Yushchenko sacks Tymoshenko and Cabinet of Ministers (09/11/05)

Yushchenko sacks Tymoshenko and Cabinet of Ministers

by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - In an unprecedented move by a Ukrainian president, Viktor Yushchenko sacked his entire Cabinet of Ministers and top government officials, including arch rivals Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and National Security and Defense Council Secretary Petro Poroshenko.

Mr. Yushchenko announced the firings on September 8 just as high-ranking officials, first among them presidential chief of staff Oleksander Zinchenko, submitted resignations while citing widespread corruption in his government. He said he made his decision because his appointees were failing to work together and cooperate on behalf of the Ukrainian people.

"I am convinced the moment has arrived when my colleagues have lost their team spirit and faith," Mr. Yushchenko said. "This is painful because these people are still my friends."

By firing his government, Mr. Yushchenko has swept out of office all those who most supported him during the Orange Revolution.

Political experts hailed Mr. Yushchenko's bold decision to clear the Cabinet of its irreconcilable squabbles, but also expressed deep concern about the president's desire to carry out reforms and continue the spirit of the Orange Revolution.

As Ms. Tymoshenko's replacement, Mr. Yushchenko tapped Yurii Yekhanurov, a participant in the Orange Revolution who had worked closely with former President Leonid Kuchma and Viktor Medvedchuk. He asked Mr. Yekhanurov to help form a new government team.

The only way out?

One Kyiv-based analyst said sacking the prime minister was probably the president's only way out of a bad situation.

"He is attractive with or without Tymoshenko. This situation negatively affected his personal rating in the sense that there was a government in crisis giving the impression that the president is not in control. Of course, that calls for a negative standing. If hirings occur quickly, with professionals who have minimal business ties, that will resolve the situation and the president's rating will suffer minimally," said Oleksander Lytvynenko, a political expert at the Razumkov Center for Economic and Political Research.

"In this situation, the president had no other choice. With public accusations of people close to him involved in corruption, the president had to do this to deflect accusations. The president's circle has become odious in Ukraine. To the very end, the president tried to find a compromise. However, sometimes he has to be more decisive," Mr. Lytvynenko added.

"I would have never imagined it would have gotten this bad this quickly," said Ivan Lozowy, president of the Kyiv-based Institute of Statehood and Democracy, which is exclusively financed by Ukrainian business donations.

Mr. Yushchenko had spent the prior three days trying to resolve the conflict that had erupted when Mr. Zinchenko, the president's chief of staff, submitted his resignation on September 3.

Two days later, Mr. Zinchenko accused Mr. Poroshenko, senior presidential aide Oleksander Tretiakov and Our Ukraine parliamentary faction leader Mykola Martynenko of using their positions of power to advance their business interests.

"A small group of political opportunists is trying to use the efforts of hundreds of patriots of Ukraine for their private interests," Mr. Zinchenko said. "They are exercising their power in order to privatize and lay hands on everything possible."

On September 7 Mr. Yushchenko named his longtime trusted adviser Oleh Rybachuk as Mr. Zinchenko's replacement. Prior to becoming chief of staff, Mr. Rybachuk was vice prime minister for European integration.

Mr. Zinchenko's accusations provoked a crisis in the government, which Mr. Yushchenko spent three days trying to resolve.

A deal had been reached in which Mr. Poroshenko and several other officials would resign, said Iryna Heraschenko, the president's spokeswoman.

Tomenko follows Zinchenko

However, Vice Prime Minister for Humanitarian Affairs Mykola Tomenko's decision to call a September 8 press conference to support Mr. Zinchenko's allegations of corruption in the government broke any deal and forced Mr. Yushchenko to fire the whole government, she said.

It's unlikely Mr. Tomenko would have called the press conference without Ms. Tymoshenko's agreement, political experts said.

Ms. Tymoshenko declined any comment on her dismissal, but Ukrinform reported that she was expected to meet with the press on Friday, September 9. Her close ally, Oleksander Turchynov announced on September 8 that he was resigning as head of the Security Service of Ukraine because he believes the president's move "threatens national security."

Mr. Poroshenko said his opinions were consistent with those of Mr. Yushchenko.

Mr. Tomenko, who announced his resignation, said two separate governments had existed and clashed under the Yushchenko administration. Mr. Poroshenko led the oligarchic interests, while Ms. Tymoshenko represented the lawful political interests, he explained.

