Roman Nasirov, Ukraine's former tax and customs chief who is being investigated for misusing public office, is now under house arrest. (c) NurPhoto/SIPA USA/PA Images. All rights reserved.Strange things are happening in Kyiv. In spring 2017, two prominent Ukrainian politicians — Mykola Martynenko, a former MP, and Roman Nasirov, former head of country’s fiscal service — were arrested on corruption charges to significant fanfare. Soon, however, both men were released: Nasirov on a bail of UAH100 million (£2.9m) paid by his wife, and Martynenko without any bail. While the cases remain under investigation, the two suspects are free to move.
What does all this mean? A recent book outlines, in detail, a new theory of post-Soviet political rule and helps to explain the curious contradictions in Ukraine’s politics today.
What patronalism is made of
In 2015, Henry E. Hale, a political scientist at George Washington University, published a ground-breaking monograph under the intriguing title Patronal Politics: Eurasian Regime Dynamics in Comparative Perspective. In this broad study of post-Soviet socio-economic and political life, Hale lays out a comprehensive re-interpretation of state-society interactions, oligarchic rule, center-periphery relations, presidential as well as economic power, parliamentary affairs, party building, policy formation and media landscapes, in the USSR’s successor states.
