UKRAINIAN POLICY SHIFT: THE MEANING BEHIND TOP PERSONNEL CHANGES AMID THE GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSE TO THE COVID-19 CRISIS
On 7 February 2020, Prime Minister Olexiy Goncharuk delivers the state of affairs report to the Rada. The report reflects the bleak overall situation in the country and the absence of ideas as to how to get out of the economic and social crisis. On 11 February, Office of the President Chief of Staff (CoS) Andriy Bogdan is dismissed. А president’s friend, film producer Andriy Yermak is appointed as new CoS. On 4 March, the Rada dismisses PM Goncharuk’s Cabinet of Ministers. Goncharuk is dismissed soon thereafter by the President. The Rada appointed Denis Shmygal as the new PM. Shmygal is a short-term governor of Ivano-Frankivsk region, and a top manager of DTEK Corporation, which is owned by a key Ukrainian oligarch, Rinat Akhmetov. These moves signify the start of major changes in the Ukrainian political environment—a new way in which the country will be managed, and a new direction in which the country will be moving (At the time, this was not obvious). Or...