Yushchenko slams idea of merging Gazprom and Naftogaz

The realization of a proposal of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to merge Gazprom and Naftogaz Ukrainy contradicts Ukrainian national interests and will lead to the creation of a new monopoly in Europe, Ukraine's third president Viktor Yushchenko said.

A relevant statement was posted on the Our Ukraine's Web site.

Yushchenko said that Putin's proposal means the creation of Gazprom of "the cold war time," when gas and oil would be used as the tools of pressure on the whole Europe.

"This imperial project contradicts Ukrainian national interests and crosses out all Ukraine's successful groundwork for the last 18 years on the Ukrainian energy sector's integration to the civilized European energy space, where each person has free access to energy under fair rules and norms," Yushchenko said.

"This is the way to corruption and dictate in Ukrainian and consequently European energy sectors," Yushchenko said.

Yushchenko surprised at speed of Yanukovych revamp

In February, Viktor Yushchenko vacated the Ukrainian presidency after a single five-year term that was plagued by political infighting, mounting hostilities with Moscow, and a bitter fallout with Orange Revolution ally Yulia Tymoshenko. In his place is the man he bested in 2004, Viktor Yanukovych, who has moved with breathtaking speed to roll back many of Yushchenko's pro-Western reforms.

Yushchenko joined Iryna Shtohrin in RFE/RL's Kyiv bureau this week for a live call-in show to talk about his opinion of Ukraine's path under Yanukovych. He talked about the speed with which his successor has moved to change the course of Ukraine, the "test" surrounding the Black Sea Fleet, and who's behind Viktor Yanukovych.

Question : There seems to be full unity among the current president, the parliamentary coalition, and the government in the current team. What chances do you think the president and his team have to transform Ukraine into a civilized country that is comfortable to live and work in?

Viktor Yushchenko: There are many views and assessments of that happening now. Some are pessimistic, others are more optimistic. Mine is pessimistic. I will explain why.

It is not a question of clean streets or even comfort in our homes. It seems to me that in order to have a good discussion, we need to understand what is in the minds and thoughts of the people, and understand that the discussion should center around that.

If we're talking about the course -- because the president is responsible for the course, and not how clean the streets are, or how well the utilities sector is operating -- what is the Ukrainian nation interested in discussing? It is the course that I pursued. We need to make [Ukraine] a modern, European state. It is our priority. We are Europeans because we are Ukrainians.

Question : What kind of course do you feel is being pursued now?

Yushchenko: It is the other kind of course -- making Ukraine a territory of privileges, under the Russian zone of influence. These are two diametrically opposite courses that are supported by different kinds of politicians. So as we talk about Yanukovych's course today, we should acknowledge that he has millions of people behind him, who stand ready for his next actions and who applaud his course.

So I am far from banal discussions about trying to comprehend our essence through one personality. It make no sense to talk about who is a bigger crook among politicians or choose among evil number one, two, three, or four until we have created a healthy nation, a nation that can clearly define its national goals and choices. We need to understand that it all starts with us.


Question : Is there anything Viktor Yanukovych has surprised you with in these two months


Yushchenko: One thing -- speed. He did what was written in his election slogans, starting with Odesa: one country, two languages; one country, four religions; one country, six or seven versions of history, including Donetsk's own history, and so on.

Question : When you talked with Mr. Yanukovych before the election and when the election result was already known, did you have a conversation with him where you said, "Mr. President, as I hand power over to you, I would like you to do, 'One, Two, Three...'"?
Yes, it was the first conversation we had in the presidential office; it was a formal talk by the presidential desk. First and foremost, what I told him and what I would like to be the cornerstone of the work of any Ukrainian president, not only President Yanukovych, is that Ukraine comes first. Let us not be afraid of the fact what we are Ukrainians. Let this word be repeated millions of times, let's get used to it.

But secondly and most importantly, I said [to Yanukovych], 'Viktor Fyodorovych, the most important task for the president is to pursue a policy of national unity. This is our No. 1 task -- the unity of the nation. And the unity of the nation is what your foreign policy should be about, what your humanitarian policy should be about, and your economic policy -- everything that can consolidate the nation. If we look at what has been done over the past 50 days, it seems to me that, unfortunately, we have been thrown some 15 years back in terms of consolidation.

