It was interesting to hear the rumors that Sergey Tigipko is being touted as a possible replacement to Oleksiy Honcharuk as prime minister.
To be honest, I initially thought that this was a joke. First, because President Volodymyr Zelensky had previously promised a fresh new look cabinet, with ministers who had not served in similar positions before.
And look frankly, Tigipko, has Ukraine establishment written all over his CV – having served as deputy prime minister and minister of economy under ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, was a presidential candidate in the 2010 elections (3rd place) and for a short time acting governor of the National Bank of Ukraine.
He was also chairman of the board of PrivatBank (1992-1997) and then headed a bank before selling it out to Swedbank – and that particular deal did not end up very well for the Swedish bank.
Second, Tigipko represents the old school way of economic thinking — not sure when Ukraine is trying to send a message of fresh/new thinking what kind of message this would send.
And was Ukrainian policy that good/successful under Tigipko in the past? I just don’t think so.
Many of the macroeconomic imbalances with which Ukraine had to grapple with in 2013/14 had their origin in the policies run from 2010 when Tigipko was close to economic policy. He had a chance to reform in the past but failed to deliver. Why would Zelensky think he has solutions now?
