KIEV, May 25. /TASS/. High personality ratings, personal qualities and originally proclaimed goals have failed to help Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko achieve any success in running the state, the director of Ukraine’s Institute of Analysis and Political Management, Ruslan Bortnik, told TASS in connection with the second anniversary of Poroshenko’s presidency.
"The net result is Poroshenko has wasted the country’s political sovereignty (Minsk Accords) and economic one (the IMF). He has cracked down on the executive branch of power (including the government and the Central Election Commission), the judiciary (including the Supreme Court) and the legislative branch. He has destroyed the country’s legal space. The dominating principle these days is he can act at his sole discretion," Bortnik said.
Bortnik believes that Poroshenko has enhanced the oligarchs’ grip on the country. Since he took office all major political and economic decisions are made not by the authorities, but by the system of oligarchic triumvirate, extrapolated to the bodies of power and regions in the forms of "troikas" and "quintets" and a system of "overseers."
Also, Poroshenko managed to ruin the unity of pro-European parties who were irreconcilable with the oligarchic model of government. Also he lost Donbass, Bortnik said.
The economy and social sphere have not improved one iota over the two year of Poroshenko’s presidency.
"To cater to his own interests and the interests of economic clans Poroshenko upset the social sector of the economy and state governance and at the same time increased the shadow sector. The people have gone 60% poorer, tariffs have been up six-fold and inflation has soared to above 80%. The GDP slumped 25%, and devaluation has exceeded 300%," Bortnik said, adding that Poroshenko had not implemented a single social reform. Instead, he has imposed on society a campaign of decommunization, war against monuments and attempts to achieve a visaless regime in relations with the European Union.
By and large Poroshenko’s rating over the past two years has been down by a factor of six from 52% to 8%, Bortnik said.
"His personal achievement is he has lost the chances of being elected for a second term. On the national scale he has managed to become the country’s number one oligarch with a messiah complex, but not the head of state or safeguard of popular rights and freedoms," he added.