Zelenskyi’s Office explains how President is fighting oligarchs

The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi has started the process of de-oligarchizing in the country, aimed not at fighting individual representatives of big business, but at changing the system, reducing barriers to doing business, and establishing uniform rules of the game for all.

The President's Adviser on Economic Affairs, Oleh Ustenko, stated this, the Office of the President reports.

"If the economic situation in Ukraine hadn't been conserved in the 1990s, we could've had $400 billion in GDP last year. In fact, we have a little more than 160 billion dollars," Oleh Ustenko said.

According to him, a small group of stakeholders, mostly oligarchs, have been trying to preserve the situation in the country for many years by developing their own business, but creating barriers to entering the business for others.

"Because of this, they use political connections, media resources to block the development of the situation. It turns out that protecting property rights–what business wants, a normal judicial system, effective fight against corruption, competition, de-monopolization of the economy, reduction of barriers to doing business–is blocked by this group," said the President's adviser.

Therefore, according to him, the process of de-oligarchization is inevitable.

Oleh Ustenko stressed it wasn't about the name of a particular oligarch, but about changing the closed system that had been formed in Ukraine over the past decades.

"If you fight against a particular individual without changing the conditions of doing business, conditions for competition, economic development, access to credit, without easing the conditions for protecting business, without improving the judiciary, you'll come across the same rake," he said.

Oleh Ustenko said that the President aimed to carry out de-oligarchization "on a broad front," acting in many directions.

"First, it's what investors say when deciding whether to invest in Ukraine. They talk about the problem of protecting property rights. When you cannot protect property, you cannot move the economy forward and ensure 5% economic growth, without which the fight against poverty will be ineffective," the adviser to the President said.

Among the priority measures, he also mentioned amnesty of capital, judicial reform, restoring the full-fledged work of anti-corruption infrastructure, de-monopolizing the economy, and developing competition.

"It's not normal for economic sectors to be controlled by large oligarchic groups. There must be changes here, and it's another battle waged by the authorities to achieve de-oligarchization of the economy," Oleh Ustenko said.

He recalled that the President of Ukraine repeatedly emphasized the need to fight the oligarchs in his recent video address, and this struggle began in subsoil use.

"President Zelenskyi has a clear will to move toward fighting the oligarchs," Oleh Ustenko is certain.