Like his predecessors, Yushchenko still uses cozy presidential residence

Ukrainians heroically propelled him to power in the 2004 Orange Revolution, believing in his promises to strip insiders, oligarchs and bureaucrats of their many privileges and to imprison the criminals among them.

Instead, Viktor Yushchenko’s chaotic presidential rule became one of the biggest disappointments in independent Ukrainian history, as corruption spread during his five-year reign while high-level impunity and immunity remained.

Now, the defeated third president of Ukraine continues to live in privileged luxury at the expense of millions of taxpayers, among the poorest in Europe.

A half-year after leaving office, Yushchenko continues to make use of the state-owned presidential residence – carrying on a tradition of sweetheart deals for the exclusive ex-presidents’ club whose only other members are Leonid Kravchuk (1991-1994) and Leonid Kuchma (1994-2005).

During an Aug. 17 visit to the estate in the well-guarded and posh Koncha Zaspa suburb, security guards protecting it were tight-lipped. But they admitted that this is the place to find Yushchenko for an interview, saying: “Yes, if you have permission ahead of time to enter.”

How much is all of this costing taxpayers?

Oleh Rybachuk, chief of staff in 2005-2006 under Yushchenko, says that keeping hold of the presidential residence after leaving office is “disgraceful.” “We are talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayers’ money being spent on a former president,” he said. Rybachuk could not give a specific figure on how much money is spent for such perks. Rybachuk said that even while serving as presidential chief of staff, he could not get a hold of information on how money was spent for such perks.

“This absolutely doesn’t correspond to the European practice according to which presidents and prime ministers move out of their residences after they no longer hold the positions,” Rybachuk said. Unlike in Ukraine, in the European Union, an offical can be forced to resign after being caught using a service vehicle for personal purposes.

Iryna Vannikova, Yushchenko’s press secretary, said her boss will not stay permanently. “Yushchenko lives in the residence only temporarily, until his house in Novi Bezradychi is being renovated after a fire last April. Should Ukrainian presidents live on the street? Let's treat a president of Ukraine with some respect,” Vannykova said, although she could not explain why the ex-president had not chosen to live in his Kyiv apartment or dacha near Yaremcha in western Ukraine.

Yushchenko is no exception in his desire to keep a soft nest.

Kuchma, whose corrupt and authoritarian reign left lawlessness deeply embedded, also has a state-owned dacha in Koncha Zaspa. Kravchuk, the onetime ideological chief for Soviet Ukraine’s Communist Party, also lives in a state-owned house in the elite suburb.
Hanna Herman, deputy head of President Viktor Yanukovych’s administration, gave a shrugging “why not?” response when asked why Yushchenko is still keeping his presidential digs.

“Leonid Kravchuk keeps his presidential residence, so does Leonid Kuchma,” Herman explained. “So why not let President Yushchenko stay at his residence as well? After all, this is a tradition of the country.”

Herman could not provide details. She directed further inquiries to the presidential administration's State Affairs department, better known by its Ukrainian acronym, DUSIA. Officials there said more than $2 million is spent annually to support state residencies in Koncha Zaspa, but could not elaborate.

While effectively privatizing a state palace may rank as small on the scale of official abuses in this nation, Yushchenko’s behavior only strengthens the historical view that – far from being a democratic reformer – the third president was part and parcel of the same rotten system he inherited from Kuchma, Kravchuk and, before them, the Soviet leaders who ruled Ukraine.

After gaining less than 5 percent of the vote in the Jan. 17 first round of the presidential election, a resounding repudiation from his constituents, Yushchenko essentially asked his successor for a favor: He would keep his residence if Yanukovych sanctioned it.

At the time, Yushchenko argued that he needed a place to live after a fire had damaged the big estate he owns outside of Kyiv in Novi Bezradychi, some 35 kilometers from Kyiv.

That place boasts lovely pastoral views and a stop sign on the road leading to his country home. Construction at the site, also heavily guarded, is seen from a distance.

Sources said Yushchenko currently spends much of his time traveling abroad.

Earlier this year, political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko said that passage of a clear law on presidential entitlements is the only solution. “This is what we have left from the Soviet Union, where most top government members held their dachas for life,” Fesenko said. “Of course, this is not the case in any civilized country. Partly because of that, we are also among countries with the highest number of state residences.”

Yushchenko: Ukraine's next president will disband rada

Outgoing Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko believes that whoever gets elected president in the country's Feb. 7 runoff will dissolve the current parliament. Yushchenko announced this on Inter TV channel on Friday evening. "I am convinced that whoever gets elected president will dissolve the parliament," Yushchenko said, adding that he himself won't do this. He also said that he would not revoke his decision to suspend the decree on dissolving the parliament in 2009."The decree has been suspended and will remain so," the president said. Yushchenko also believes thatcooperation between Ukraine's parliament and the Constitutional Court might produce an official interpretation thatwould give a legal basis for settling the parliamentary crisis in Ukraine after the presidential election.

Court Accuses President Yushchenko Of Libel

KIEV, Ukraine -- The Kiev Court of Appeals has supported a libel charge put forward by Yulia Tymoshenko against President Yushchenko on Jan. 7.
“The court analyzed libelous information publicized by President Yushchenko about the alleged ownership by Yulia Tymoshenko of “the largest off-shore company,” dismissing the information as untrue, Tymoshenko’s proxy Andry Portnov said.As stressed by Portnov, this is not the first time the court dismisses Yushchenko’s untrue declarations regarding the premier.In a tit-for-tat move, Portnov accused Yushchenko of transferring to off-shore companies UAH 2 billion. “The money were received by unidentified persons. As a result, a criminal case was opened in which Yushchenko was one of the accused, Portnov continued.“Viktor Yushchenko was also incriminated in shady deals with the off-shore-based “Korteza Fine Corporation.” In a criminal case against this company Yushchenko was also one of the accused. Only his president’s immunity can save Yushchenko now from being brought to court, Portnov emphasized.After the presidential election many investigating commissions and courts will deal with Yushchenko’s crimes, the lawmaker warned.

Yuschenko to ask parliament to pass amendments to 2009 budget to raise army financing

Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko will ask leaders of parliamentary factions to pass amendments to the state budget for this year concerning the financing of the Armed Forces. Yuschenko said this on Wednesday while introducing Ivan Svyda as the new chief of the general staff of the armed forces."I believe that my address to the parliament of the country, leaders of main political forces will be heard and that the issue of the financial provision of Ukraine's Armed Forces in 2009 will be raised during the current session of the Verkhovna Rada and we will reach a positive conclusion," Yuschenko said.The president once again stressed that the insufficient financing of Ukraine's army was a result of the policies of Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's government."The disorganized and imbalanced army is obviously the aim of the premier's policies," he said.

