The Head of the Central bank dismissed: what’s next?

UKRAINE - In Brief 04 Jul 2020 by Dmytro Boyarchuk

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Yesterday Verkhovna Rada approved resignation of Yakiv Smoliy, the Head of the NBU. 286 MPs – almost constitutional majority – supported the decision. Media wrote the dismissal of Smoliy was a personal whim of Zelenskiy. Allegedly Zelenskiy summoned Smoliy to the President Office and there was a talk which translated into a resignation letter. We can only guess what made Yakiv Smoliy to resign, especially after he claimed recently he will never do this voluntarily. President Zelenskiy for many times stated publicly that Ukraine needs an abundance of cheap loans. He put responsibility for poor results of widely advertised program of subsidized loans “5-7-9” on the NBU. Foes of Smoliy were happy to build on that discontent and speculated that Smoliy and the NBU management sabotage ‘cheaper loans’ initiatives because they are supporters of ex-president Petro Poroshenko. Anti-Poroshenko fears are dominating in the narrow circle of Zelenskiy. Very likely the decision to threw current management out of the NBU was set long time ago. But Zelenskiy was waiting for the IMF deal to be signed. Harsh critique of the NBU from different speakers of Servant of the People was happening for months. But none believed Zelenskiy will dare to cross the red line. Pro-presidential speakers are defending Zelenskiy fiercely. The statement of Smoliy about political pressure was incredibly painful for the ruling group. Viktoria Strakhova, the person from the President Office, supervising banking sector and, as many observers claim, defining cadre policy at the state-owned banks, expressed her sorrow about such unfortunate wording Yakiv Smoliy used. Also she wrote on her Facebook page that in her...