2021-11-05T18:08:00+02:00 Politics 2024-09-15T08:14:56+03:00

Ukrainian news

Zelenskyy Signs Law On Oligarchs

Zelenskyy Signs Law On Oligarchs

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed the law on oligarchs.

The presidential press service announced this in a statement, the Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"President Volodymyr Zelenskyy immediately signed Law No. 1780-IX ‘On Preventing National Security Threats Associated with the Excessive Influence of People with Significant Economic and Political Weight in Public Life (Oligarchs)’ that was adopted by the parliament,” the presidential press service said in the statement.

According to the statement, the document was drafted to fulfill a key task of state policy, namely, to ensure a real transformation of the country in the interests of the entire society and implement Ukraine’s strategic course toward European and Euro-Atlantic integration.

"In all successful European countries, there is no such branch of government as oligarchs. The governments there work in the interests of their citizens and not a handful of the richest. Our citizens voted specifically for such changes in Ukraine in 2019," Zelenskyy said.

According to the statement, the anti-oligarchic law provides a legal framework for separating big business from politics and limiting the destructive influence of privileged (oligarchic) interests on the economic life of Ukraine.

The law establishes the criteria for declaring a person as an oligarch and the transparency requirement for contacts between politicians/government officials with oligarchs or their representatives.

The document has been sent for official publication.

A six-month countdown to its full introduction will begin after its publication.

As Ukrainian News Agency reported earlier, the parliament eliminated the inconsistencies in the text of the law on oligarchs on November 3 and instructed Parliament Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk to sign it immediately.

The law stipulates that the National Security and Defense Council is to declare a person as an oligarch based on the established criteria and that the decision to declare a person a person as an oligarch is to be based on submissions by the Cabinet of Ministers, a member of the National Security and Defense Council, the National Bank of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine, or the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine.

The decision to declare a person as an oligarch will enter into force on the date of official publication of a presidential decree enacting the decision and such a decision is binding.