Zelenskyy introduces regulations on oligarch registry
Kateryna Tyshchenko – Wednesday, 29 June, 2022, 22:50
The National Security and Defence Council (RNBO) [of Ukraine - ed.] has approved the Regulations on the Register of Oligarchs, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has put them into effect.
Source: Presidential decree no. 459/2022 of 29 June
Presidential decree, quote: "To implement the decision of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine of 29 June 2022: ‘On the approval of the Regulations on the Register of persons with significant economic and political importance in public life (oligarchs), the procedure for its constitution and maintenance’."
Details: The regulations determine the procedure for the constitution and maintenance of a register of oligarchs.
The Register is digital and in the state language.
Information involving state secrets and official secrets will not be added to the register, and information regarding oligarchs entered in the register should not be regarded as confidential.
It is noted that the register can be created and put into operation in stages, namely in a modular fashion, in accordance with the priority of tasks and availability of resources.
The regulation also determines the procedure for entering information about oligarchs in the register and obtaining information from the register.
Background: On 23 September 2021, the Verkhovna Rada [Ukrainian parliament - ed.] passed a law on oligarchs. According to the draft bill, the criteria for recognising a person as an oligarch include: a significant influence on the media; active participation in political life; being the ultimate beneficial owner of an entity that holds a monopoly position in the market and which has maintained or strengthened such a position for a year; and having a confirmed value of assets (and the entities of which they are the beneficial owner) of more than UAH 2 billion 270 million [approximately 77 million US dollars - ed.].
In December 2021, Oleksii Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, predicted that if the law on oligarchs is adopted as planned, the National Security and Defence Council would review the cases of the first officially identified oligarchs of Ukraine as early as 20-25 May 2022.
On 9 June 2022, Oleksandr Novikov, Head of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, stated that the idea of creating a register of oligarchs had lost its relevance since the war started.
