Prime Minister Tymoshenko discloses personal income (08/14/05)

Prime Minister Tymoshenko discloses personal income

by Yana Sedova
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is a woman of extremely modest means, if you believe her income statement.

The same woman who has a personal fashion designer, and who is rarely seen wearing the same clothes twice, earned a mere $12,013, plus a $1,000 bonus, for her work last year as a national deputy in the Verkhovna Rada.

Following what many Ukrainians considered a huge scandal surrounding Andrii Yushchenko's luxurious lifestyle, reporters decided it was Ms. Tymoshenko's turn to go under the microscope.

Specifically, the muckraking Ukrayinska Pravda website and pro-Russian Kommersant newspaper requested that Ms. Tymoshenko provide her income statements.

Besides her salary, Ms. Tymoshenko stated that she has only $180 in a bank account. This is in light of the fact that at one point she was one of the former Soviet Union's wealthiest entrepreneurs, having made a fortune in bartering.

She reported husband Oleksander as her only relative, who earned nothing last year and had $3,200 in his bank account.

She defended her income statement at an August 10 press conference, pointing out to reporters that former President Leonid Kuchma had waged a campaign against her, destroying her businesses in the process.

"I want to look into the eyes of anyone who claims that I could have had a flourishing business during the Kuchma era," Ms. Tymoshenko said. "The year 2004 was the culmination of reprisals against me and my family. All of you saw this."

As for real estate holdings, Ms. Tymoshenko reported that she and her husband own a 344-square-foot apartment in Dnipropetrovsk and a 194-square-foot garage.

Ms. Tymoshenko has never hidden the fact that she has lived in a ranch-style home of about 2,691 square feet in the wealthy Koncha Zaspa suburb of Kyiv, where Mr. Kuchma, billionaire Viktor Pinchuk and President Viktor Yushchenko also have homes.

However, just as Andrii Yushchenko said he is merely crashing at a friend's 2,153-square-foot apartment in Kyiv's posh Lypky district, Ms. Tymoshenko also claims that she lives in her home rent-free, thanks to close, generous friends.

After providing the statements, Ms. Tymoshenko invited the two journalists to her home, who reported that her abode is admittedly modest.

She said she bought the Toyota Land Cruiser years ago with the income of her former businesses.

In fact, besides her sport utility vehicle, the only property Ms. Tymoshenko owned in the home is a collection of icons that were given to her as gifts.

"In every day life my family is very unpretentious," Ms. Tymoshenko said at the press conference. "Nothing exotic. The former authorities deprived me of everything."

Unfortunately, the probing reporters failed to uncover the most intriguing aspect of Ms. Tymoshenko's home - her illustrious wardrobe.

Her carefully crafted image, consisting of rotating elegant dresses and brand new suits, is the subject of admiration for Ukrainians. Women have even taken to imitating her styles.

But the articles made no mention of any closets, and the otherwise assertive reporters could not confirm how large her wardrobe actually was.

Ms. Tymoshenko declined them access to three rooms in the home because she said other people were living there.

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