Question : How would you explain the following? Viktor Yanukovych has in fact rejected before the international community the notion that the Ukrainian famine, the Holodomor, was an act of genocide. His position, which is essentially the same as the Russian delegation's position, influenced the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which overwhelmingly approved a draft resolution that rejected the recognition of Holodomor as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people. Is this fact helpful to national consolidation ?

Yushchenko: No. I think a whole number of political, ethical, and state mistakes have been made here. But as it was written on Solomon's ring, "This too shall pass." Don't look at it as though this was the last point in this story. Five years ago, we didn't even have the basis or the research for such discussions. Obviously there is a great problem of knowledge, and awareness -- including by the head of state -- regarding Holodomor. I think this is still the effect of "The Short Course [Of History Of The Bolshevik Party]" [history textbook] of 1937. What is genocide according to the international definition? It is the mass murder of people based on their ethnicity, religion, or race, There is a law in Ukraine that recognizes Holodomor as a fact of genocide. There is a court decision that contains a list of people who were directly involved in the mass annihilation of Ukrainians. I am not going to go into the subject of ethnic basis. In a broad sense, in the context of the United Nations, the ethnic basis means that every person who was killed there -- whether Ukrainian, or Greek, or German, or Jewish -- falls under the notion of ethnic basis. Therefore the decision of the Verkhovna Rada, which supported my bill; court decisions; and 13 national parliaments of the world that have recognized Holodomor in Ukraine as an act of genocide certainly provide a fundamental legal basis to continue this work.

Question : It looks like there is a list of things that you did as president -- revealed information about Holodomor and made everything so it is remembered, issued a decree to recognize World War II-era Ukrainian nationalists Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych as Heroes of Ukraine, etc. And every single one of these points is now being overturned. It's been reported that the current presidential administration is examining your orders from the time of the presidential campaign last October and if they find [your orders] as being influenced by the campaign, they will annul them. What do you think about this?

Yushchenko: I have no doubt that it's going to happen. The debate is about two different courses now. And although it is in the president's power to reverse my work -- particularly my work toward national consolidation, or my European course, or my democratic course -- it will certainly have no value or credibility. But I do not want the people to perceive this as some kind of puzzle. After all, the kind of discussion we're having now is, in a normal country, resolved through national consolidation, elections, though an understanding that we stand next to each other like brothers in defense of the values that our government is then based upon. The government will always support what the nation supports. And if we don't know what we stand for, we will only be commenting on various decrees issued by the president, and be surprised with them.

Question : Mr. President, you have been talking about unity a lot. In your opinion, after the latest actions of the new government, does Ukraine have any chance to unite, to be one nation, one family?

Yushchenko: When we talk about unity, it immediately raises the question: What should unite us? It is our national priorities that should unite us. Therefore, I believe the most difficult task today is to work out a unified set of priorities, particularly for the democratic forces and patriotic organizations. The nation must understand that the transition from a population to a nation is its duty, its responsibility. You should stand by your commitment to your memory, your language, your history. The president is not the only vehicle for such ideas. If you don't have such values and you don't care what language you hear, you will never achieve real statehood.

We say that the Ukrainian state has been around for 19 years. What is 19 years after a 300-year period of colonial slavery? Of course, we have lost our key immunities, they are destroyed. So then those Ukrainian politicians who advocate consolidation and unity should not allow a situation where, after we've united, we get a gas deal [with Russia] that puts Ukraine on its knees for the next 10 years.

What should we unite for? If we are divided by the Black Sea Fleet issue -- and I'm convinced that this is a security test -- as long as Ukraine is unable to make its stance clear with regard to hosting foreign military boots on its territory, it makes no sense to keep talking about food, independence, or anything else. So, as difficult as it is, we need to consolidate around systematic, basic national values.

