University of Pittsburgh professor and Ukraine native Tim Mylovanovhas recently returned from an eventful holiday trip to his home country. He offers his take on the situation there and talks about his efforts to help create positive change in Ukraine amid economic challenges and conflicts with Russia.
Mylovanov acknowledges that the political and judicial corruption for which Ukraine has been notorious remains an issue for the country, but he says the corruption may be a symptom rather than a cause. He says that the Ukrainian economy and political system definitely suffer from a lack of transparency, but because that lack of transparency ends up benefiting parties with vested interests, it’s difficult to overcome.
Mylovanov explains that he is part of an informal group of economists, scholars and critics that publishes articles covering Ukrainian political issues at voxukraine.org. Occasionally the work published at Vox Ukraine has been influential to Ukrainian policymakers, who have adopted some of the scholars’ recommendations.
Today Ukraine occupies a sort of middleground between the culture of Russia and the culture of the West. Mylovanov says that Russia seems to be trying to sway Ukraine to a more pro-Russia position, but he feels that the West will also play a role.