Locomotives and a court: Kyiv's late February 2018

What did Ukraine's institutions have to show in the final week of February 2018? By 27 February 2018, two developments had been reported, one commercial and one judicial.

On 23 February, Ukrzaliznytsia and the American corporation General Electric signed a seven-year contract worth a billion dollars. It covers the supply of locomotives and diesel locomotives.

Two days earlier, on 21 February, Stanislav Shevchuk was elected head of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.

The reports on these two events do not connect them, and they should not be read as linked. Taken together, they show what was on the public record by 27 February 2018: a large, long-term supply deal for the national railway operator, and a leadership choice at the country's Constitutional Court.

The seven-year term of the General Electric contract is the detail to watch. A deal of that length commits the railway and its supplier to a long relationship. The Constitutional Court's new head, for his part, took up the post on the day of his election.