On 8 April, a roundtable on “The main obstacle to decentralization is the incomplete democratization of the soviet-style chain-of-command.”

Ukraine has been in the midst of a political crisis for some time now. The reasons behind this are not the mentality, or the cultural or political history of the country, and not bad leadership or an east-west conflict. A fragmented, incomplete “desovietization” of the system of government, unsupported by established European standards of government is the sole reason for the political chaos in this country, says ICPS Director Vira Nanivska.

Participants in the discussion included:

• Vira Nanivska – Director of the ICPS;
• Volodymyr Yatsuba - Regional Development and Building Minister;
• Oles Dovgiy - Deputy Mayor of Kyiv;
• Volodymyr Vakulenko - Head of regional management, local self-government and municipal management subfaculty of National Academy of State Management under the President of Ukraine;
• Roman Basalyha - Director City Institite;
• Daniel Caron - Ambassador, Embassy of Canada;
• Heike Doerrenbaecher - representative of Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty in Ukraine and Belarus.

This event was organized by ICPS, the Friedrich Nauman Foundation and the City Institute.