The Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada supports the President's draft law on oligarchs, but believes that a special state body should form their list
03 June 2021, 14:59
In particular, Dmytro Razumkov sees a potential conflict of interest if the National Security and Defense Council is empowered to recognize a person as an oligarch, as this body includes high-ranking officials who can hypothetically be associated with the oligarchs. According to the Speaker of the Parliament, an important aspect is also that there is no exclusive list of officials who are the members of the National Security and Defense Council, - they are determined by the President of Ukraine.
In addition, the Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada explained that the National Security and Defense Council is the coordinating body for national security and defense under the President of Ukraine, and it does not have the function to refer citizens to certain categories.
Dmytro Razumkov stressed that he supports the idea of declaring by high-ranking officials their meetings with people who have significant economic or political weight in public life (oligarchs). At the same time, he added that not only those officials who hold political positions should declare their meetings.
"I believe that this list should be expanded at the expense of officials and officials who have a significant influence on key decisions in the state, as well as persons who hold positions of patronage service," said the Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada.
Dmytro Razumkov is convinced that the next step after the adoption of the bill on the Prevention of Threats to National Security Related to the Excessive Influence of Persons Who Have Significant Economic or Political Weight in Public Life (Oligarchs) should be the adoption of legislation on Lobbying, which will allow businesses to openly cooperate with government agencies.