The leader of the Ukrainian opposition party "Fatherland" Yulia Tymoshenko opposed the decision of the Verkhovna Rada to open the agricultural land market. The politician accused deputies and President Vladimir Zelensky of "surrendering" the country.
“The masks are dropped! As soon as President Zelensky and the deputies, who work in the interests of international speculators, surrendered Ukraine, voted to sell the land! ”, Yulia Tymoshenko wrote on Facebook.
According to the ex-prime minister, the adoption of the law on the opening of the land market was made "thieves" during the epidemic and against the backdrop of a serious financial crisis. As Tymoshenko noted, the government did not stop "neither the position of the population, nor the protests of agricultural associations." Instead, deputies gave 72% of Ukrainian territory to “foreign fraudsters.”
Tymoshenko promised to appeal to the Constitutional Court in order to achieve recognition of the law “On Amending Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Concerning the Turnover of Agricultural Land” contrary to the basic law of the country. In addition, the “Fatherland” will file a complaint with the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, since people with a conflict of interest voted for the law.
“Perhaps Tymoshenko will be able to bring people to the streets. But it is unlikely that it will be able to influence the process of adoption of the law, which the president must now sign. The law was adopted at the request of the IMF, and for the authorities, the termination of support for the fund is worse than opposition rallies, ”an RT source in the Ukrainian Golos party said.
- Yulia Timoshenko
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- © Tarasov / ZUMAPRESS.com
Soil discrepancies
On the eve of the Verkhovna Rada adopted at an extraordinary meeting a law that opens the land market in the country from July 1, 2021. Measures to liberalize the sale and purchase of land will be introduced in stages.
Until January 1, 2024, the purchase of land will be allowed only for individuals who are at the same time citizens of Ukraine. The decision on admission to the land market of foreigners will be made following the results of a national plebiscite. The President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky made a proposal to put this issue to a referendum in November 2019.
According to the law adopted by the Rada, land owned by the state or communal property is not subject to sale. Among the restrictions is also a ban on the concentration of more than 100 hectares of land in the hands of one buyer. Starting January 1, 2024, Ukrainian legal entities will be allowed to buy land, one company will be able to acquire up to 10 thousand ha in total, while all sales and purchase transactions must be made only by bank transfer. Legal entities whose participants are citizens of the “aggressor state”, as well as individuals under sanctions, will not be allowed to buy land.
- Verkhovna Rada meeting
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- © Yuliya Ovsyannikova / Keystone Press Agency
If, after the referendum, foreigners get the opportunity to buy land in Ukraine, they still will not be able to acquire land in the 50-kilometer strip along the state border of Ukraine, the law says.
In addition, until 2030 the state will regulate prices for agricultural land, the value of plots cannot be lower than their normative assessment.
The bill was supported by 259 deputies. 206 representatives of the party “Volodymyr Zelensky” party of Volodymyr Zelensky, 23 deputies from the European Solidarity faction (the party is led by former President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. - RT ), 13 - from the Golos party, from the parliamentary group Trust ”- 12, and 5 votes were given by non-faction people's deputies.
“Fatherland” and “Opposition platform - for life” refused to support the land bill, the document was also boycotted by the parliamentary group “For the Future”.
However, not all representatives of parties that supported the law share the point of view of the authorities. As a source in the European Solidarity party noted in an interview with RT, Ukraine is not ready to open a land market.
“The cadastres are poorly filled, the procedures for selling land are very complicated and confusing, so there are plenty of opportunities for manipulation. We all know how law enforcement agencies work in Ukraine and every day we hear about cases of raiding. There are no protection mechanisms for ordinary shareholders, ”the deputy noted.
In turn, the source of RT in the party "Servant of the People" believes that Zelensky had to make a serious compromise.
“The sale of land allegedly opened, but introduced a lot of restrictions. For example, until 2024, only individuals and no more than 100 hectares will be able to acquire land. Nobody defended the interests of people. That is, this reform is being done exclusively for the IMF, and in a year this law can also be successfully repealed. Now, simply no one wants a default, because the law was passed, ”the politician said.
Long-suffering project
Recall that over the past decades in Ukraine there was a moratorium on the sale of agricultural land. Sale of land was prohibited, the only way to transfer land was to rent.
At the same time, the opening of the agricultural land market is a long-standing requirement of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for Kiev. As stated in 2017 by the permanent representative of the fund in Ukraine (then Jerome Vas. - RT held this post), land reform can accelerate the growth of the Ukrainian economy. According to the IMF, the existing system did not allow the agricultural sector of Ukraine to develop.