Question : Is there a legal way to reverse the extension of the Black Sea Fleet's stay on Ukrainian territory after 2017? Are your allies and you personally seeking a legal, civilized way to prevent it from happening?
Yushchenko: There is no quick solution that would reverse the trouble that took place in the Ukrainian parliament two days ago. It was Ukraine that was beaten [in parliament]. What happened [in parliament during the ratification process] was a political Chornobyl. I repeat: There is no quick solution, no button that would reverse this decision. Therefore we need to make a political analysis of our advantages and their advantages. Their advantages are ephemeral. They have a majority in parliament. Our potential forces are a majority in society.

I appeal to public opinion now. Today the mission of nongovernmental organizations, journalists -- I wouldn't speak of political organizations because they have minimum popularity in the country, and advancing a cause through a political organization is a long process now -- but using various kinds of resistance fronts and movement to form the public opinion, I think, is the right way to go.

We are going to initiate a forum of Ukrainian forces to develop the concept of an act of disobedience, an action plan to defend the constitution and law, to defend all things sacred [to Ukraine] and defend Ukraine's sovereignty.

Question : How would you describe the current form of government?
Yushchenko: Right now it is a totalitarian model, where one person holds three institutions in his hand: the parliamentary majority, the government, and the presidential office.

Question : If Yulia Tymoshenko was president now, do you think she would have made the same statement that Yanukovych made on the Holodomor in PACE? Would she have repealed your decrees regarding Bandera and Shukhevych? Would she have signed the Black Sea Fleet pact with Russia?

If we're talking about ideology, I'm certain that Tymoshenko and Yanukovych share the same ideology. Yanukovych did not reverse the gas deal that was signed by Tymoshenko, because it suits both of them. Yanukovych and Tymoshenko are the best project Moscow has done in the past 100 years.

You will recall the Russian prime minister's backstage statement some time ago that Tymoshenko was ready, if she became president, to let the Russian navy stay on Ukrainian territory for another 50 years. I have no doubt that Tymoshenko's and Yanukovych's positions are as alike as two peas, except one thinks in terms of about 25 years, the other thinks in terms of about 50 years. As for the issue of NATO, I have no doubt that Tymoshenko's and Yanukovych's positions are the same -- listen to her statement in Brussels, she said that Ukraine should take into account Moscow's reaction when it decides whether or not it should become a member of NATO.

Question : Does that mean that you are not considering the possibility of uniting with Yulia Tymoshenko in the efforts you've talked about?
Yushchenko: If we are to confront the threats to Ukrainian statehood, then there is a need to consolidate with everyone. But if we're talking about supporting Tymoshenko's return to power, I strongly believe [I will not join forces with her]."