"To a large extent, 'Kuchmism' has returned to Bankova Street," he said.

Mr. Tomenko also criticized Mr. Yushchenko for lack of communication in his government. He said any attempt to communicate with the president had to be approved by Mr. Tretiakov.

Foreign Affairs Minister Borys Tarasyuk said that because of Mr. Tretiakov's interference he was not able to communicate with Mr. Yushchenko for three months.

Poroshenko resigns

Shortly after Mr. Tomenko's resignation, Mr. Poroshenko became the third top-level official in the government to resign, announcing that he was resigning in order not to obstruct an official investigation into the corruption charges leveled by Mr. Zinchenko.

Later in the day, Mr. Tomenko and other Cabinet ministers speculated that a majority of those fired would return to their posts.

That's a likely possibility, but unfortunately the majority of those returning will likely be from the oligarch camp, Mr. Lozowy commented. He said his concern over the future of political reform is rooted in Mr. Yushchenko's selection of Mr. Yekhanurov, the current chairman of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast State Administration.

A member of the Our Ukraine coalition and a supporter of the Orange Revolution, Mr. Yekhanurov has extensive experience working not only with Mr. Yushchenko, but also his predecessors Mr. Kuchma and Leonid Kravchuk.

The selection of Mr. Yekhanurov is disturbing and threatens the reforms promised on the maidan during the Orange Revolution, Mr. Lozowy said.

"No question, this is a negation of what the revolution was about," Mr. Lozowy said. "Yushchenko got rid of a key person against the former Kuchma crowd, Yulia Tymoshenko. Yekhanurov, (Roman) Bezsmertnyi and (Yevhen) Chervonenko - none of these people left the Kuchma team with even a pretense of being dissatisfied with what the Kuchma regime was doing."

When Mr. Yushchenko served as Ukraine's prime minister under President Kuchma, Mr. Yekhanurov served as his first vice prime minister from December 1999 to May 2001.

When he was voted out of the position, Mr. Yekhanurov became the first assistant to Oleksander Zinchenko, who chaired the presidential administration at the time. During the Kuchma presidency he also served as head of the State Property Fund in 1994-1997. In 1997 he served as Ukraine's minister of the economy for five months.

"I see this as a victory for the Kuchmites," Mr. Lozowy said. "Yekhanurov coming in means Ukraine is going to dampen down reforms and getting rid of corruption. Relations with Russia will revert to the old form."

Mr. Yekhanurov, 57, was born in the Yakutsk region of Russia, and studied in Kyiv during the 1960s.

As oblast administrator, this year Mr. Yekhanurov changed a Dnipropetrovsk street name to Kateryna Street in honor of Catherine II, the tsarina who destroyed the Zaporozhian Sich, Mr. Lozowy said.

As head of the State Property Fund in the mid-1990s, Mr. Yekhanurov led what was then a feeding trough of corruption and exploitation, he noted.

"It's sad. Mr. Yushchenko made a bold move, but he's gone back to his old form, which is relying on people he knows personally," Mr. Lozowy said.

President haggles with Cabinet

During his press conference, which was limited to television reporters, President Yushchenko said he never wanted to repeat the three days he spent haggling with his Cabinet to remain together.

Throughout the months of Cabinet conflicts, Mr. Yushchenko said he felt as if he were a "baby-sitter" - a position he felt a president shouldn't have to be in.

The administration's paradox

"My colleagues and I promised on the maidan that nobody would have privileges," President Yushchenko said. "But we saw that many new faces appeared in the government, and a paradox happened - the government's face didn't change."

When explaining his decision, the president said he noticed his ministers didn't trust each other and were making side agreements that led to scandals, the latest of which involved the Nikopol ferroalloy plant.

In the plant's re-privatization, Ms. Tymoshenko was accused of having favored the Pryvat business partnership led by Ihor Kolomoyskyi over other competitors, deeply upsetting Mr. Yushchenko, who likened it to taking the plant from one gang, led by Viktor Pinchuk, and giving it to another, led by Mr. Kolomoyskyi.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that, while announcing the dismissal of his prime minister and the entire Cabinet, the president said he would like Ms. Tymoshenko to remain on his team and that he wants Mr. Poroshenko to stay on.

