political factions.
