The First Year of the New Ukrainian President is a Success - President of the Project for Transitional Democracies

KYIV, Ukraine, February 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- "President Viktor Yanukovych and the new government had a very good year in 2010. They reached an agreement with the IMF, initiated intense negotiations regarding the free trade area with the EU, and signed the Action Plan on visa regime liberalization. They saw the country growing again, and did not go bankrupt like Greece," stated Bruce Jackson, the president of the Project on Transitional Democracies and a successful US lobbyist in his interview to The Day.

Bruce Jackson has been a frequent visitor to Ukraine in the last years. This week he met with the Ukrainian President, the head of the Ukrainian Intelligence (SBU) and other officials, and also had a chance to share his opinion with Ukrainian media.

The renowned American expert positively assessed the Ukraine's efforts to fight corruption. Meanwhile, he considered the premature legal system of the country the main barrier preventing the effective judicial persecution of the corrupt officials. Such a status-quo often provokes a strong public concern over political persecution of the opposition every time an opposition member is accused of corruption.

"The President is really tormented by the corruption that is killing his country, preventing recovery, stopping reform. He faces the bureaucracy, private interests, etc. He looks good and strong. He is a reflective president and realizes everything is not so easy, he writes a decree and people don't do it, they do whatever they want," said Bruce Jackson.

The expert finds that the democratic process in Ukraine is developing in a way, which is very similar to that of Ukraine's Eastern European neighbors. He admitted that there are several draw-backs, which, however, do not threat the country's overall development. "Poland was selling tanks to Sudan in the middle 1990s and we hushed it up, we said they were freedom fighters. The Czechs are still heavy in corruption, the Bulgarians shot 123 journalists in the streets of Sofia and we didn't say anything, we got them into NATO. Romania,I don't even have to tell you," Jackson said.

At the same time he noted that the world is paying much closer attention to Ukraine than it did to Poland, Czech Republic and Romania at the time of the above mentioned events.

The full text of the interview can be found at the following link: http://www.day.kiev.ua/303062