Ukraine Govt Clashes With President On Wage Move

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian ministers warned President Viktor Yushchenko on Thursday the government cannot afford to raise minimum wages and would go to court if he approves a motion to do this passed by parliament last week.
Yushchenko indicated his support for the bill, local agencies reported, despite calls by the International Monetary Fund for the measures to be vetoed if it is to decide on releasing funds worth $3.8 billion by the end of the year.But analysts say the money, vital to cover the budget gap, have become a political football ahead of a presidential election in which Yushchenko, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and former premier Viktor Yanukovich are all expected to run.Yushchenko and Tymoshenko have been embroiled in fierce rivalry for 18 months that has blocked privatisation, delayed policy-making and twice put the IMF programme in jeopardy.As they fought, the former Soviet state has slumped deep into recession -- the IMF expects the economy to contract by up to 15 percent this year after steel exports plunged, the hryvnia currency plummeted and banks struggle to survive."If the president has taken such a decision (to support the bill), then he knows where to get the money for it. Unfortunately the finance ministry has not been informed about that and for now we see no such possibility," Acting Finance Minister Ihor Umansky told journalists on Thursday.Employment Minister Ludmila Denysova said the government would take the issue to the Constitutional Court should Yushchenko sign.The government has said raising the minimum wage by over 20 percent by the end of next year, as the bill foresees, would ost it an extra $10 billion. The IMF's fourth tranche is part of a $16.4 billion bailout programme."These levels (of wages) have obviously been raised because of the political situation, but raised by whom? By the political force that is not part of the majority and parliament accepted such a law," agencies cited Yushchenko as saying late on Wednesday."I agree with parliament," he said.GAMEPLANRBS head of CEEMEA Research Tim Ash said there was a tendency for Yushchenko to block anything which Tymoshenko tried to do."Indeed Yushchenko's game plan would likely be to use the issue to undermine Tymoshenko's position in the run-up to the presidential election," Ash said."Yushchenko's riding to the rescue of public sector employees and pensioners against the prime minister may well play well with the electorate and into the hands of Tymoshenko's opponents," he added.But other analysts have noted Yushchenko may be pressured to veto the bill by his own previous criticism of the IMF's leniency toward the government.Polls show he would not pass the Jan. 17 vote into a second round. Tymoshenko and Yanukovich, whose party initiated the wage bill, are likely to face off in the final February vote.Finance ministry data on the budget showed how necessary the IMF funds are for Ukraine. The budget deficit widened by 47 percent in September alone to 24 billion hryvnias ($3 billion) since the start of the year from 16.4 billion in Jan-Aug.Budget revenues have fallen sharply, yet spending on benefits has been maintained. Ironically, more strain has materialised through the increase in steel production and exports -- this industry receives Value Added Tax (VAT) rebates from the budget.

Yushchenko Accuses Moscow Of Provoking Ukraine

BERLIN, Germany -- Moscow is calling into question the sovereignty of Ukraine, President Viktor Yushchenko told the German news magazine Der Spiegel on Saturday.
The president said Moscow had recalled its ambassador from Kiev and was refusing to send a replacement as long as he remained as Ukrainian head of state.This was an unprecedented occurrence in Europe, the president said in an interview, details of which were released in advance of publication on Sunday.Yushchenko also blamed elements of the Russian Black Sea fleet for recent clashes with Ukrainian police on the Crimea. He said Ukraine had the right to control Russia's military presence in the region.But there were apparently forces 'who wanted to see a destabilization of the Crimea,' he said. For this reason Ukraine had to seek security within the umbrella of NATO, Yushchenko added.The president accused Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a former ally but now his political rival, of representing the interests of Russia in Ukraine.Instead of carrying out reforms, all the Tymoshenko government was interested in was clinging to power, the president said.He also accused people close to the prime minister of seeking to hobble the investigation into who tried to poison him in September 2004.More than 1,000 people had been questioned in relation to the incident, which almost cost the president his life and left his face pockmarked.'The people who organized my poisoning during an official dinner have been in Moscow for four years. Among them is a former deputy secret service head, the cook and a member of the service personnel,' he said.'I have approached the president of Russia three times and asked for Ukrainian investigators to be allowed to question them. But unfortunately that has all been in vain so far.'Despite being isolated, Yushchenko said he would be a candidate for president in elections scheduled for January 2010.

Yanukovych Is Strongest Candidate In Ukraine

Former prime minister Viktor Yanukovych is still the most popular presidential candidate in Ukraine, according to a poll by the Ukrainian Sociological Service. 29.9 per cent of respondents would vote for Yanukovych in the next presidential election, up 8.3 points since June.
Current prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko is a distant second with 15 per cent, followed by former foreign affairs minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk with 12.8 per cent, current president Viktor Yushchenko with 5.5 per cent, and Volodymyr Lytvyn of the Lytvyn Bloc with 2.3 per cent.A series of public demonstrations took place in Kiev after the November 2004 presidential run-off. The Ukrainian Supreme Court eventually invalidated the results of the second round, and ordered a special re-vote. Opposition candidate Yushchenko—whose supporters wore orange-coloured clothing at events and rallies—received 51.99 per cent of all cast ballots, defeating Yanukovych.In 2006, the PR secured 186 seats in the Supreme Council. Yanukovych eventually became prime minister in a coalition government with the Socialist Party (SPU) and the KPU. After a long political stalemate and disagreements between the president and prime minister, a new legislative ballot took place in September 2007.Final election results released in October gave the "orange forces"—including the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and Yushchenko’s People’s Union-Our Ukraine (NS-NU)—228 seats, while Yanukovych and his allies took control of 202 seats. In December, Tymoshenko was ratified as prime minister, with the support of 225 lawmakers.In September 2008, Ukraine’s governing coalition split in great part due to disagreements over a Georgia-Russia conflict. In the days following an incursion by Russian forces into South Ossetia, a Georgian breakaway province, Yushchenko asked the government to fiercely condemn Russia’s actions in Georgia, but Tymoshenko refused to take a strong stance against Russia. Yushchenko left the coalition as a result. A new parliamentary election was scheduled for Dec. 14, but was later postponed indefinitely on account of the global economic crisis.Patriarch Kirill, the maximum authority of the Catholic Orthodox Church, travelled to Ukraine in late July. On Jul. 31, Yanukovych expressed satisfaction with the visit, saying, "I consider that this very significant visit will unite Ukrainian people, will unite orthodoxy. Patriarch Kirill is a prominent figure of the Church, who is known far outside traditional territories of the Orthodox Church in the whole world. His visit is invaluable for the unification of Ukraine, which is what we all have long dreamt about."The presidential election is expected to take place on Jan. 17, 2010.Polling Data Which candidate would you vote for in the presidential election?
Viktor Yanukovych29.9% - Jul.
2009 21.6% - Jun.
2009 Yulia Tymoshenko15.0% - Jul.
200915.9% - Jun.
2009 Arseniy Yatsenyuk12.8% - Jul.
200911.5% - Jun. 2009
Viktor Yushchenko 5.5% - Jul.
20095.1% - Jun.
2009Volodymyr Lytvyn2.3% - Jul.
20095.8% - Jun. 2009

