I think all these efforts are part of a process. In terms of combatting corruption, an entire anti-corruption architecture has been put in place in Ukraine, including the Private Detectives Agency, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, and the High Anti-Corruption Court. The judges who sit on that court were chosen with Canadian, British and European help. Candidates were assessed using a relatively rigorous checking process. It was not done on a volunteer basis.
A body like mine is independent. It is funded by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, or EBRD, and provides a possible recourse for business people inside Ukraine and people from outside, such as investors. It can help them restore their rights if they believe that they have been victims of wrongdoing by authorities of a municipality or the Ukrainian government.
Having people like me, a Canadian citizen and former ambassador of Canada in Ukraine, an interlocutor of the police or of representatives of the security services or the Ministry of Economy, a lawyer to defend small businesses and big businesses like the Louis Dreyfus Company or Shell, indicates a fairly high degree of transparency in relations with the Ukrainian government.
We are far from perfect, but we are aiming in the right direction, and that is quite encouraging.