Family Business Ukraine: Centralisation of Political Corruption under the Presidency of V. Yanukovych

This paper aims to present the first empirical findings on strategies for dealing with political corruption under the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych and his team between 2010 and 2013. In order to do so, I concentrate on political corruption in the public procurement sector. The main methods used for the study are network analysis as well as expert’s interviews, conducted during a study visit to Kyiv, in March and May 2014. I hypothesize that while the political system of the country is developing toward authoritarianism, the ruling political elite try to centralize corruption. The strategy of Yanukovych aimed at building a very close circle, known as the “Family”, excluding both the political opposition and competition on the part of oligarchs.