Pukach's Arrest Looks Like Pre-Election Yushchenko Ploy

KIEV, Ukraine -- The July 21 arrest of ex-Interior Ministry general Oleksiy Pukach, a suspect in the 2000 murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze, came on the same weekend that President Victor Yushchenko declared his re-election bid for the Jan. 17 presidential election. Were these two events merely coincidences or a bizarre attempt to rekindle Yushchenko’s popularity above its paltry 2-3 percent?
We can all be excused for being skeptical. After all, it is only two months before the election campaign officially kicks off.We can also be skeptical because the same Yushchenko awarded a state medal on Feb. 17, 2007 to Prosecutor-General Mykola Potebenko, who covered up Gongadze’s murder. The award was for “his great personal contribution to the building of a law abiding state, the strengthening of legality and law abiding, and his long years of conscientious toil on the occasion of his 70th birthday.”There are three aspects to the arrest of Pukach that do not add up.Firstly, why did Pukach decide to hide in a village in Zhitomir Oblast and not, as we were repeatedly told, abroad? Why did he not flee when the State Security Service (SBU) officers began to pretend they were fishing in the village five days before he was arrested? In small villages strangers are easily spotted. Pukach apparently knew he might be apprehended but did nothing to defend himself.A retired SBU officer had come to live in the village at the same time as Pukach and had made friends with him. Is that another coincidence? Or was he sent to watch over him so Pukach could be used in a future political battle? As they say, there is no such thing as a “former” spook.Secondly, why did Pukach not hide his identity card? Children playing near his car found his Interior Ministry identification card inside it. Pukach’s lawyer, Serhiy Osyka, claimed that nobody had ever tried to find Pukach. “I can give you exclusive information that Pukach decided to give himself up. In reality nobody was looking for him ad he never hid,” Osyka said.The first deputy head of parliament’s committee on organized crime and corruption, Hennadiy Moskal, also said that police officers had told him that Pukach was in contact with them and that he never went into hiding.Thirdly, the YouTube video of Pukach’s arrest was a public relations gimmick. It is rather strange that only the fragment of the video made by the SBU where he is asked if he had been involved in the Gongadze case and says “yes” was posted on YouTube. Such questions are unusual during an actual arrest and it was obviously made for the camera and YouTube.Former Justice Minister Serhiy Holovatiy, a Regions Party deputy since the 2007 elections, was head of parliament’s 2006 commission to investigate the Gongadze murder. He told Glavred magazine that he believes that the security forces released Pukach from custody in 2003 and have “controlled” him ever since (which could explain why the “retired” SBU officer was living in the village). Holovatiy believes Pukach’s release and subsequent life was controlled until a certain point in time when he would be used for political games.Holovatiy doubted that Pukach’s release would solve the Gongadze case as he did not see any political will in Ukraine to do this. Holovatiy is right. A full investigation would throw a dragnet over the roles of ex-President Leonid Kuchma, Potebenko, ex-SBU chairman Leonid Derkach and ex-presidential chief of staff Volodymyr Lytvyn.Yushchenko would not escape scrutiny himself in a full investigation. He condemned protesters in February 2001 who had been mobilized by Gongadze’s murder. Another signature on the condemnation of the protesters was Ivan Plyushch, whom Yushchenko had appointed National Security and Defense Council secretary in 2006. Plyushch was elected to the parliament on the pro-presidential Our Ukraine-Peoples Self Defense party in 2007.As prime minister, Yushchenko and his allies to this day, such as Roman Besmertnyi who was then Kuchma’s representative in parliament, refused to ever condemn Kuchma. Besmertny threatened to disband parliament if it had voted to support Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s call for Kuchma’s impeachment.The Pukach arrest could blow a hole in the conviction of three policemen (Mykola Protasov, Oleksandr Popovich and Valeri Kostenko) sentenced on March 19, 2008, to 12 and 13 years each. The three officers had admitted that they had been present when Pukach, who had commanded the surveillance unit, strangled Gongadze. Pukach’s lawyer says that his was fabricated by the three officers.Following the conviction of the three officers, Tymoshenko called for the Gongadze investigation to move to finding the organizers, “who are political and public figures.” This view was echoed by Gongadze’s family and other politicians from the Orange Revolution’s two political groups in the parliamentary coalition.The Council of Europe’s representative on the Gongadze case, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, said: “While I welcome the conviction of the three police officers, I must admit that the Gongadze file is not closed until the instigators and organizers of this crime have also been held to account.”There is little likelihood that senior officials will be ever charged, despite Pukach’s arrest. Three officials were de facto given immunity in 2004-2007 (Kuchma, Judge Maria Prindiuk, Potebenko) and three are no longer alive (General Yuriy Kravchenko, Ihor Honcharov, General Edward Fere).The “guarantor” of the immunity deal was Sviatoslav Piskun who was – again not coincidentally - reinstated as Prosecutor General on Dec. 9, 2004. This happened a day after parliament approved a compromise package approved by Yushchenko at European Union-sponsored roundtables.Kravchenko allegedly committed suicide with two bullets to the head on March 4, 2005, the same day he was set to give testimony at the prosecutor’s office. Former Health Minister Mykola Polishchuk, an expert in firearms, ruled out suicide, the official verdict, because an individual would lose consciousness after the first shot and would not have been able to inflict the second wound himself.Ukraine’s judicial system came out of the Gongadze murder very badly. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), which has issued three reports into the Gongadze case in January and September 2005 and September 2007, believes that Potebenko and the prosecutor’s office deliberately obstructed the investigation of the murder.Judge Maria Prindiuk closed the case against Pukach in April 2004 for destroying documents related to the Gongadze investigation. Prindiuk continued to work as a judge and was awarded a state medal by Yushchenko on Dec. 14, 2007.Police detective Honcharov died in police custody on Aug. 1, 2003, and his body was cremated two days later, before an autopsy was performed. Leaked documents showed that an injection of the sodium thiopental drug caused Honcharov's death.Honcharov claimed to have knowledge of those behind Gongadze’s murder. Light sentences of five years (with three years suspended) were given to three prison guards at pretrial detention facility No.13 in Kyiv for their involvement in Honcharov’s murder. General Fere, another witness, died on June 4.The timing of Pukach’s arrest is highly suspicious because it took place at the same time as Yushchenko announced he would be a candidate in the upcoming presidential election. Just after being elected in 2004, Yushchenko promised the Council of Europe and Ukrainians that it was a matter of his honor to resolve the Gongadze murder.Until now, in seeking to prosecute only the three lower-ranking police officers, while ignoring the organizers, the Yushchenko administration has continued a longstanding policy of keeping ruling elites above the law. If Yushchenko is seeking to use Pukach to score political points in the election campaign, it will backfire and become the final nail in his discredited presidency.Pukach’s arrest is unlikely to bring to justice those who ordered Gongadze’s murder. And this is the real tragedy for his family and for Ukraine’s rule of law.

