Not wishing to labour the point about corruption in Ukraine having only written about it a few days ago following Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index release, it is probably only fair to provide an overview of corruption during the period 2007 - 2009 for the previous government of Yushenko/Tymoshenko, lest the impression is given that matters have somehow gotten much worse.
So without further ado, here is a link to a very nice report full of graphs and charts from TRACE International Organisation, a fellow global corruption monitor akin to Transparency International.
As would seem quite clear, there is not much room for it to have gotten much worse for the average Ukrainian under either past or current government, with only room for the above average Ukrainian to suffer more.
As I have said numerous times, changing corruption with the stroke of a pen via new laws will not deal with corruption despite any political rhetoric we may hear. To fight corruption effectively, change need to come from the bottom-up and eradicate the $10 - $5000 bribes which are the most pronounced in the above TRACE International survey, and the top down for the incredibly large figues in the survey but which are far less common according to the survey
Anyway, it seemed appropriate of Internetional Anti-corruption Day to bring you a link full nof charts and graphs relating to Ukraine. One can only suppose that a similar report for 2010 - 2011 and the first 2 years under the current government will be released sometime during 2012.
I am sure such a dismal showing will continue until society as well as government tackle the issue far more robustly than has ever been attemtped here since independence. To expect government (even if it has the political will) to solve this issue without the cooperation and active engagement of society is a complete nonsense.