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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

A Week in the Shadows

13 November, 2012 - 00:00

Of course, electing the Speaker was the past week's number one event. And note: none of the main factions came out victorious. Oleksandr Tkachenko cannot be considered a Leftist (although some factions changed their course from the Right to Left Center after his election) and by no means a Centrist. He represents a kind of compromise found only in our politics. Other examples of such compromise are Leonid Kuchma's premiership (no one knew him, so most voted for him), enactment of the new Constitution, equally oriented toward socialism and capitalism, the mixed election law, the multidirectional nature of Ukrainian foreign policy (when anyone can be a "strategic partner"), and many other things that are even hard to remember. As for Mr. Tkachenko becoming Speaker, the main thing is not who was elected (although he may well become the world's best Speaker), but what the People's Deputies had in mind when electing him.

The past week was a case study in current Ukrainian realities, vividly demonstrating who runs the country's shadow economy and how. As a sequel to its decision forbidding importation of cars over five years old as of April 1, the Cabinet now allows those who purchased such cars before that date to import them. It would be interesting to know the tax rate, though. Before this, the Cabinet had a training session using foreign TV sets, raising the state duty by 30%, for which those in the smuggling business were most grateful. Simultaneously, licenses were instituted for concert tours (remarkably, one of the formal reasons was to use the money thus exacted from star performers to finance their less successful counterparts). That same week the government showed exactly why it was working to spread the "shadows." By putting an end to the shuttle trade with the aid of a duty of 200 ECU, the Cabinet did away with the competitors and finally handed all cheap imports over to those it sees as the right people. By setting up the social insurance fund, it took away the unions' social tax returns. In a word, the government's target is quite simple: money, and not necessarily for the budget. The shadow economy is absolutely defenseless before the government, because it transgresses the law which, in turn, provides fertile ground for profitable business.

 

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