Yushchenko Loses Support

KIEV, Ukraine -- Helen Dashkovckrr was among the thousands who thronged Independence Square in the capital of Ukraine in support of what became the country’s Orange Revolution.
Like many of her countrymen, she believed the presidential victory declared for the pro-Russian prime minister, Viktor Yanukovych, in November 2004 was a sham and she was prepared to brave freezing winter temperatures to show how she felt.Eventually, the protesters prevailed and the country’s supreme court annulled the result, with the rerun election won by the western-orientated Viktor Yushchenko.Nearly five years after those heady days, which came one year after the Rose Revolution in Georgia propelled Mikheil Saakashvili to power, Ms Dashkovckrr has, like many of her countrymen, grown disenchanted. The Orange Revolution, she now says, “was a mistake”.“Because we didn’t live better,” she said. “I don’t think people have become more happy. We believed in this revolution. We believed in the person. But in the end we have nothing.”In his time in office, Mr Yushchenko has partially regained the good looks he lost so suddenly during the last election campaign after an apparent poisoning, but his political fortunes look harder to salvage.His support in opinion polls has been as low as two per cent, so although recently he officially launched his campaign for re-election in the January presidential polls, his chance of winning is slim.According to Olga Demyanets, 23, a lawyer who took part in the Orange Revolution demonstrations while a student, Mr Yushchenko has represented less of a break with the style of his Moscow-orientated predecessor, Leonid Kuchma, than expected.In particular, many feel he has failed to stem the influence of the oligarchs, the wealthy industrialists who made fortunes when state companies were privatised after Ukraine became independent following the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991.Many oligarchs hold parliamentary seats, and the political system under Mr Yushchenko has failed to become the transparent one many expected after the cronyism complained of during Mr Kuchma’s 10-year spell in power.“There were a lot of hopes connected with the revolution and promises made by the politicians, and they’ve not kept their promises,” Ms Demyanets said.“The same people are running the country. It was promised they would change at the highest level, but for them it was better to make some arrangement with these than to change it.”It is a view echoed by Kristina Bidny, 32, a logistics manager, who said: “The main problem is the oligarchs. They have their people in each party so it doesn’t matter who wins. Corruption is the biggest problem of this country.”A major issue reducing Mr Yushchenko’s effectiveness in pushing through reforms has been a lack of unity within the Orange Revolution camp and in particular his falling out with a former ally during the campaign, Yulia Tymoshenko, who became his first prime minister.Poor parliamentary election results for the former Orange Revolution allies even allowed Mr Yanukovych to secure the prime ministership between 2006 and 2007.Although Mrs Tymoshenko regained the post, relations between her party, All Ukrainian Union Fatherland, and Mr Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine remain at a low ebb.Mr Yanukovych, who at the last presidential election was Mr Kuchma’s favoured candidate, and who heads the Party of the Regions, now stands a better chance than either of his rivals of winning next year’s election.Aside from the political infighting that has plagued the former Orange Revolution allies, Mr Yushchenko has also suffered as a result of Ukraine’s economic difficulties. The country has been heavily affected by the global financial crisis.There have also been tensions with the country’s neighbour, Russia, which has cut gas supplies more than once in a dispute over fees. Many think the regional superpower raised prices to punish Ukraine for Mr Yushchenko’s enthusiasm for EU and Nato membership.Some believe Mr Yanukovych is a more credible candidate than Mr Yushchenko to bring Ukraine out of its economic malaise.“People thought that five years ago some big change was coming, but there was no such change,” said Igor Shcherbyna, 22, a manager in a private company, summing up the disenchantment of many.People expected “stability and a growing of the country and their lives. Yanukovych proclaims he will make it more stable than Yushchenko, and I think that’s why he’s much more popular now”.

After 3 Refusals, Yushchenko Agrees To Sell Chemical Plant

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has agreed to the privatization of one of the country’s largest companies, a senior adviser said Thursday, after banning its sale three times over .The government has been trying to sell the Odessa Port chemical plant for years and on Wednesday set a minimum price of 4 billion hryvnas ($525 million) for an auction Sept. 29. It hopes to earn up to $1 billion.Yushchenko, in a power struggle with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko for 18 months, last banned the sale in May 2008 on the grounds that the plant was a strategic asset, giving the buyer exclusive access to a key pipeline and port terminal.“We talked to the government and we agreed that the Odessa Port plant will be … privatized,” Oleksander Shlapak, the president’s chief economic adviser, told reporters.“The new owner of the plant cannot receive a monopolistic right to decide to whom he would give access to the pipeline to the terminal, and to whom not,” he said. “This will remain under government regulation.”Shlapak said Yushchenko agreed to the sale also because the plant started to make losses this year, mainly because of a sharp rise in the price of Russian gas, which it needs to produce chemicals — mostly fertilizers.The government’s stretched finances would benefit from any new funds. Export and tax revenues have declined sharply as the country faces a deep recession and billions need to be spent to shore up the banking and energy sector.The government has set conditions for the sale including guarantees that the plant becomes profitable and investments of 1.3 billion hryvnas ($170 million) in the first five years.he past two years.

Ukrainian President Blasts Govt Over Euro 2012 Financing

KIEV, Ukraine -- President Viktor Yushchenko accused Ukraine's government on Monday of breaking promises on financing the Euro 2012 soccer championship, placing in doubt preparations already criticised by European soccer officials.
Yushchenko issued the criticism three days after Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, his estranged ally turned rival, said preparations to co-host the event with Poland were proceeding normally despite the effects of the global financial crisis.She backed longstanding plans to have matches staged in four cities in each of the two countries.Yushchenko, addressing top officials, including the central bank chief, said the government had met no more than five percent of pledges to provide 2009 financing equivalent to $945 million."The financing programme for Euro-2012 is under threat," the president's press service quoted him as saying. "Together with the central bank and the finance ministry, we must find financial resources."He ordered the central bank and finance ministry to produce, within a week, plans for financing Euro 2012 sites, including stadiums, airports and transport networks.Europe's soccer governing body, UEFA, has expressed doubts about Ukraine's ability to stage the tournament and has so far confirmed Kiev as the sole Ukrainian city able to host matches.But the capital's staging of the final was made contingent on completion of renovations at the Olympic Stadium -- already subject to major delays.Three other Ukrainian cities -- Lviv, Donetsk and Kharkov -- must be confirmed at a UEFA meeting on November 30 along with Kiev's right to stage the final. UEFA has already granted four Polish cities to hold Euro 2012 matches.UEFA President Michel Platini decried "huge infrastructure problems" in Ukraine in May -- airport instructure, transport networks and suitable accommodation for a huge influx of fans.Ukraine and Poland were chosen as co-hosts in 2007. Platini and other UEFA officials have said the tournament will not be withdrawn from either country but have suggested the distribution of cities hosting matches could be altered.

