Kuchma fires first vice prime minister (08/08/99)

Kuchma fires first vice prime minister

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma fired his first vice prime minister, Volodymyr Kuratchenko, on July 31 without explanation - a move that came days after the official suggested the government's economic reform program needs a major overhaul.

In an unexpected reaction to his dismissal, Mr. Kuratchenko expressed no antipathy or bewilderment over the decision and said that he still supports the president and his economic policy. He did state that he would like to sit down with the president to talk out their differences.

"I believe that the head of state should make the decisions that he feels are necessary," said Mr. Kuratchenko at a press conference two days after his dismissal. "The president is the choice of the people, and his decisions are determined, perhaps, by a whole number of realities. He can, perhaps, see the situation better than I can, especially in the international arena. I believe the main reason for my dismissal was the form and forum in which I made my proposals. But the form is not what's important, the substance is."

President Kuchma would give no reason for the sacking of the No. 2 person in government after Prime Minister Valerii Pustovoitenko. According to Interfax-Ukraine, he told reporters in Crimea on July 31, where he was meeting with U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen, that the loss of Mr. Kuratchenko would not affect the work of the government.

"No matter whether there is a Kuratchenko in the government or not, the government exists and will exist," said President Kuchma. "He has simply been dismissed. Period."

However, the president indirectly alluded to the possibility that Mr. Kuratchenko was also the fall guy for the current gas shortage in Ukraine, which not only left much of Ukraine's filling stations empty the week of July 12, but has caused a doubling, and even tripling, of prices in most regions of the country.

"Somebody should be responsible for the fuel and energy complex, since problems remain and will remain for a long time," said President Kuchma. He then added that journalists "understand very well who leaves government and for what reasons. Decisions are not taken without reason."

Mr. Kuratchenko, who was appointed first vice prime minister in January with a mandate to revamp Ukraine's energy sector, has had a difficult time dealing with coal shortages, a massive oil debt to Russia and problems with nuclear power shortages.

However, his ultimate demise began when he offered his version of the extensive changes that need to be made in the government's economic reform program at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers on July 28.

Among other things, Mr. Kuratchenko called for a restructuring of the relationship between Ukraine and the International Monetary Fund as well as with the World Bank, two international financial organizations that have kept Ukraine's economy afloat. He also expressed his opinion that a "controlled" monetary emission is imperative to energize the Ukrainian economy and called for a reorganization of the National Bank of Ukraine and its monetary policy.

Mr. Kuratchenko, whose remarks at the ministers' meeting had not been invited, said afterwards that he had received his cue from a statement by his colleague, First Vice Minister of Economic Reform Serhii Tyhypko, at a similar meeting held the previous week. At that time Mr. Tyhypko said Ukraine's economy is again on the verge of disaster.

"[He talked of] the need to find a plan. I thought that this would be the proper place to put forward my ideas," said Mr. Kuratchenko at a press conference after his firing.

Two days after Mr. Kuratchenko offered up his proposals, the Cabinet of Ministers held another meeting, to which he was not invited. A day later he was dismissed.

The ex-first prime minister took great pains to explain that his economic ideas were quite in sync with the president's and the government's, and that he would be willing to continue to serve Mr. Kuchma in some other political capacity.

"I never said that the president and the prime minister do not have a sound economic policy. Theirs is simply different from mine," explained Mr. Kuratchenko. "As for my membership in the National Democratic Party and my support for the president, I don't see how my economic views here contradict my political views."

Mr. Kuratchenko said that he is not considering joining another party or endorsing another candidate in the upcoming presidential elections.

On August 2, President Kuchma appointed Anatolii Kinakh as the new first vice prime minister. Mr. Kinakh, who turned 45 two days later, previously served as the president of the Ukrainian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and as a national deputy in the Verkhovna Rada, where he chaired the Committee on Industrial Policy Issues. He is a member of the National Democratic Party.

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