- Petro Poroshenko
- Reuters
- © Valentyn Ogirenko
According to the head of the Ukrainian Center for Political and Economic Analysis, Oleksandr Kava, talking about the fact that the opening of the land market will stimulate the development of the Ukrainian economy is a manipulation aimed at promoting the bill.
“If politicians wanted development, they would focus on industry. But the fact is that land is the only asset that remained in large volume in Ukraine and was not privatized, ”the expert explained in an interview with RT.
According to Alexander Kava, after the law comes into force, the country will begin buying land from ordinary citizens.
“The restrictions laid down in the law will not work. Given how the state mechanism of Ukraine functions, it can be understood that many schemes will be created to circumvent this framework, ”said the expert.
As Mikhail Krivoguz, a leading researcher at IMEMO RAS, noted in an interview with RT, it is difficult to talk about the beneficial effects of opening the land market on the Ukrainian economy.
“There are different opinions on this issue. Supporters of the bill believe that such an innovation will give an increase to GDP of 1-5%. The IMF believes that this can increase GDP by 2%. Estimated cost of land with its free sale should be from $ 1,500 to $ 2,000 per hectare. However, it will be the lowest price in Europe, ”the expert explained.
Petro Poroshenko tried to implement the advice of the fund. As president of Ukraine, the politician supported the idea of lifting the moratorium on land sales. Poroshenko called opponents of the reform “populists” who only prevent the authorities from protecting the interests of Ukrainian farmers. However, Poroshenko was not able to carry out scandalous amendments against the backdrop of vigorous public protest against the proposed measures. As the results of opinion polls in 2017 showed, most of the villagers were skeptical about the idea of lifting the moratorium.
In recent years, the mood of Ukrainians have not changed. This is evidenced by the results of a survey conducted by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) in February 2020. The study showed that 15% of Ukrainians are ready to vote for the opening of the land market, 62% would oppose this initiative, and another 18% of respondents would not participate in such a referendum. At the same time, part of the respondents refused to answer or stated that they did not have a definite position on the land issue.
What Poroshenko failed to do was implemented by the new president of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky. During the election campaign, he promised to form a “transparent land market” in the country.
In November 2019, the Rada adopted a bill on the abolition of the moratorium on the sale of agricultural land in the first reading. According to the document, individuals, legal entities, territorial communities and states were vested with the right to buy agricultural land. Foreigners could be admitted to land transactions no earlier than after 2024. The decision of the Rada provoked protests, as well as the transition to the opposition of the party of Yulia Tymoshenko "Fatherland". As a result, the second reading of the bill was postponed to 2020, during which time several thousand amendments were considered.
Corruption specifics
The coronavirus pandemic and the general deterioration in the country's financial and economic situation forced the authorities to speed up work on the bill. In addition, at the end of March, Kiev began negotiations with creditors on the restructuring of external debt.
As noted by Mikhail Krivoguz, today Ukraine is especially in need of new IMF loan tranches. For its part, the fund insists on a number of reforms, including the introduction of agricultural land into the market, because it is guided by the interests of Western companies, which in the future will be able to buy Ukrainian black soil, the expert explained.
- Harvesting in the Kiev region
- Reuters
- © Valentyn Ogirenko
As Zelensky said in a video message posted on Facebook, the only salvation for Ukraine could be to receive financial support from international partners in the amount of $ 10 billion. Otherwise, the country will face state default, the Ukrainian leader warned. Zelensky also recalled that the condition for receiving external assistance by Ukraine is the adoption of laws on the non-return of nationalized banks to former shareholders and on land reform.
According to Mikhail Krivoguz, in itself, the opening of the land market would not be anything bad if the reform was carried out on other conditions.
“The opening of the land market was carried out in pre-revolutionary Russia, as part of the Stolypin reforms. But in Ukraine, Ukrainian banks were withdrawn from the restriction on land concentration in one hand. And they will be able to make a veiled sale, for example, to take land from a person as a pledge, but with a shadow agreement that this pledge is formal, the land, they say, becomes their property. There are many similar risks, ”the expert explained.
According to Krivoguz, taking into account the Ukrainian level of corruption, abuses are inevitable in the implementation of the reform.
A similar point of view is shared by Alexander Kava. According to the expert, the fears that are now heard in Ukrainian society have a basis.
“Everyone is afraid that ordinary citizens will now be“ led away ”by various schemes, while the rural population of Ukraine will be left without its main resource. Considering how privatization took place in Ukraine before and as under the current president, one does not have to expect any market prices or fair land prices. International financial circles are interested in buying Ukrainian lands for nothing, ”the expert concluded.