Ukraine’s Political Paralysis Gives Black Eyes To Orange Revolution Heroes

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine, which has suffered a roundhouse blow from the economic crisis, has had no finance minister since February. It also has no foreign minister or defense minister. The transportation minister just stepped down. The interior minister has offered to resign as well, after being accused of drunken behavior.
The president and the prime minister are no longer speaking, though they were once allies and heroes of the Orange Revolution, which brought a pro-Western government to power in 2005. The spirit of that uprising has apparently been squandered in a country that seems permanently gripped by political paralysis.The public appears so frustrated that the leader of the opposition, who has close ties to the Kremlin and is often portrayed as the villain of the Orange Revolution, is the early favorite to win the presidential election next January.The mood here is reflected in the popularity of a video clip that has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times in recent days. It shows the prime minister, Yulia V. Tymoshenko, who once enthralled Ukraine with her rousing slogans and peasant-braid-as-tiara hairstyle, just before she was to give a televised speech this month.Her teleprompter suddenly malfunctions, and she snaps, “It’s all gone.”Ms. Tymoshenko was referring to her text, but her words — which can also be translated as, “Everything’s fallen apart” — have been viewed as something of an epitaph for her political movement.The deadlock has led the major European nations to voice growing alarm that Ukraine is incapable of dealing with its disintegrating economy.They fear that an economic collapse here could reverberate throughout the former Soviet bloc and beyond.On Wednesday, the foreign ministers of Germany and Poland made an unusual joint visit to the capital, Kiev. The German, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, declared that he was “extremely worried” about Ukraine, suggesting that its politicians must stop feuding if they wanted more assistance.European officials also warned that Ukraine had fallen drastically behind on its preparations for serving as a host of the European soccer championship in 2012, and risked losing the event.The major cabinet posts are unfilled in part because Ms. Tymoshenko and the president, Viktor A. Yushchenko, cannot agree on replacements. Ms. Tymoshenko used Parliament to dismiss the defense and foreign ministers, who are nominated by the president.Behind the scenes, the president’s associates have contended that Ms. Tymoshenko is untrustworthy and has Machiavellian designs on power. Her side has responded that the president is a bumbling politician who is jealous of her charisma and public support.Optimists in Kiev said the situation had worsened largely because the political class was jockeying before the presidential election, and they pointed out that the country’s leaders had always found a way to pull back from the brink. For example, they agreed on budget measures to comply with a $16.4 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund.Whatever the discord, Ukraine is more free than most former Soviet republics, with a relatively uncontrolled news media and a far less repressive security apparatus.Still, things have unquestionably soured. The popularity of President Yushchenko, who achieved worldwide attention during the Orange Revolution when his face was scarred in an attempted poisoning that remains unsolved, has sunk into the low single digits, and he is given little chance of winning re-election.Mr. Yushchenko has been chided by even his own advisers for a lackluster bearing that has turned off the public, and it was in evidence this month at a nationally televised news conference.He began with a statement that ground on for half an hour and was spoken without notable intensity, even when he attacked Ms. Tymoshenko.Relations between the two have so deteriorated that Ms. Tymoshenko even tried this month to build a coalition with an Orange Revolution foe, Viktor F. Yanukovich, a former prime minister who leads the opposition in Parliament. That effort imploded in a cacophony of charges and countercharges.Ukraine’s last finance minister, Viktor M. Pynzenyk, who is widely respected, acknowledged in an interview that the government had become hopelessly dysfunctional.Mr. Pynzenyk said the politicians’ refusal to face up to the financial crisis with proper austerity measures had clearly worsened matters, and said they were running enormous deficits to pander to voters. He said he resigned because it was impossible to conduct the country’s fiscal affairs.“People are disillusioned not with the Orange Revolution, but with the politicians,” Mr. Pynzenyk said.He assailed the recent attempt by Ms. Tymoshenko to ally with Mr. Yanukovich. She had sought to amend the Constitution so that the president would be chosen by Parliament, not popularly elected.Under their deal, Mr. Yanukovich would have been president and Ms. Tymoshenko would have occupied a strengthened post of prime minister. At the last moment, Mr. Yanukovich backed out.“In my opinion, what happened in the last month represented a threat to establish an authoritarian regime,” Mr. Pynzenyk said. “Power has become the goal, and this is a very dangerous path.”Ukraine has earned so much attention because it is one of the largest countries in Europe, with 46 million people, and serves as a vital transportation point for natural gas from Russia. Ukraine’s fractious politics have helped to strain relations with Russia, which has shut the flow of gas in payment disputes twice in recent years.After the Orange Revolution, Ukraine was held up as an example of how countries, whether post-Soviet or elsewhere, could move past authoritarianism. But the problems here are now cited by Russian officials as evidence of what awaits countries that embrace a Western democratic model.While Ms. Tymoshenko’s standing may have been damaged in recent weeks, she is considered a highly skillful politician who has mounted comebacks before, and polls indicate that she would be competitive with Mr. Yanukovich in the next presidential election.Hryhoriy M. Nemyria, a deputy prime minister and Tymoshenko adviser, said Ms. Tymoshenko’s plan to change the Constitution was needed because lines of authority between the president and the prime minister were vague and bred conflict. Ukraine would be better off with a parliamentary system like Germany’s, he said.He said Ms. Tymoshenko would be a formidable force in the election. “The thing she is definitely not lacking is leadership skills,” he said. “That is something that might be in great deficit in some of the other candidates.”Oles Dony, a young member of Parliament who was active in the Orange Revolution and supported the president, said he believed that Ukrainians would not shy away from taking part in the presidential campaign, despite recent events.“People are tired, not of politics, but of all these characters and their style of behavior,” he said. “But they are not tired of democracy.”

Yushchenko Leaves Russian In Draft Constitution Out Of Respect For Russians

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said he has decided to leave a mention of the Russian language in his draft new constitution out of respect for the Russian community in the country.
“I would like to make myself clear as president that the current version of the language policy in Ukraine is correct” the Ukrainian language is an official language, a maternal language that is protected and developed by a special law,” Yushchenko said during a teleconference with law students on Friday.“As for the Russian language and other ethnic minority languages, we fully comply with the requirements of the European convention on languages [European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages],” he said.According to the president, the Russian language is mentioned in the draft constitution “solely out of tactfulness and respect for the minority that is the biggest among ethnic minorities” in Ukraine.He noted that the principles proclaimed in the current constitution would be continued.“This is an ethical compromise and respect for the people who know this language,” he added.Yushchenko believes that it won’t be possible to change the constitution before the upcoming presidential election to be held on January 17, 2010.Earlier, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vasily Kirilich said the problem of the Russian language in the country was far-fetched."I do not see any problems with the Russian language in Ukraine," he said after a visit to the country by OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Knut Vollebaek.In Ukraine "every citizen speaks the language which he considers native or which he more comfortable for communication", Kirilich said."Where else in the world is there a parliament where deputies speak a foreign [Russian] language, except for the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada?" he said.He stressed the need "to speak about what Ukraine and Russia have in common rather then focus on what they have in difference"."Our countries have very many common and generally positive things," Kirilich said.Vollebaek studied the educational rights of ethnic Russians in Ukraine. During his trips to Kiev, the Crimea, the Donetsk and Lvov regions, Vollebaek visited educational institutions where teaching is conducted in Russian and meet with members of the Russian community, central and regional authorities.Vollebaek is now expected to prepare a report with recommendations on how to ensure the educational rights of ethnic Russians in Ukraine. The document will be handed over to the Russian government.Kirilich said the reports should be expected by autumn.Ukraine does not have to account to anyone for its language policy, Culture and Tourism Minister Vasily Vovkun said."Our actions should be principled, consistent and offensive because they are based on the Constitution of Ukraine and national interests," Vovkun said.The minister made it clear that "the development of an integral national language and cultural space based on the promotion of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of public life, on the presence of the national cultural product in proper volumes on the domestic market has been determined by the government as an important strategic objective. But the implementation of this strategic task envisages, among other things, the adoption and practical realisation of Ukraine's Language Policy Concept, the new Ukrainian law 'On the Official Language', and amendments to the Law on the Ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages."Having emphasised the need for strict compliance with language legislation in Ukraine, Vovkun expressed his readiness to "allow Russian-speaking residents of cities in the east and south of the country to learn the official language through language courses set up under cultural institutions, such as libraries, higher educational institutions, theatres, research and methodology centres."However he did not specify whether it would be an operational or obligatory procedure for people living in regions that have been fighting for the quality of the Russian and Ukrainian languages for more than 20 years.However Verkhovna Rada member Vadim Kolesnichnko said the rights of Russian-speaking citizens of Ukraine were systematically violated."The Verkhovna Rada has adopted 43 laws that exclude the Russian language from our life," Kolesnichenko said."Over 3,000 schools have been destroyed" over the years of independence, he said.Teaching in universities in 19 Ukrainian regions where half of the population speak Russian is conducted in Ukrainian. There are no Russian-language schools in six regions, and four regions each have only one.According to the lawmaker, the Russian language has been barred from radio, television, films, and business. "The future of our children is not enviable" in such a situation, he added.

