WASHINGTON, December 3 (Sputnik) – Ukraine's decision to grant three foreigners Ukrainian citizenship so that they could fill cabinet positions is an attempt to show the pro-Western outlook of the country rather than an effective policy step, experts told Sputnik Tuesday.
"This is a 'political' or public relations statement to re-affirm pro-Western commitment to Ukraine, but not sure about the actual practical value," Balazs Jarabik, a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Sputnik.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Tuesday he signed a decree to give Ukrainian citizenship to nationals of the United States, Georgia and Lithuania.
Jarabik said that although all three ministers have strong professional backgrounds, it would be preferable if they were advisers instead of being appointed to top political positions as they will not "hardly bear political responsibility."
"It is also a question whether they will be able to direct Ukraine's difficult and dysfunctional government structures," he noted.
Senior Fellow at the American University in Moscow William Dunkerley also questioned the motives behind granting citizenship to foreigners and placing them in key political positions.
"Were they brought in because their specific expertise is needed? Or will their roles be just to placate the Western sources that will provide huge sums of money to bail out Ukraine's economy?" he said, questioning whether the new ministers will be "agents of change" or only "window dressing" to give the appearance of change.
Dunkerley, who recently publish the book "Ukraine in the Crosshairs," said he doubts the new cabinet members will give the United States, Georgia and Lithuania a way to interfere in Ukraine's domestic politics.
Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday voted to approve a new government of five pro-Western political parties in a coalition patched together amid political wrangling following elections in October. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, in power since February, will remain at the helm of government.
The new cabinet includes three foreign technocrats in key posts: US citizen Natalie Jaresko as finance minister, Georgian-born Aleksandr Kvitashvili as health minister and Lithuanian national Aivaras Abromavicius as economy minister.
