Ukrainian President Poroshenko will visit White House, Congress to seek more aid - The Washington Post
▻http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/ukraine-president-poroshenko-visits-white-house-congress-in-aid-bid/2014/09/17/d8e0e0b5-1917-437d-89ea-88fe8e9e451b_story.html
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko will arrive in Washington on Thursday with a simple request: more economic and military aid for a nation that is reeling from an insurgency in the east.
But amid concerns about Ukraine’s commitment to anti-corruption efforts and Western caution about escalating a military conflict with Russia, it remained far from clear that Ukraine’s leader would leave Washington with a substantial new pledge of support. The Ukrainian candy-magnate-turned-politician plans to talk with President Obama at the White House and will address a joint meeting of Congress.
Après s’être adressé au parlement canadien hier, P. Porochenko rencontrera B. Obama et s’adressera au Congrès. À Ottawa, il a remporté de vifs applaudissements de la part des honorables parlementaires et peut-être (?) d’autres résultats plus concrets.
With Poroshenko seeking more aid in Washington, some Ukrainians have questioned whether the country is ready to receive it, given long-running problems with corruption that have plagued Ukraine since it broke from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Those concerns with corruption were a key focus of the winter pro-European protests in Kiev, but there are increasing worries that little has been done to combat it in the seven months since the pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych was deposed as president.
The slow pace of anti-corruption measures has frustrated some activists. Protesters burned tires in front of the Ukrainian parliament this week to demand that it pass legislation to strengthen scrutiny of officials who served under Ukraine’s previous leadership. A version of the measure eventually was approved after several cycles of votes.
Other attempts at anti-corruption legislation have been rejected, and an ombudsman who was tasked with spearheading a fight against graft resigned in frustration in August.
“The general sense is that corruption is just as bad as before,” said Anders Aslund, an economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics who has advised Ukrainian leaders on economic issues.
La corruption en Ukraine ne fait guère de doute, avant, comme maintenant et, probablement après… La lutte contre la corruption est un thème plutôt consensuel, du moins dans les déclarations…, mais aussi un cheval de bataille de l’extrême droite.
Certes, some activists. Protesters burned tires in front of the Ukrainian parliament this week to demand that it pass legislation to strengthen scrutiny et ont mis à la poubelle un député (triomphe médiatique dans les médias occidentaux). Il faut peut être préciser que le thème de la #lustration est actuellement LE grand thème de #Svoboda et que les « activistes » en question sont des membres de ce parti d’extrême droite.
Cf. l’article du Kyiv Post sur cette manifestation, le 16 septembre
Svoboda lawmaker Ihor Miroshnychenko (R) during a rally to support the lustration law in front of the parliament building in Kyiv on Sept. 16.
© Volodymyr Petrov
Ukrainians rally to support lustration law in parliament
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/multimedia/photo/rally-to-support-the-lustration-law-in-front-of-the-parliament-building-in
About 250 people under the Rada require a law on lustration in Kyiv, on Sept. 16. In front of the Verkhovna Rada activists held a picket demanding passage of the law. There were flags of Ukraine, flags with symbols of the Svoboda party, Right Sector and placards with slogans: “We demand lustration”.