Yushchenko's Defeat Is His Alone

Last week's presidential election in Ukraine failed to produce a clear winner, but it clearly produced an obvious loser: the incumbent President Viktor Yushchenko, the charismatic figure who, only five years ago, symbolised for many the democratic aspirations of the Orange Revolution.
The election also produced an ironic reversal of fortunes for opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich, who symbolised the old Soviet practice of transfer of power and was forced out by the Orange Revolution.Yanukovich received 35.42%, the current Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko won 25%, while Yushchenko received less than 6% of the votes. A second round of voting is scheduled for February 7.Some commentators wondered whether the Orange Revolution had been all for naught. This wrongly equates the Orange Revolution's democratic values with the political performance of one of its leaders. The popular rejection of Yushchenko does not mean the failure of or the rejection of the democratic foundations that the Orange Revolution put in place.Alive and kickingThe very result of the election in which the president is being rejected in favour of the opposition leader attests to the democratic nature of the process — a major accomplishment of the Orange Revolution. The US government recognised this achievement and congratulated the Ukranian people for it."We congratulate the Ukrainian people on the conduct of their January 17 presidential elections. This is another significant demonstration of the development of democracy in Ukraine," US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said.The real failure here is not one of value but of personality; the astounding rejection by the Ukrainian people of Yushchenko is a rejection of his personal approach to democratic governance, but an affirmation of the values of democracy.First among these values is the primacy of people on whose behalf the politicians govern. If democracy is about government by the people for the people, Yushchenko failed to uphold that important value. He was isolated from the people and preoccupied with the intrigues of politics and dissipated by the demanding complexities of power.Democracy is also about the art of compromise and consensus building. Here again Yushchenko failed the democratic test. He seemed to spend more time fending off rivals and uncovering real or imagined parliamentary conspiracies, than on the business of governance. He thus made sure he had no time to build parliamentary and popular support.It is true that the fact control over the executive is divided between the president and the legislature created fertile ground for infighting and political paralysis, but Yushchenko showed no leadership in asserting the supremacy of the legislature. Instead he was busy revisiting history and making Russia look bad.The stubbornness with which he constructed and pursued his political agenda illustrates how far removed from the people Yushchenko was. High among his list of priorities was to achieve Ukrainian membership of NATO.He continued to pursue that objective even when it was made clear to him that Moscow strongly opposed Ukrainian membership of NATO. Moreover, opinion surveys showed that two-thirds of the Ukranian population opposed joining NATO.UnwiseIgnoring Moscow's security concerns in this regard only ensured the Kremlin's hostility without securing tangible assurances or support from the West. Like his friend Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who imprudently challenged Russia militarily two years ago and was humiliatingly defeated, Yushchenko unwisely defined Ukrainian independence through a series of anti-Russian measures.These included, in addition to the quest for NATO membership, the downgrading of the status of the Russian language in a country where one in three people is a native speaker of Russian. Moreover, Yushchenko made the highly provocative decision to evict the Russian navy from its Black Sea base in the port of Sevastopol.Moscow responded forcefully. It terminated its energy subsidies and demanded that Ukraine pay market prices for Russian oil and gas; it even shut down its pipelines and compelled Ukraine to accept the new terms, leading many Ukrainians to hold Yushchenko responsible for the higher energy prices.Perhaps lack of experience and a naïve understanding of international relations led Georgia's Saakashvili and Ukraine's Yushchenko to believe that they could challenge their powerful neighbour to ingratiate themselves with the West and suffer no consequences.Arguably many of Yushchenko's democratic failings might have been forgiven by the Ukrainian people had he delivered on his promise of economic prosperity; many hold him responsible for mismanagement of the economy and for the grave financial crisis that paralysed economic activities and caused the country's currency to lose 50 per cent of its value. Only emergency aid from the IMF is keeping a more severe crisis at bay.Thus the Ukrainian elections raise an interesting question: Is it possible for democracy to take hold in a country even in the absence of past democratic traditions, and despite its leaders' lack of democratic experience? The answer seems to be yes, largely because commitment to democratic values and institutions transcends the limitations of history and personality.

Yushchenko Has “Lying Disease,” Vice-Premier Turchynov Says

KIEV, Ukraine -- Addressing a cabinet meeting Jan. 6, first Vice-Premier Oleksandr Turchynov has called President Yushchenko’s recent accusations of the cabinet as flagrant lies.
“Typically, we do not comment such declarations but, regrettably, Viktor Yushchenko, who is still president of the country, has definitely lost control and comes up on a daily basis with stupid charges that are in fact flagrant and cynical lies,” Turchynov said.Turchynov cited Yushchenko’s recent statements about an off-shore company owned by Premier Tymoshenko and the alleged loss of Ukraine’s gas pipelines.While in office, Yushchenko hasn’t filed a single lawsuit with the prosecutors or SBU (former KGB), or police, or the tax authorities about the loss of Ukraine’s pipelines. These are not merely fantasies, it is a disease, a lying disease,” he added.“One thing when such declarations emanate from an illiterate oppositionist. However, when the president gets involved in mud-slinging you have either to send him to hospital or make him take the dock in court for lying,” the first vice-premier concluded.

