CIVIL SOCIETY IN UKRAINE

Edited article ‘ Corrupting Civil Society in Post-Maidan Ukraine’ by Mikhail Minakov , Associate Professor/Docent in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, and president of the Foundation for Good Politics.

Civil society now plays an outsized role in Ukrainian politics. Activists are increasingly involved in the political, economic and civil sectors, each of which has an important role to play in state-building. Certain public interests—honest elections leading to proper representation in parliament, or responsible and responsive governance, for example—need to be constantly monitored. Effective advocacy of these interests is at the core of civil society organizations’ mandate. However, trouble begins when civil society organizations attempt to be more than watchdogs; when the “dog” is unleashed and enters politics. This poses a risk not only to the process of democratization, but also to the survival of the Ukrainian polity and the competitiveness of the economy. Civil society organizations’ expanding mandate poses a threat to the most significant political forces in Ukraine: oligarchs and the ruling class in government.

Traditionally, the Ukrainian political class has treated civil society organizations as either “agents of the West” or counter-elites undermining its rule. For their part, civil society leaders and activists trusted neither the government nor politicians. But with the inability of the political class to adequately respond to the situation in Ukraine last year, this mutual enmity has turned into competitive cooperation. Ruling groups and some civil society organizations have established certain forms of cooperation to solve problems critical for collective survival.

Oligarchic groups have long detested the “third sector,” considering it to be a dysfunctional rival in dealing with public issues. After the Orange Revolution, rent-seeking oligarchs created “private philanthropic organizations” that came to compete with major civic NGOs to influence the government, local communities, and international donors.

In 2014, a new phenomenon emerged, which threatens to corrupt civil society’s role in another way. Oligarchic groups recognized the functionality of civil society organizations and attempted to use them—sometimes through coercion—either to increase their rent or to defend their existing power and property. This misuse of civil society organizations by oligarchs to advance their own political or economic agenda has threatened the longer-term stability of Ukraine.

Igor Kolomoisky is the most high-profile oligarch to attempt to use civil society organizations to meet his own ends in recent months. He created a large network of private businesses; entities managing state-owned companies; bureaucrats in control of certain posts in central government and local communities in the south-east; and national and local media figures to promote his personal agenda. During the war, he employed a huge number of volunteer groups (including military battalions), organizations advocating lustration, and other NGOs that helped advance his own interests. They promoted the image of Kolomoisky as a “defender of the independence” of Ukraine, even after his men attempted a hostile takeover of state-owned gas transit company Ukrnafta on March 21, 2015.

Established oligarchs like Rinat Akhmetov and Viktor Pinchuk, and up-and-comers like Arsen Avakov and Sergii Pashynsky are beginning to use Kolomoisky’s strategy. This emerging model abuses civil activists and plays on their desire to solve public problems through direct action. Oligarchs employ resources—financial, media and political—to help activists to take action they think is legitimate. But over time, oligarchs are charging a price for their support.

The coercive power of oligarchs is one of the major current threats for the development of civil society in Ukraine. Corruption remains a vexing issue that has impeded Ukraine’s political and economic development, as it has in other post-Soviet countries. It is at the heart of the nexus between politics and business. As seen in Kolomoisky’s network, some parts of civil society are now becoming involved in these corrupt schemes as well. In the end, the nexus between civil society, business, and politics will introduce a new shade of systemic corruption and reduce the resources for the further democratic development of Ukraine.