Clearing the field

The Ukrainian and Crimean governments have begun enforcing land regulations on the peninsula with unprecedented vigor. One arrest is followed by another, demonstrating to the voters a resolute determination to bring accountability to this sphere. However, all the fuss gives reason to doubt whether the authorities’ and law enforcement bodies’ actions are not simply part of President Viktor Yanukovych’s local election campaign. While visiting the area the president said that when property rights are violated, the new owners should return the land to the state. Then he promised: “We will not make the names of these people public.” However, from all appearances, no one was interested. Thus, they had to involve law enforcement bodies. But if the government stops here, one can easily predict that it won’t lead to anything good. They will intimidate and coerce some officials, who will soon be replaced by others who will do the same thing, but in a more delicate manner, and everything will look just perfect.

No doubt: people should be responsible for their crimes. But real order is more complex an issue. The government should introduce a transparent and fair system of using valuable Crimean land, and introduce elaborate anticorruption rules of the game on this market. There were some efforts in this direction. In May district administrations were prohibited from alienating and renting land outside inhabited settlements. Then the head of the government of the autonomy Vasyl Dzharty stated that from now on all non-agricultural lands would be sold exclusively at open auctions. But the process didn’t work for some reason. The coffers of the autonomy, as before, were not fully filled. Recently local officials asked the president to help increase the share of revenue from the sale of land which goes to the Crimean budget (currently it’s 35 percent). It is still unknown how the Verkhovna Rada will react to this proposal. But can one entirely exclude the option that this way someone just wants to receive compensation for confiscated funds?

Naturally, the sale of land may become a powerful motor for the development of the Crimea. But only if the local government manages to create a transparent system of land regulation, and with a transparent and open use of obtained resources. Regarding the campaign initiated by the government, to “clean up” the peninsula, the only thing left is to rely on the Ukrainian courts.

It’s also high time for lawmakers to consider that economic crimes can be punished not only by imprisonment, but also, as it is done in civilized countries, by considerable fines which reflect the losses suffered by the state. Otherwise arrests will simply resemble attempts to remove a dangerous rival from the electoral arena.