Friday, December 24, 2010

Bighead Arbuzov

Newly appointed head of the National Bank of Ukraine, Serhiy Arbuzov, was to hold his first press conference on Monday, 27th December, but today the NBU press service announced that the conference has been postponed indefinitely. Press agencies were informed that all questions to Arbuzov were to be sent in advance - by e-mail. I suppose the tough ones will be thrown in the bin...

As mentioned in my previous blog, Arbuzov astonishingly did not utter one word of thanks and did not address parliament detailing his plans for the future when his appointment was ratified on Thursday.

The thought that he is a civil servant responsible for looking after the financial assets of all of the country's citizens, and that he is directly accountable to these citizens, does not seem to have entered into his pea brain.

Upstart Arbuzov, when appointed deputy head of the NBU this summer, allegedly insisted that other deputy heads submitted applications in writing, detailing reasons, if they wanted to bother him about any matter.

When Arbuzov needed to meet Minister of Finance Fedir Yaroshenko, he absolutely insisted the Minister came to the Bank headquarters rather than the other way around. Having to travel the short distance to the Cabinet Minister's office would have been a humiliation, even though one of Arbuzov's first demands was his automobile be fitted with flashing lights...

Arbuzov's attitude is par for the course for members of Yanukovych's clan. The president has hardly ever exposed himself to open-microphone questioning either..


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