The relationship between business and the government deteriorated so much that the government's attempt to reconcile was recorded by an entire order of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC).
It really made an impression on individual businessmen: "we were heard!", "the president reacted quickly and firmly", "steps were taken in the right direction", and quite modestly: "gratitude to the President of Ukraine and his team".
In order not to think something completely bad, we will assume that such a reaction of some entrepreneurs was due to their ignorance, lack of involvement in the reforms of recent years, stress and lack of sleep.
Although, to be honest, it was hard not to notice that the "fatal" decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) offered the real sector really nothing.
The first point is to form the Council for Business Support. And indeed! It will strengthen the Small Business Promotion Council, the Business Development Office, the Business Ombudsman Council and all regional business support centers combined. At the head of this multiplicity of councils will be the Ukrainian Economic Platform, the idea of creating which the president had already after the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC), but was voiced in the same vein. When the platform starts working, we will help everyone, we will hear everyone!
Only the Council of the Business Ombudsman shows real results in business assistance, the rest simply exist.
For example, the following is known about the Council for the Promotion of Small Business Development, created by Zelenskyy in 2020:
- in December 2020, its first meeting was held with the participation of Andrii Yermak, at which it was "agreed to prepare decisions on problematic business issues as soon as possible";
- in December 2021, by presidential decree, Rostyslav Shurma was appointed as its head.
This is the end. All that followed was just emptiness. What happened to problematic issues and their solutions as soon as possible, starting in 2020? Well, somehow it didn't work out.
But now, when the Entrepreneurship Support Council and the Ukrainian platform will be operational, everything will definitely be different.
The second point is to restart the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine (BESU) by consolidating all economic crimes there, make changes to defense procurement and monitor risks and criteria for blocking tax invoices.
Let's start with risk monitoring, that is, the multi-year planning work of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine. Entrusting it to the government by a separate decree of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) is like instructing the sun to rise in the East by a separate decree. And if this monitoring could help in any way, believe me, it would have already helped.
I really want to send the authors of the document for training to business ombudsman Roman Vashchuk, whose organization is already showing real results in improving the situation with tax blockages. Thanks not to monitoring, but to systematic work. People made an analysis, compiled a list of basic and technical recommendations and systematically, excuse me for this expression, annoy the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine and the tax department with the question "when will our recommendations be taken into account?". Yes, the system resists, and even minimal progress takes months. But Mr. Vaschuk has an encouraging timeline of this progress and a recorded decrease in blocking volumes. And what will remain of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine after the results of the monitoring, apart from the monitoring itself? So it is.
It is the changes to defense procurement, regardless of the details, that can please only the business representatives interested in these defense procurements (at the moment it is not clear what exactly the changes are, because we are talking about "settlement"). So, with all due respect, we are talking about changes, not revolution. In July of last year, the government introduced changes in the procurement of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine by another resolution, not even everyone in the news mentioned it. And now they have instructed to do some little thing by adopting a whole decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC).
How was it there? – We were heard!
The circus with the reboot of the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine (BESU), which in general is a requirement of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union, has been going on since March 2023, when the first relevant draft law was submitted to the parliament. And in September 2023 – the second. And in October – the third. Some naive people's deputies even hoped that as early as 2023, competitions would be held in the updated Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine (BESU), but somehow that did not happen either. They say that even the Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Oleh Tatarov is involved in this. Oleksandr Liemienov spoke quite comprehensively about its influence on the processes. Therefore, another mention of restarting the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine (BESU) as a solution to all problems looks like an outright mockery. Now it turns out that earlier this institution could not be rebooted, because there was no decree of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC)?
The third point, my favorite, is to instruct the Office of the Prosecutor General, the State Bureau of Investigation, the National Police of Ukraine, the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine (BESU) and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) to conduct an audit of restrictive measures taken against business entities in criminal proceedings and determine their feasibility. That is, check yourself.
And they will all come to their senses and write in these reports how they were wrong, where they exceeded and where they abused their power, where they demanded something, when they manipulated...
Okay, let's say they write, what next?
And then there is the wonderful thing: based on the results of the audit, effective mechanisms for ensuring the protection of entrepreneurship against possible abuses by law enforcement agencies will be developed. Are we talking about some new ones? Which were not included in the latest edition of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine?
By the way, these mechanisms will be produced by the same state bodies, namely the Prosecutor General's Office, the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), the National Police of Ukraine, the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine (BESU) and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). They will check themselves. They will write recommendations for themselves after group repentance for their actions.
At this point, I would like to quote the President of Ukraine about "clearly defined steps that will help both Ukrainian entrepreneurs and state institutions to overcome the whole complex of problems that has been talked about a lot these weeks." With clearly defined steps, I think we figured it out.
And now about "weeks", because Google did not ban us.
March 2020. Zelenskyy held a meeting with oligarchs.
March 2021. Yermak met with representatives of international business associations.
February 2022. Zelenskyy met with representatives of big business.
June 2023. Zelenskyy gathered entrepreneurs.
July 2023. Deputy Heads of the Office of the President of Ukraine Shurma and Tatarov held a "closed" meeting with business representatives.
September 2023. Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Shurma held a meeting with entrepreneurs.
January 2024. Deputy Prime Ministers Yuliia Svyrydenko and Mykhailo Fedorov and Parliament Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk held a meeting with business representatives. Yermak's advisor Dariia Zarivna was present from the Office of the President of Ukraine.
Every time the question arises about the unfriendly business climate in Ukraine, the Office of the President of Ukraine, having gathered its strength, abruptly begins to solve only individual issues of a global problem: investments, meetings with business representatives, councils under the president, meetings again. In addition, the Office of the President of Ukraine is also trying to deal with the reboot of the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine (BESU), meetings, new reboots and councils once again. We have already reached the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC), but the result has always remained zero.
And most importantly, have you noticed how in four years the desire of the Office of the President of Ukraine to maintain at least some adequate relations with the real sector has diminished? Where are the days of oligarchs and international business associationsOnly remnants remained of all this. Some are on the edge, some are beyond the edge, but even those who are in the best shape are definitely not living their best lives and should probably expect basic respect. Although what am I talking about, Yermak's advisers and decisions that do not lead to any specific results will be enough.
The key thesis of the "Mazepyn story", which provoked the current aggravation, is that everyone is really to blame. Zelenskyy and company, who have never abandoned their ambition to build a strong autocracy here, will never get tired of reminding businesses about this. No longer worrying too much about some imitations of unprecedented anxiety. And without this, everything is clear, remember all the sayings "we were heard!" and "the president reacted harshly" – what is but an exemplary execution of the command "to serve". You can convert such devotion into a whole bunch of profits, but the main one, of course, is political.
It is unlikely that Zelenskyy lacks funds for his own company, but he certainly would not like someone to find fortunes to raise his potential competitors or, God forbid, for his own political ambitions. Everything is simple – either together with the Office of the President of Ukraine, or in the pre-trial detention center.
Probably the best thing for business representatives to do in such a case is to stop looking into the owner's mouth. And Western partners (who, we hope, were not misled by this circus with the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC)) – to support the real sector in this endeavor. No matter what, the country will not be rebuilt by "Tatarov's boys" and "Yermak's girls", but by people who create jobs, added value and tax deductions.