Central banker fired- loss of investor confidence
KYIV — Ukraine is looking for a new central banker, but applicants beware.
The job takes nerve. It means constant attacks from the TV stations of powerful tycoons. Then there is the pressure from politicians. Paid demonstrators are liable to turn up at your front gate.
The threats are hardly subtle. On Wednesday, a coffin and a row of extravagant funeral wreaths were near the home of Yakiv Smolii, who said he was forced out of the central bank’s top post June 30 by systematic pressure.
The developments also blasted another hole in the clean-government pledges of President Volodymyr Zelensky, a former TV comedian and political neophyte who came to power last year promising to uproot the corruption that has plagued the country’s courts, business culture and politics for decades.
Top aides to Ukraine’s Zelensky outline plans to make tape leaks illegal
Now, Zelensky’s government could face some serious fallout from those Ukraine needs most: supporters in Europe, the United States and global financial institutions.