Presidential candidate Zelenskyi promises SBU reform

On January 30, 2019, the Central Election Commission of Ukraine registered Volodymyr Zelenskyi as a candidate for the position of the President of Ukraine. It is very important that one of the key promises of Zelenskyi included in the program is to perform the reform of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

The program states the following “Law enforcement agencies should stop putting economic pressure on businesses and return to their direct responsibilities to ensure the safety of citizens. It is time to restore the trust in law enforcement that we cherished at the beginning of the reform. The SBU will not be engaged in economic crimes.”

This means that the candidate Zelenskyi supports the idea of depriving the SBU of the unnecessary and redundant function of investigation of economic crimes, which was often abused to extort legitimate businesses. The SBU should focus on their security-related functions, namely counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism activities.