Ендрю Вілсон: "Щось глибоко гниле в самому серці держави

Look in more detail at the legal system. The Tymoshenko affair has demonstrated that Ukraine does not have a defective rule of law; it has no rule of law at all. Things were bad enough even before Yanukovych came to power in 2010. There were two major judicial crises under 'orange' Ukraine that left the whole legal system deeply discredited: the first when political infighting left the Constitutional Court inquorate and unable to function in 2005-06; the second when both sides tried to bribe and intimidate the Constitutional Court to rule in their favour during the dissolution crisis in the summer of 2007. So the legal system was a soft target for Yanukovych's judicial 'reform' in the summer of 2010. But Ukrainian courts have no real jury system; the Procuracy acts as a hired gun for the political authorities; so judges were the last line of defence against arbitrary justice until the highly centralising 2010 'reform' placed all aspects of their working lives (pay, promotion, dismissal, caseload) under executive authority. No wonder that conviction rates are over 99%.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/andrew-wilson/ukraine-today-guide-for-digging-deeper

http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/op_ed/detail/129331/