New cabinet reshuffle: when changes change nothing

UKRAINE - In Brief 02 Nov 2021 by Dmytro Boyarchuk

The media wrote that already this week new people will take seats in the Cabinet. This is nothing new. We heard about inevitable replacements in the Cabinet back in June. But it took some time for the ruling group to deliver this new reshuffle. As David Arakhamia, the Head of parliamentary faction Sluha Narodu, stated publicly – the authorities face difficulties in attracting strong people because good candidates simply refuse to take seats in the government. Replacements will touch the Ministry of Economy, Ministry on Strategic Sectors of Industry, Ministry of Defense, Ministry for Reintegration of the Temporary Occupied Territories and the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources. The most interesting replacement for us is the removal of Oleksiy Lyubchenko, Vice-Prime Minister and Minister of Economy. Yuliya Svyrydenko, Deputy Head of the Office of the President will take his seat. Remarkably, Mr. Lyubchenko entered the Cabinet only in May. However, he promptly tried to take the seat of Prime Minister and, as we see, he lost this battle against Denys Shmygal. Lyubchenko is out. His successor, Yuliya Svyrydenko, is loyal to the Head of the Office of the President, Andriy Yermak, and the appointment is more evidence that the Cabinet is just an outlet of the Office of the President. I will not waste your time describing who will replace whom in other Ministries. Some no-name people are replacing other no-name people. And the whole exercise is just the result of undercover games and the huge illusion of Zelenskiy that reshuffling totally dependent people at the Cabinet might have a positive impact on his ratings. With absolute dependence on the goodwill of the president...

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