Tymoshenko Blames Yushchenko For Obstructing Government's Fight Against Crisis

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has blamed President Viktor Yuschenko for obstructing the government-proposed anti-crisis measures and efforts to form a broad coalition to battle the crisis.
The president is using flashy words today to deprive the nation, first of all its government, of the opportunity to counter the crisis, and to leave the nation without a government it logically needs," Tymoshenko said at a news conference in Kyiv on Tuesday in remarks about the president's criticism of her moves.The president "has been living and working to the country's detriment," she said."This is not only my personal opinion, I think. I think almost all citizens share it," the prime minister said."Viktor Yushchenko has no right to any criticism. He is the incumbent president. He only has the right to work and to serve Ukraine. He will have the right to criticize when he joins the opposition. Now he must work and answer for his moves," she said.Concerning the talks between the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and the Party of Regions on the formation of a coalition and on constitutional amendments, the prime minister said, "We would carry the job through to the end, if the president did not initiate a hysteria and if he did not make statements about what he is not informed of, or has not the slightest idea of. It's too sad everything that was being built with so much difficulty has fallen apart due to the dirty campaign staged by high-placed officials," she said.

Ukraine Leader Vows To Block Election Changes

KIEV, Ukraine -- President Viktor Yushchenko appealed to the world community Friday to uphold democracy in Ukraine, vowing to block an opposition proposal to change the constitution and have the president elected by parliament.

The pro-Western Yushchenko, whose popularity has slumped, met ambassadors from G7 industrialized nations as Ukraine's two biggest parties proceeded with plans to form a broad coalition to end 4 1/2 years of political upheaval.The coalition would bring together groups led by two rivals, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and former premier Viktor Yanukovich. Both are also rivals of the president.Yushchenko was dealt a new blow when parliament dismissed the defense minister, one of his few remaining stalwart allies.Neither Tymoshenko nor Yanukovich has commented publicly on the coalition talks and there was no sign a quick deal was in the works as Ukraine headed into a long holiday weekend.Both Yanukovich's Regions Party and Tymoshenko's say a coalition would command more than 300 seats in parliament, enough to change the constitution to have the president elected by parliament rather than by a country-wide vote."As head of state, I guarantee that I will permit no illegal election of the president of Ukraine by parliament and will do everything in my power for Ukraine to meet all its international obligations ensuring human rights," Yushchenko was quoted by his Internet site as telling G7 ambassadors."But it is clear that such actions will not be enough. I therefore appeal to the international community to extend its assistance to ensure the democratic process in Ukraine."PRESIDENT DEMANDS REFERENDUMAddressing journalists later, Yushchenko said any change in electoral procedures had to be submitted to a referendum."This is a serious threat. I am therefore appealing to the nation. You must unite, the time has come," he said.He said he would take part in the next presidential election "as I see this as my duty as a citizen, regardless of my poll rating and how my record is assessed."Yushchenko swept to power with backing from Western leaders after mass "Orange Revolution" protests against poll fraud in 2004. Infighting, mostly pitting him against Tymoshenko, has reduced his poll ratings to single figures.Sniping brought down one government with Tymoshenko as premier within seven months of taking office. The government she now heads is underpinned by an unsteady coalition in parliament.A coalition with Yanukovich would likely improve Kiev's relations with Moscow, which has been irritated by Yushchenko's drive to join NATO and criticism of Russian intervention last year in Georgia.In parliament, the two groups voted together Friday to produce an overwhelming majority to dismiss Defense Minister Yuri Yekhanurov, a longstanding ally of the president.Tymoshenko had demanded Yekhanurov resign after public accounts found instances of corruption in his ministry."Yekhanurov is a gaping hole in Ukraine's defense capability and it must be plugged," Oleh Lyashko, a senior member of the prime minister's bloc, told the chamber before the vote.Proponents say that despite the two leaders' divergent styles and power bases, a coalition deal would ensure stability.But meetings of the two parliamentary groups appeared to have been postponed and Oleksander Yefremov, a top member of Yanukovich's party, said no agreement was likely before Tuesday."If those taking part in consultations see no point in proceeding, everything will be halted," he told reporters.Another of Yanukovich's lieutenants, Borys Kolesnikov, told the daily Segodnya that deal only stood a 50-50 chance and said the constitution could be changed without a formal deal.Yanukovich was backed by Russia when he lost a re-run of the rigged 2004 presidential election to Yushchenko. He has since adopted a more moderate stand, while Tymoshenko has made determined efforts to improve her standing in Moscow.With a nationwide presidential election still on the cards by January, Yanukovich leads opinion polls with more than 20 percent support, followed by Tymoshenko at about 15 percent.

Yushchenko Seeks To Revive His Political Fortunes

The resignation of the Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's chief of staff Viktor Baloga has long been expected. He issued a strongly worded attack on Yushchenko as having failed to implement his 2004 election promises, and therefore had no right to stand for a second term. Moreover, he had lobbied for Yushchenko to support Party of Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych's candidacy.

Yushchenko did not support Baloga's strategy to disband parliament, since it lacked a coalition majority (only 40 out of 72 Our Ukraine-People's Self Defense (NUNS) deputies joined the coalition). On May 22 in an interview on Inter television, Yushchenko again reiterated that "his faction" (NUNS) was not a member of the coalition.The constitutional court ruled on May 12 that the presidential elections will be held on January 17, and not in October for which parliament had previously voted. According to the Minister of Justice Mykola Onishchuk, this ruled out the proposal to hold simultaneous presidential and parliamentary elections in October. Baloga had attempted to enter parliament in order to secure immunity before the presidential elections.The situation rapidly deteriorated for Baloga on May 12 when a Kyiv court ruled that the deputy head of the Security Service (SBU) Tyberia Durdynets, could be lawfully arrested and his office and home searched. Durdynets was a close ally of Baloga's from his home region of Trans-Carpathia.It is widely believed that Durdynets had acted under the former chief of staff's orders when placing Ukrainian politicians and state officials under surveillance -including the deputy head of the prosecutor's office Renat Kuzmin. The prosecutor's office had instructed the SBU and interior ministry to use force if necessary, to bring Durdynets to justice - he has since fled and has been placed on an Interpol wanted list. Another Baloga loyalist, the SBU deputy head Anatoliy Pavlenko, might also be charged for conducting illegal surveillance operations.Baloga clearly viewed the court order as an indirect attack on himself, and felt betrayed that Yushchenko had not intervened to support "his man," Durdynets. He also warned on local Trans-Carpathian state television on May 17 that if he was the next target, he intended to reveal damaging inside information on Yushchenko.The Ukrainian political consultant Vasyl Baziv, believes that Baloga possesses substantial kompromat on Yushchenko, and that his resignation will have serious repercussions within Ukrainian politics.A presidential secretariat insider told EDM that as chief of staff, Baloga had developed a close relationship with the two rival wings within the Party of Regions: the Donetsk old guard led by the "ideologist" Boris Kolesnikov, a close associate of the oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, and the "gas lobby" linked to RosUkrEnergo (RUE) co-owner Dmitriy Firtash.The presidential insider told that since January 2008 "Baloga has been one of the most ardent guardians of RUE interests in its clash with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.In March 2009 an officer from the Main Information Service of the presidential secretariat confirmed that Firtash remained the only oligarch to pay ‘bonuses' to even the minor ranks within the secretariat." The Tymoshenko government also removed RUE from this year's gas contract with Russia.On May 12 Ukrainska Pravda speculated that the first deputy head of the SBU Valeriy Khoroshkovsky, might become the next target in the campaign against Baloga loyalists and Firtash's allies. Khoroshkovsky dispatched SBU Alpha units to carry out a raid against Naftogaz Ukrainy on March 4, which was widely condemned as using the SBU to lobby his private business interests.Khoroshkovsky is believed to maintain a close business relationship with Firtash in the largest Ukrainian television channel Inter, which has strongly promoted Arseniy Yatseniuk as an alternative "orange" candidate to Tymoshenko in the upcoming presidential elections.Baloga felt betrayed by Yushchenko's support for Kyiv governor Vera Ulianchenko's election on May 16 as the head of the People's Union-Our Ukraine (NSNU) - one of nine parties within the NUNS bloc. Ulianchenko replaced Baloga as the chief of staff, indicating that Yushchenko finally decided to support the NSNU as the presidential party of power, rather than Baloga's United Center.Ulianchenko stressed that there is only one pro-presidential party: NUNS. Baloga has had strained relations with Ulianchenko, and attempted to promote the United Center party, which he controls, as the presidential favorite. NSNS activists had sharp differences with Baloga, since his "unpleasant activities" had damaged the party in his efforts to further the United Center.Yushchenko remains convinced that he will revive his political fortunes and enter the second round of voting. On May 21 the pro-Yushchenko PR specialist Myron Wasylyk, suggested: "Yushchenko is in the midst of picking a new team to complete his policy agenda for the last months of his first term.He is looking for a group of political managers who work well together as he begins his most important political journey - reconnecting with the millions of voters who were his electoral base, in the hope of winning re-election in 2010." Yushchenko might be competing against three "orange" candidates - Tymoshenko, Yatseniuk and Anatoliy Grytsenko - within western and central Ukraine in what will be a difficult contest.In contrast, Yanukovych will enter round two, facing little competition within southeastern Ukraine. Some of Yatseniuk's support might also return to Yushchenko by focusing on his two achievements -democratization and nation-building. He has positioned himself in the nationalist and anti-communist, rather than in the centrist niche.Playing on Yushchenko as a Ukrainian nation-builder might re-introduce ethnicity into the election campaign and again risk dividing Ukraine, as happened in the 2004 elections. Meanwhile, a split "orange" vote will permit Baloga's favorite -Yanukovych- to win the election.