Yushchenko To Blame For Russia-Ukraine Spat: Medvedev

MOSCOW, Russia -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Saturday that his "Russophobe" Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yushchenko was the sole reason for the decline in relations between the two countries.
Everything Yushchenko had done in recent years had worked to damage traditional links between Russia and Ukraine, Medvedev said."We have a very difficult relationship with Ukraine, but this is not a dispute between the two societies," Medvedev said in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel."To be quite honest, all the controversy and all the problems are related to one person: the current president of Ukraine," he said."He is under the influence of Russophobe ideas. Everything he has done in recent years has damaged the traditional links between Ukraine and Russia."The comments are the latest rebuke Medvedev has delivered to the Ukrainian leader.In August Medvedev attacked what he called Ukraine's "anti-Russian" attitude and announced Moscow would not be sending a new ambassador to Kiev because of Yushchenko's policies.Russia-Ukraine relations have deteriorated since Yushchenko's election in 2005 in the wake of the Orange Revolution that ousted the old pro-Moscow elite in Ukraine.Yushchenko set his country on a course towards membership of NATO and the European Union that angered Russia.Disputes over Ukrainian payments for Russian gas have also soured relations, and last week Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned that European gas supplies could be interrupted if Ukraine failed to pay.Medvedev said he hoped "more pragmatic forces would take the reins of power" after Ukraine's presidential election, planned for January.Yushchenko is standing in the election but has little chance of victory, according to opinion polls.

'The Problems Began After The Orange Revolution'

BERLIN, Germany -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, 55, speaks with about the escalating conflict with Moscow, power struggles with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and who is responsible for the poison attack against him.

