Parliament approves Lazarenko as PM; president names six "power" ministers (07/14/96)

Parliament approves Lazarenko as PM; president names six "power" ministers

by Marta Kolomayets
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine's Parliament voted 344-22 to approve President Leonid Kuchma's candidate for prime minister, Pavlo Lazarenko - a first step by both branches of power to abide by the state's newly adopted Constitution.

According to Ukraine's fundamental law, the president has three months to name a prime minister, who then has to be approved by a constitutional majority in Parliament. Only after this procedure can the prime minister begin forming a government.

[Power ministers do not need parliamentary approval. These include four who make up the National Security Council: the security services minister, interior minister, defense minister and foreign affairs minister, who are directly appointed by the president. Others who are directly appointed by the president include the commander of the border guards, and the chairman of the State Customs Committee. The prime minister also is a member of the NSC, which is headed by the president.]

As The Weekly was going to press on Thursday evening, July 11, President Kuchma issued decrees appointing the following power ministers: security service - Volodymyr Radchenko; defense - Olexander Kuzmuk; interior - Yuriy Kravchenko; foreign - Hennadiy Udovenko; border guards - Viktor Bannykh; state customs - Leonid Derkach. Of these six ministers, only the defense minister is a new appointee.

Given the critical economic situation, and the fact that the legislative branch breaks for a summer recess on July 12 and reconvenes on September 3, President Kuchma wasted no time in submitting his candidate for the post of prime minister to the Ukrainian Parliament.

In presenting Mr. Lazarenko, who has served as prime minister since May 28, to the deputies in Parliament on July 10, Mr. Kuchma said he found it "inadmissible and dangerous" to drag out the process.

"The economic situation is critical," said the Ukrainian leader two years to the day since he was elected president of Ukraine. He urged the lawmakers to make a decision quickly, so that he may instruct Mr. Lazarenko to have a government program ready by early September.

They obliged, with 344 deputies endorsing President Kuchma's choice for prime minister. Twenty-two voted against, nine abstained, and 17 did not vote. The decision was greeted with a round of applause and a standing ovation, as President Kuchma, Parliament Chairman Oleksander Moroz and newly approved Prime Minister Lazarenko smiled and posed for photos in the legislative chambers.

Mr. Moroz noted that the Supreme Council's vote was "an exceptionally responsible decision at a crucial juncture for Ukraine," explaining that two years have been spent on "overcoming intrigues in the corridors of power. It is necessary for the government to be engaged not in politics, but in the economy," he said.

Expressing gratitude to the lawmakers, Mr. Lazarenko said he clearly understands the responsibility that comes with his appointment, and thanked them for their vote of confidence.

Having met with all the factions, groups and political parties in the Parliament prior to the vote on his candidacy, Mr. Lazarenko once again assured the lawmakers that his guidelines for choosing ministers for a new government would be based on "professionalism, competence and knowledge of the matter at hand." He also stressed that when forming the government, he would take into account the "interests of all of Ukraine's regions," a statement lawmakers regarded as a way to calm their worries that the government would be a "Dnipropetrovske clan."

Lawmakers also saw it as a positive sign that Mr. Lazarenko met with all forces in Parliament, and thus proved he had no intention of making it "Lazarenko's or Kuchma's" government.

In keeping with the new Constitution, on July 5 the prime minister and the government ministers resigned. However, President Kuchma asked the ministers to stay on until a new Cabinet is named.

Some ministers in the Cabinet, who are also deputies in the Parliament, will have to make a choice very soon, given that in accordance with the Constitution they can now only serve in one branch of power.

Of the numerous politicians currently holding two seats, only two have formally chosen one branch of power or another. These include Serhiy Holovaty, who has resigned as a deputy in Parliament and chosen to stay on as Ukraine's minister of justice. He told reporters he was giving up his mandate with regret, but that he hopes to continue to cooperate with Parliament to put Ukrainian legislation in line with the Council of Europe's standards.

The second minister to make his choice known was Vasyl Yevtukhov, the deputy prime minister for the fuel and energy complex, who decided to keep his deputy's seat representing Dnipropetrovske and give up his government post.

Valeriy Shmarov, Ukraine's minister of defense since October 1994, resigned from his post on July 8; President Kuchma accepted his resignation immediately.

For the past several months, Mr. Shmarov had been under attack by national democratic forces for his incompetence in dealing with military matters. He has been criticized by military personnel within his own ministry who disapproved of the fact that he was a civilian minister.

But President Kuchma told Volodymyr Mukhin, chairman of the Parliament Committee on Defense, that his decision to dismiss Mr. Shmarov was due to the findings during a review of the state of affairs in the Ukrainian Navy. President Kuchma criticized Mr. Shmarov for neglecting "to play the role assigned to him," and explained that as a "political figure, he was supposed to establish close links with managers of industrial enterprises, manufacturers of weapons, and he failed to do this."

[As The Weekly was going to press, reports had just come in that Mr. Shmarov had won his libel case against the newspaper Vechirniy Kyiv. Its editor, Vitaliy Karpenko, is scheduled to pay Mr. Shmarov 15 million karbovantsi in moral damages, while the newspaper will have to dish out 300 million karbovantsi. It is expected that the newspaper will appeal.]

On July 11 President Kuchma named Lt. Gen. Oleksander Kuzmuk to the post of defense minister. Gen. Kuzmuk, who has served in the collegium of the defense ministry, commanded the 32nd Army Corps in the Crimea before he was appointed commander of the National Guard.

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