He told the press he would be open to Ms. Tymoshenko and Mr. Poroshenko remaining on his team "if these people change their conduct and show they can work together."

Mr. Yushchenko's traditional political opponents said the government is in crisis, although Labor Party (Trudova Partia) Chair Valerii Konovaliuk called for Ukrainians to put aside their political differences and support Mr. Yushchenko.

Last year, Mr. Konovaliuk was a Party of the Regions member. While stating the Mr. Yushchenko can fully rely on Trudova Ukraina for support, Mr. Konovaliuk added the caveat that his party doesn't necessarily support Mr. Yushchenko's political agenda.

"Trudova Ukraina, as a party of constructive opposition, will never stand on the side of those forces that drive the country to collapse, chaos and disorder," a press release stated.

Social Democratic Party of Ukraine leaders referred to the situation as a political crisis and tried driving a wedge between Mr. Yushchenko and Ms. Tymoshenko. SDPU Chair Viktor Medvedchuk even made the claim that his party may pursue forming a bloc with Ms. Tymoshenko's Batkivschyna Party.

In fact, it remained unclear whether Ms. Tymoshenko would remain in the Our Ukraine coalition or if she would form an opposition force.

Mr. Tomenko told reporters that the Orange Revolution's first stage was successfully executed, but it's not over and the next phase now has to take place.

"The second phase is only possible if business leaves Ukrainian politics," Mr. Tomenko said. "I am thrilled that Ukraine has the wealthiest government officials in Europe. But I am absolutely convinced that until the wealthiest businessmen in Europe and the world come to a decision at the president's command, we will live in an uncivilized nation."

An opposition force in the making?

Mr. Tomenko said that he would be willing to join Ms. Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna Party, hinting that she might form an opposition force.

Agriculture Minister Oleksander Baranivskyi predicted that more than half of the Cabinet ministers would join an opposition party if led by Ms. Tymoshenko.

The next several days or weeks will be intriguing as Ms. Tymoshenko decides what her political course will be, Mr. Lozowy said. "She has got a real difficult choice to make because this is the first time she's cut adrift without a patron to look over her," he said. "She's always been a protégé: of Pavlo Lazarenko and then Yushchenko. Does she have the wherewithal to stand on her own and seize the moment?"

Echoing virtually all the Cabinet ministers, Mr. Baranivskyi said he supported the president's move to dismiss the government because the president's work was constantly obstructed.

An interesting development is that those politicians who have been traditionally aligned with Mr. Yushchenko have switched to Ms. Tymoshenko's camp, including Viktor Pynzenyk and Serhii Teriokhin, said Taras Kuzio, a visiting professor at George Washington University.

"They didn't like the businessmen surrounding Yushchenko, like Poroshenko," Dr. Kuzio said. "And they didn't want to merge that party [Batkivschyna] into the party Yushchenko was creating."

However, Dr. Kuzio also pointed out: "The paradox of the Orange Revolution is that without these businessmen, the Revolution wouldn't have happened. Most of the money came from these domestic sources. But at the same time, their continued presence could have undermined the revolution."

Mr. Tomenko also accused Messrs. Poroshenko, Tretiakov and Martynenko, and Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn of doing everything possible to prevent the information about those who ordered Heorhii Gongadze's murders from becoming public.

Mr. Yushchenko took offense at the accusation.

"In four or five months of investigating the Gongadze case we have accomplished more than the previous four years," Mr. Yushchenko said. "We know those who executed the murders, but we still don't know who ordered the murders."

Some optimism remains

RFE/RL reported that, although the Yushchenko administration is now facing the biggest crisis of its seven-month existence, some observers remain optimistic. Volodymyr Horbach of the Kyiv-based Institute of Euro-Atlantic Cooperation told RFE/RL that eventually the crisis might push the administration to start serious reforms.

He went on to say that the crisis is unlikely to tarnish President Yushchenko's image very much because the revelations come from the administration itself, not from the opposition. "That's why people will respect [the administration] even more."

Meanwhile, Prof. Ihor Losev of the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy commented to RFE/RL that in the current situation President Yushchenko had little choice.

"It is evident that the government was formed hastily after the Orange Revolution," Prof. Losev noted. "It included representatives of many different political trends and on the whole was not united. [The president] has to seriously reform the government and also look closely at the people who surround him."

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