Viktor Yushchenko: There are two reasons for this: First, a great empire crumbled with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Many Russian politicians have a hard time getting used to that fact that there are new, independent states, with their own view of the past and their own future. And, second, there are problems that we have inherited, such as the Russian Black Sea fleet. Our constitution prohibits foreign military bases on our territory. And from the Soviet days as well stems our dependence as consumers and our role as a transit country for Russian gas, with all the familiar ensuing conflicts.SPIEGEL: Russia has recently recalled its ambassador from Ukraine, but not yet sent a new one. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev wrote a letter to you in which he indicated that the next ambassador will not be sent until you are no longer the head of state -- a virtually unprecedented event.Yushchenko: Yes, and these inappropriate interventions in our domestic affairs concern not only us, but also all of Europe. The Russians are a great people -- we respect them and strive to have good relations with them. But how can these relations improve if our sovereignty is continually called into question? The Russian president's letter was not directed solely at me -- I'm afraid this is something that people in Europe still haven't understood at all.SPIEGEL: The Russians are obviously focusing on you as an individual. Medvedev accuses you of adopting an "anti-Russian" course, and 47 percent of his fellow countrymen see Ukraine as an "unfriendly state." They also allege that Ukrainian soldiers and nationalist troops fought last year on the Georgian side in the war against Russia. Is this true?Yushchenko: No, it's a big lie. I'm prepared to support any international investigation. Similar lies were also spread during the gas dispute at the beginning of the year to swing public opinion in Europe against us.SPIEGEL: But you actually did support your friend, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, during the war -- also by sending weapons.Yushchenko: Even before my term as president, there were large deliveries of weapons to Georgia. Our military and technical cooperation remains within the framework of international law. As for the Russian-Georgian war, we supported Georgia because anything else would have been out of the question for us. This has nothing to do with Georgia per se. It concerns fundamental principles such as territorial integrity. This is surely a question for all of us in Europe: Is it or is it not acceptable to violate the international security architecture? It is sad to see how little the democracies of Europe stand up for their own basic values.SPIEGEL: Medvedev also accuses you of suppressing the Russian language -- with a Russian minority of 8 million and even more Russian-speaking Ukrainians.Yushchenko: We have a language problem, but this concerns the Ukrainian language. When you speak with our citizens, two-thirds of them will respond in Russian. More than half of our education budget goes toward school instruction in Russian.SPIEGEL: Then why don't you make Russian the second official language?Yushchenko: As the guarantor of the constitution, I must maintain Ukrainian as the official state language. We preserve our culture thanks to our mother tongue. This significantly contributes to maintaining our independence. If a nation loses its language, it loses its memory, its history, and its identity.SPIEGEL: The inhabitants of the Crimean Peninsula speak almost exclusively Russian. There have even been clashes there recently between Ukrainian police and military personnel of the Russian Black Sea fleet because you have had lighthouses dismantled and missile transports halted. Why all these provocations when the lease agreement expires in 2017 anyway?Yushchenko: There is a basic agreement and four amendments on the provisional stationing of this fleet with us. However a large part of this agreement is not being respected. For instance, many of the areas utilized by the military are being improperly used -- to build private villas. This all has to do with lawlessness and sloppiness. Or take the problem with the 134 lighthouses, intended for navigational purposes, which stand on our territory: Russia has simply taken control of these facilities. If they are truly all used for the fleet, then an agreement must be made with us concerning them. And we must also have the right to monitor the crew sizes and the number of ships, so that they cannot both simply be increased. No country with foreign military bases on its territory can forgo doing this in the interest of its own security.SPIEGEL: Could the same thing happen in the Crimea that occurred in the breakaway Georgian provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia -- a secession encouraged by Moscow?Yushchenko: There are no domestic reasons for this. The problem only arises when someone somehow plays the Crimea card. That is where a serious potential threat can arise. As president, I am doing everything I can to prevent this.SPIEGEL: There are already calls from Russians on the Crimean Peninsula for Moscow to support a secession -- if necessary with a war against the "stupid people" currently in power in Kiev.Yushchenko: The situation's future development essentially depends on Russia. Back in 1993 the Russian parliament declared the port city of Sevastopol a Russian city. That was an official decision, which is still in effect. This resolution shows that there are powers that are out to destabilize the Crimea.SPIEGEL: The pressure exerted by Moscow also has another motivation. Russia apparently wants to prevent Ukraine at all costs from being accepted into NATO.Yushchenko: You have to realize why Russia is so jealously observing the development of a young democracy on its border. In 1654, Ukraine lost its sovereignty and became a border province in the Russian Empire. During the 20th century, Ukraine declared its independence six times and lost it again five times. For us the loss of our sovereignty is no theoretical threat, but rather the real life experience of many generations. We have always lost our sovereignty for one single reason: because we were the victims of power games. This explains why we are now seeking our security in NATO, an alliance of democracies that already includes Poland, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.SPIEGEL: Now the West has become more reticent -- not out of consideration for Russia, but rather due to disappointment that the victors of the Orange Revolution of 2004, you and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, have plunged Ukraine into a constitutional crisis. Each is now branding the other as a traitor, as corrupt, or as a Russian agent. You yourself are losing influence at a dramatic rate. Why is it so difficult to reach a consensus among the political elite of your country?Yushchenko: I don't share your interpretation at all. I have paved the way forward for this country. Over the past four years, there has