Viktor Yushchenko Refuses To Dismiss Defense Minister Yuri Yekhanurov

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said he would not ask the Verkhovna Rada for dismissing Defense Minister Yuri Yekhanurov.
“No, I will not do that,” the president told a Tuesday press conference in the Zhitomir region.In his opinion, the related request of Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko aimed “to destabilize the executive authorities and to seize full control.”“This is nothing but politics,” the president said. “This is the policy aimed to destroy efficient authorities and the pre-election intrigues.”Yushchenko said he had read a report of the Main Auditing Department concerning the activity of the Defense Ministry and dismissed as unfounded corruption charges against Yekhanurov. “I have ordered the Prosecutor General’s Office to investigate the problem, as corruption claims are being increasingly made by those who are guilty themselves,” he said.Timoshenko asked the president to dismiss the defense minister on May 25. Main Auditing Department head Nikolai Sivulsky accused the Defense Ministry of inappropriate control over the use of land belonging to the ministry on May 20. He also affirmed violations in the catering of servicemen.Yekhanurov said that the Defense Ministry did not sell any land during his ministerial office. The corruption accusations “are a comedy,” he said.

Despite Dismal Standings In The Polls, Yushchenko Keeps Fighting

KIEV, Ukraine -- President Viktor Yushchenko is aiming to remain in office, despite facing the lowest approval rating in the country's history.
“I will run. It's so clear and obvious,” the Ukrainian president announced, while calling for early presidential elections in October if they are held at the same time as the parliamentary elections. “It is not important how many months earlier they [the elections] will be held, in October or in September.”Earlier, he insisted the elections be delayed until January 2010. But now he believes early elections would help Ukraine overcome political and economic crisis that has been tearing the country apart. Then, Yushchenko evoked the ‘reset’ word that has become a catchphrase of US-Russian relations."We also need a reset. It should be done by re-electing the parliament and forming a new majority and the government," he said.Yushchenko quickly dismissed Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko's proposal to empower the parliament with the ability to appoint the president, claiming that this might lead Ukraine to some form of tyranny.The opposition has already labeled the president’s announcements “completely predictable.”Close margin of error“He [Yushchenko] wants to make sure the orange line would be prolonged and he wants to do it himself,” says political expert Vadim Karasyov. “This announcement was his inauguration for running the campaign.”Yushchenko is about to run for a new term with the worst approval rating recorded for the president at any time in Ukraine’s history, with only 2.9 percent of the people expressing support in him, according to Kiev's International Institute of Sociology research.His popularity sharply decreased following the financial and political crisis, which started five years ago. Yet the political theater doesn't expect any big changes of the main characters, even though their popularity has dramatically suffered as a result of the crisis.This time around, Yushchenko’s habitual contender, Viktor Yanukovich, who enjoys the support of 37.9 the respondents, according to the research, seems to be the most favored politician.Ukrainians think he has the most positive effect on the domestic situation. Meanwhile, Timoshenko's rating is at 21.3 percent and pro-Western Front for Change leader, Arseny Yatsenyuk, has the support of 20.1 percent of the voters.Early electionsEx-president of Poland Aleksander Kwasiewski thinks the whole design of the Ukrainian political elite should be changed and mistakes admitted.“Only when the failings in the architecture of the Ukrainian state are adequately addressed will Ukrainians enjoy the full benefits of the Orange Revolution. That architecture is making a bad economic situation even worse and is jeopardizing Ukraine’s integration into the European family. The design of the Ukrainian state must be corrected and strengthened, now,” he said.In the fall of 2008, Yushchenko dissolved The Ukrainian Rada and announced early parliamentary, but his decisions was rejected two weeks later.There have been a total of five presidential elections in Ukraine since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, while three of its five parliamentary elections have taken place in the last five years.Orange historyYushchenko took part in Leonid Kuchma's successful presidential campaign in 1999 and became Ukrainian prime minister the same year. But after several years of conflict with the president, Yushchenko was forced to resign in 2001. Some experts argue that was due to Yushchenko's growing popularity and political influence on the domestic situation.In 2005, Yushchenko gained the support of Yulia Timoshenko, thus being elected president after a fierce contest against Yanukovich.Meanwhile, Timoshenko has served as the country's prime minister on several occasions. Her first appointment came in January 2005, but she was ousted in September. She served in the post again in December 2007.“Ukraine has made a great deal of political progress. The Orange Revolution made Ukrainians free. They can say and read and watch what they like. Elections are fair and reflect the popular will. But even Ukraine`s closest friends cannot pretend that its politics as usual,” Alexander Kwasiewski wrote.Yushchenko's policy is generally described as pro-Western, as he mostly supports the EU and welcomes U.S. support. Today, most of the support is associated with the political and economic crisis in the Ukraine.Yushchenko continues to express hope for the results of the future elections, but the polls show many people are disappointed with the direction of the country and the fruit of the so-called Orange revolution that dramatically brought him to power in January 2005.

