Ukraine appoints law graduate, 23, to lead purge campaign

Ukraine’s justice minister has appointed a 23-year-old law graduate to lead a campaign to purge officials tainted by corruption of the ousted regime.

The “lustration” move was a key demand of anti-government protests in Ukraine that culminated in the then president, Viktor Yanukovych, fleeing the country in February 2014.

The justice minister, Pavlo Petrenko, said on Wednesday that Anna Kalynchuk had been appointed director of the lustration department on merit.

Last week, the interior minister, Arsen Avakov, appointed a 24-year old woman as his deputy. He was accused of promoting his protégé, who has posted naked pictures of herself online.

The appointments of young candidates with little experience follow high-profile resignations of foreign-born reformist politicians earlier this month, including the Odessa governor, Mikheil Saakashvili, and the police chief, Khatiya Dekanoidze.

“Ukrainian politics looks increasingly like a circus show in which clowns come to succeed frustrated professionals,” Kiev-based independent political analyst Vadim Karasyov said Wednesday.

“The resignations of top professionals and new scandalous appointments send a bad message both to society and western partners who expect from Ukraine quite a different outcome of the reforms.”

Avakov said his appointment had been vetted by several top Ukrainian officials but presidential adviser Iryna Gerashchenko said that wasn’t true.

“The nude pictures are not the problem,” Gerashchenko said. “The appointment of a deputy minister on the integration with Europe has not been vetted by the deputy prime minister in charge of the Europe and Atlantic integration.”