been a constant real growth rate in our gross domestic product of 7 percent. The national budget has doubled, the minimum pension has risen and foreign investments have quintupled. Show me other European countries with such results. Shouldn't I be proud of that?SPIEGEL: Nevertheless, there is great disappointment everywhere with your leadership.Yushchenko: The problems began after the Orange Revolution, when we formed a government and our first differences surfaced. We argued over what policies we actually wanted to pursue. Prime Minister Tymoshenko put a halt to market economy reforms and resorted to excessive state control. She limited exports of grain and vegetable oil under the pretense of combating inflation. Last year she destroyed the livelihoods of tens of thousands of small farmers with massive meat imports, after which livestock herds dwindled dramatically. Populism and corruption took the place of market economy competition.SPIEGEL: In European democracies, it would be up to the parliament to take action.Yushchenko: But in our country there is no functioning majority in parliament. The prime minister cannot pass a budget or a law; there is no concept for foreign policy problems or economic issues. The prime minister does not even mention the word NATO -- she has forgotten the democratic values that we strove to uphold in the Orange Revolution. The policies of the populists are depriving our country of its rights and responsibilities, despite the fact that many people are currently applauding the populists. Maintaining power has become an end in itself -- and this at any price: through betrayal, secret deals, putsches.SPIEGEL: Those are tough allegations against a former fellow activist who stood at your side on Kiev's Independence Square.Yushchenko: Unfortunately, she later even sought allies among the former opponents of the revolution in order to topple the president. MPs from my party's parliamentary group were bought off so the prime minister could secure her post.SPIEGEL: That sounds more like a banana republic than Europe.Yushchenko: This is due to the constitutional reform that parliament passed in 2004 to prevent a violent end to the revolution. Over time, this has paralyzed the entire power structure. My rights to appoint members of the government were drastically curtailed.SPIEGEL: There are also rumors of mafia-style groups in parliament.Yushchenko: We have a number of convicted criminals there; they could form their own parliamentary group. The failed constitutional reform has meant that we have representatives in parliament who are only interested in acquiring certain companies and controlling private financial interests.SPIEGEL: Moscow is only an observer here?Yushchenko: Just look at the activities of the prime minister and her trips to Moscow: When I warn of a fifth column, I know what I'm talking about.SPIEGEL: The only problem is that in opinion polls 30 percent of respondents support Yulia Tymoshenko, whereas you enjoy at best between 6 and 8 percent. You are the big loser of the Kiev power struggles.Yushchenko: Please don't come at me with such numbers.SPIEGEL: Apparently, you have asked too much of many Ukrainians with your rapid embrace of the West.Yushchenko: After 18 years of independence, drawing closer to NATO holds a particularly high priority for me. We have already achieved incredible things in our relations with the EU: easing trade barriers, forging visa agreements. I am convinced that for this country there is no alternative to the course that I stand for.SPIEGEL: You have become a lonely president. Will you nevertheless run for re-election in January?Yushchenko: Of course. My popularity ratings are rising again. The Medvedev letter should further enhance this trend.SPIEGEL: Before the election is held, can you -- as promised -- clear up the two high-profile controversial cases in Ukraine: the murder in September 2000 of journalist Georgy Gongadze, who had written about high-level corruption, and the poison attack on yourself in September 2004? The truth apparently only comes out bit by bit, only when someone expects to gain something politically.Yushchenko: You are under a false impression; the president does not have the right to supervise judicial inquiries. Clearing up Gongadze's murder is a question of honor for me. Three of those directly involved in the murder have already been convicted, and I'm proud of that. Now we have to find the person who ordered the murder. What nobody in the West will understand is that the key witness who we have arrested -- a police general -- has to be protected 24 hours a day so no one will take revenge on him. There are people in the entourage of the prime minister who are not interested in seeing the inquiry make progress because they worked under former President Leonid Kuchma, who was in power when the murder took place.SPIEGEL: And your poisoning at that official dinner party in 2004?Yushchenko: The investigations have been completed; state prosecutors have interviewed over a thousand witnesses. A number of members of parliament -- including opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich, who headed the government at the time -- have not made statements. People who directly organized my poisoning have been in Moscow for the past four years. I have appealed to the Russian president three times, and asked him to have them questioned by Ukrainian investigators at our embassy in Moscow. The suspects include the former deputy director of the intelligence agency, the cook and one of the waiters. All of these people are in Moscow.

Yuschenko defends his version of constitution draft

Kyiv, September 5 - Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko has insisted that a draft constitution that he has proposed will help put things in order and restore the rights and freedoms of all Ukrainians.
"I said in my constitutional draft what we have to do to have a stable and democratic country with an honestly formed government," Yuschenko said in an interview, part of which was broadcast on the Inter television channel on Friday evening.
"I have been oriented toward amendments working to the benefit of the Ukrainian people," he said.
"What Ukraine needs today is a constitution that guarantees democracy, hence, independence," he said.
Yuschenko also spoke about Ukraine's cooperation with the International Monetary Fund. He said he had repeatedly drawn the government's attention to the need to comply with obligations Ukraine had undertaken as part of cooperation with the IMF. He believes IMF experts analyzing the state of affairs in Ukraine see that they receive promises instead of actions.
"I believe that the IMF mission that is present in Ukraine now has absolutely correct grounds, including legal ones, to conclude that five out of the six previous agreements have not been implemented by the Ukrainian government," Yuschenko said.
"I have urged the government to do all it can so that all the obligations be honored. We need to make sure at any cost that we are not excluded from the IMF program," he said.