Georgians Influential in Ukraine Police Reform

Ukraine’s leaders watched on as Kyiv’s new traffic　police　force underwent its initiation ceremony in Kyiv on July 4 with euronews reporting that officials were hopeful that as many as 2,000 new recruits would be able to clean up what is traditionally one of the country’s most corrupt institutions.

The new officers will be trained by their counterparts from the US, Canada and Japan, and will be paid more than their predecessors.

Eka Zguladze, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs stated: “The salary of a new recruit starts at 8,000 hryvnias (342 euros). It is not millions, but it is something on which you can live and sustain your family. We hope that there will be very few incidents of　corruption. What is corruption? It’s a crime, simple, full-stop.”

The new Ukrainian police officers hope they will benefit from a similar approach undertaken by Georgia in the 2000s.

“In Georgia, police salaries increased 15 times during the reforms. I hope the same thing will happen in　Ukraine. But today it is very important to change what’s happening in the country, so that people and the police will be friends and work together,” stated Zguladze.

At this stage, 2,000 new police officers will be patrolling the streets of Kyiv. The reform, according to the information, will be completed by the end of 2016 if enough funds are raised.

As Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine’s President, wrote on his Facebook page, the new officers will be stationed in the in cities of Lviv, Kharkiv and Odessa.

The presentation of the new police officers was staged in Kyiv by the highest officials of Ukraine including the President, PM and Interior Minister Zguladze, who has been in office since the end of 2014 tasked with supervising the police reform in Ukraine.　

Several days ago, Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgian ex-president and a governor of Odessa district said that Californian police will train Odessa’s officers.

“Within the framework of Odessa’s anti-corruption measures, the U.S. government agreed to provide funds for the salaries of the new team of [Mikhail] Saakashvili,” - the Governor himself posted on his Facebook page after he met with the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt.

Police reform was one of the most significant breakthroughs in Saakashvili’s reign as president and even his fiercest critics would concede that this was successful. Ukraine now seeks to mirror Georgia’s success in this regard but it will be some time before the reform will bear fruit in an institution notoriously rife with corruption.

Zviad Adzinbaia