Two judicial and legal signals before 25 October 2021

What did the days before 25 October 2021 signal for Ukraine and its neighbours? Two developments stand out, one domestic and one international.

On 22 October 2021, Vsevolod Kniazev was elected head of the Supreme Court of Ukraine. The post leads the country's highest court, and the choice of its head matters for how the judiciary is seen at home and abroad.

Three days earlier, on 19 October 2021, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced that it had raided the Washington, D.C. house of Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch and ally of Vladimir Putin. The US Treasury Department had sanctioned him in 2018.

The two events were unconnected. Together they show two kinds of pressure on institutions in the region: the need for a credible court system in Ukraine, and continued US enforcement action against sanctioned figures close to the Russian leadership.

For readers in Kyiv and beyond, the opinion to draw is modest. Leadership at the top of the judiciary and the reach of sanctions enforcement were both live questions in late October 2021.