Observers doubt Lazarenko will resume PM's duties (06/29/97)

Observers doubt Lazarenko will resume PM's duties

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - While Pavlo Lazarenko, Ukraine's embattled prime minister, awaits possible surgery to relieve a circulatory system problem, opposition continues to mount against his return to his post. Few political leaders here, including the president, are ready to affirm that once healthy Mr. Lazarenko will resume his duties, although officially he remains head of government.

President Leonid Kuchma, who appointed Vice Prime Minister Vasyl Durdynets acting prime minister the same day that Mr. Lazarenko took ill with what was originally thought to be exhaustion, did not express much support for his former ally upon his return from a United Nations-sponsored conference on the environment in New York. He blamed Mr. Lazarenko for the government's inability to get the Verkhovna Rada to pass a 1997 budget.

"Had the prime minister and the government shown will power to ensure the adoption of the national budget, it would have been adopted by now," said the president, according to Interfax-Ukraine. He called the budget stalemate "advantageous to those who would manage the budget at their own discretion," a veiled reference to Mr. Lazarenko's autocratic tendencies in his management of the Cabinet of Ministers.

Mr. Lazarenko, who was appointed in May 1996, has had increasingly fractious relations with President Kuchma. In the past several months the president has severely criticized Mr. Lazarenko's work, stating that he was slow to move on cleaning up corruption and that his Cabinet had produced a shoddy and unworkable budget.

However, on June 25 President Kuchma said Mr. Lazarenko is still in charge of the government. "Pavlo Lazarenko is still the prime minister of Ukraine. What I have done was simply a required procedure."

In the last month Mr. Kuchma has come under pressure from various political organizations to relieve the prime minister of his duties. The National Democratic Party, with which the president is closely connected, called for Mr. Lazarenko's ouster earlier this month, as did the Reform faction in the Verkhovna Rada. On June 24 the Trade Union Federation of Ukraine, the country's largest, added its name to the list. The federation's leader, Oleksander Stoyan, is politically aligned with Verkhovna Rada Chairman Oleksander Moroz.

With a tide of political opposition cresting, Mr. Lazarenko must organize his resurrection from a hospital bed. Doctors at Republican Clinical Hospital have diagnosed Mr. Lazarenko's illness as thrombophlebitis, a condition where a blood clot forms in an enlarged vein, usually as a result of varicose veins. The condition can be fatal if the clot breaks free and travels to the heart or brain.

Doctors are not calling his illness life-threatening, but the timing of its onset could kill Mr. Lazarenko's current political life. By law, a government official cannot be removed from his post for 45 days while he is on sick leave, so few politicians believe Mr. Lazarenko will be fired in the next month. But a consensus seems to have developed that he is on the outs.

Among several national deputies to the Verkhovna Rada asked for their opinions, only one said that Mr. Lazarenko's return depends on his recovery from the illness. Deputy Volodymyr Masol, once prime minister himself, said, "It depends on his health, whether the operation is a success."

However, Deputy Volodymyr Yavorivskyi was certain the prime minister would not return. "I think that he is already gone," he said. Mr. Yavorivskyi explained that in a non-life-threatening situation it did not make sense to charge Vice Prime Minister Durdynets with the responsibilities of prime minister if the president intended to keep Mr. Lazarenko. "If there were no decree, Lazarenko could call Durdynets from his hospital room and give orders. With the decree, Durdynets is in charge," said Deputy Yavorivskyi.

There is a feeling among some members of Parliament that perhaps Mr. Lazarenko will stay out of the political picture only until the budget is finally passed. He has battled unsuccessfully with the Verkhovna Rada for six months over the budget. Many believe that Mr. Durdynets, who is considered a good deal-maker and who was once deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, is the person to get the budget moving.

Mr. Yavorivskyi said the door to the prime minister's return still remains ajar, if only slightly. "He could still return, but the situation that is currently building is such that it will be difficult for him."

Deputy Yurii Tyma, a member of the radical nationalist Ukrainian National Assembly/Ukrainian National Self-Defense (UNA/UNSO), was more blunt. "Either Kuchma remains president or Lazarenko returns - one of the two," he explained. "Lazarenko cannot live with Kuchma, nor Kuchma with Lazarenko."

Even members of the prime minister's team, who would be expected to sound a note of optimism, suggested Mr. Lazarenko's return is far from certain. Valerii Pustovoitenko, minister of the Cabinet of Ministers, said, "We will see. Only time will tell."

| Home Page |