The Viktor And Yulia Show, Continued

KIEV, Ukraine -- A country in default, engulfed by social protests and political chaos, crumbling to bits. This has been the West’s nightmare image of Ukraine. It was the first country to ask the IMF for a bail-out, its currency was in free fall, its economy is contracting at an annual rate of 9%.
Yet the main activity in Kiev today seems to be putting up summer terraces outside cafés, not tents for demonstrators. In front of the main government building, a dozen bored protesters call on Yulia Tymoshenko, the prime minister, to come out “to the people”. Even in the industrial east, where output has fallen by as much as a third, the mood is subdued.One reason is that trust in the government is so low and the experience of crisis so extensive that Ukrainians see little point in taking to the streets. At a time of hardship, working on a vegetable patch is preferable. A protest called by Viktor Yanukovich, leader of the opposition Party of the Regions, attracted relatively few people. There is no money to pay demonstrators. Stirring up his eastern heartland could annoy Mr Yanukovich’s business backers, who have been cutting jobs and wages.Another reason for relative calm is that after several years of growth many Ukrainians have enough savings to get by for a few months. Some unemployment has been avoided by involuntary holidays and pay cuts. And though the main exporting industry, steel, is struggling, farming (which employs a quarter of the workforce) is doing well. Petro Poroshenko, a businessman, suggests that food production could become an engine of growth.“Either the country is more resilient or the adjustment started earlier than we thought,” says Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, head of the IMF mission visiting Kiev. After a 40% devaluation, the hryvnia has stabilised. The trade balance went briefly into surplus for the first time in years. The rate of economic decline has slowed. “There is a feeling that we have touched the bottom,” Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine’s president, says in an interview. On April 17th the IMF mission said it would recommend the release of the second tranche of Ukraine’s $16.4 billion loan.The banks have undergone a stress test and the biggest will be recapitalised. For all the political cacophony, the government has pushed through the fiscal measures required by the IMF, including increased duties on alcohol and tobacco and higher gas tariffs for rich households.In the short term, Ukraine needs to cut its budget deficit. In the longer term its big problem is the structure of public spending rather than low tax revenues, argues Pablo Saavedra, an economist at the World Bank. Its unreformed social system and its red tape, both inherited from Soviet days, are crushing burdens.Ukraine devotes a third of GDP to social spending. Less than 2% of GDP goes to infrastructure investment. It takes 47 permits to open a business and three years to close it. All Ukrainian politicians, including Ms Tymoshenko, Mr Yanukovich and Mr Yushchenko, admit to corruption and lack of structural reforms in Ukraine—and blame each other. “We have been engaged with elections rather than with reforms,” says Anatoly Kinakh, who has served in several governments.Now Ukraine is in the middle of a new election cycle. Mr Yushchenko’s presidential term expires in January and the campaign is under way. Political turmoil is nothing new in Ukraine, but when commodity prices were high and foreign credit cheap it had little impact on the economy.No longer. Ukraine nearly botched its agreement with the IMF partly because some members of Mr Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine block refused to vote for fiscal cuts. Mr Yushchenko says that “half of my own block has been bought by Ms Tymoshenko, while the other half cannot support her economic methods”. He blames Ms Tymoshenko for sacrificing the ideology of the 2004 orange revolution to political expediency and populism. She says that he has sold out to vested interests.Mr Yushchenko certainly has ideology and vision. He talks of building a nation-state and taking Ukraine into NATO and the European Union. “Six times in the 20th century we have declared our independence and five times we have lost it.” Yet on vision, rhetorically at least, there is little difference between Ukrainian politicians. Ms Tymoshenko talks eloquently of European integration and the need to consolidate a country historically divided between east and west.“First of all we need to build Europe in Ukraine, because a country can only enter the EU if it has the same blood group, otherwise it will get rejected as an alien body,” she says in an interview. Even Mr Yanukovich, once backed by Moscow, now subscribes to the notion of European integration.In truth, none of Ukraine’s politicians has risen to the promise of the orange revolution. Ms Tymoshenko’s actions sometimes smack of populism. When inflation rose last year, she imposed temporary controls on grain exports, for example. She has done little to promote long-term reforms.But it was thanks to her intervention both that the IMF loan was unblocked and that a breakthrough was made in the gas-price stalemate with Russia in January. In contrast, Mr Yushchenko’s influence has been mostly disruptive despite his avowed liberalism. He has vetoed many government plans, including privatisations.The problem goes deeper than animosity between two old allies. It is rooted in a flawed change to the constitution in 2004 that reduced the power of the president but stopped short of turning Ukraine into a parliamentary republic, fudging the responsibilities of president and prime minister. “Whoever wins the presidential election will next day run into the same problems,” says Ms Tymoshenko.Inevitably, all three main leaders insist they will run for president, including Mr Yushchenko, despite a poll rating in low single digits. But Ms Tymoshenko’s popularity has also suffered recently. Even Mr Yanukovich, who now leads in the polls, has seen his popularity dented. Many Ukrainians feel that none of the three familiar faces is capable of taking the country forward. Tired of the mudslinging, 20% would either vote against all candidates or simply not turn out.To hedge their bets many businessmen are now betting on other candidates, including Arseniy Yatseniuk, a 34-year-old who has already served as foreign minister, economics minister and central-bank governor. Mr Yatseniuk’s rating has doubled in a few months and he is now catching up with Ms Tymoshenko.Her preferred option would be to change the constitution before the election and choose the next (symbolic) president in parliament. But she does not mind if Ukraine reverts to full presidential rule. “It does not matter to me what the head of the executive power is called: a prime minister, a chancellor, a president or a hetman.”A bigger question is what kind of Ukraine will emerge from the crisis. And that will be determined not by elections, but by the willingness of political leaders to push through structural reforms.

Ukraine's Yushchenko Says To Seek Re-Election

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, his public image in tatters after 4 1/2 years in office beset by constant bickering, said in an interview published on Wednesday he intended to seek re-election.
Yushchenko also told the Kommersant Ukraina daily he would run for parliament if an early election for the assembly was called at the same time."I will be taking part in both elections. When I look at the ratings it does not mean that I have to reach for some sort of heart medication and change my mind," Yushchenko told the daily."I know that behind me are millions of people who share my values. If I change my mind, these people will see that as a sign of weakness or betrayal, a refusal to finish something that has been started."Yushchenko enjoyed huge popularity after being swept to power in 2005 by mass "Orange Revolution" protests, his standing boosted by worldwide sympathy for having survived poisoning by dioxin which disfigured him for a time.He won the presidency after the Supreme Court ordered a re-run of the election, Moscow-backed candidate Viktor Yanukovich having won the initial vote which was judged rigged.His poll rating stood at a huge 60 percent as he called for Ukraine to move out of Moscow's shadow and work towards long-term membership of the European Union and NATO.But most Ukrainians now speak of Yushchenko with open derision after constant quarrelling with the "orange" camp which proclaimed democratic values during weeks of mass protests.With his poll ratings now in single figures, he is widely viewed as a figure on the way out of Ukrainian politics, with no chance of winning re-election.Most of the rows pitted him against Yulia Tymoshenko, his ally from the revolution who was twice appointed prime minister. Each accuses the other of hindering reforms and betraying the national interest.Yanukovich, who has also twice served as prime minister, leads opinion polls with more than 20 percent support. Following close behind is Tymoshenko, who still enjoys widespread support despite irritation among voters at the constant rows.Both are almost certain to run in the presidential poll.Parliament this month called a presidential election for October 25, earlier than had been expected, but the president has challenged the decision in the Constitutional Court.Yushchenko's supporters and Yanukovich's Regions Party, favour holding an early parliamentary election at the same time as the presidential contest.