Presidential candidates release financial statements (05/30/99)

Presidential candidates release financial statements

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine's president is not a wealthy man. With a single exception, neither are any of the candidates for the post of president, if one believes the financial disclosure statements they have submitted in accordance with Ukraine's presidential election law.

On May 21 Ukraine's Central Election Commission registered President Leonid Kuchma for the October 31 presidential elections and released the information filed by the president. The president had accepted nominations to run for re-election made by the National Democratic Party, the Social Democratic Party (United) and the Liberal Party.

In 1998 President Kuchma earned 19,214 hrv. (approximately $7,700). He received the president's base salary of 18,070.71 hrv. plus an additional 1,142.99 hrv. in "material aid, gifts and donations."

Mr. Kuchma stated that he owns a single apartment with an area of 350.5 square meters and a 63-square-meter summer house, as well as a 510-square-meter plot of land.

Mr. Kuchma owns no automobile, does not posses any securities, and does not hold any bank accounts or other assets, according to his financial report.

Among the other aspirants for the post of president, only one admitted to being a millionaire. Oleksander Rzhavsky, a national deputy in Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada who heads the obscure One Family Political Union, reported his 1998 income as 1.36 million hrv. He also declared 1.77 million hrv. in investment securities and 476,000 hrv. in a personal bank account. Among his possessions he included only an 88.9-square-meter apartment, two luxury automobiles, a Mercedes Benz 320 and a Cadillac, as well as a GMC van.

The financial declarations of another presidential candidate, Yevhen Marchuk, whom many believe to be among Ukraine's richest citizens, showed that at least officially, he is far from a wealthy man. Mr. Marchuk, who once ran the Security Service of Ukraine and is a former prime minister, gave his 1998 income at 10,865 hrv, all from his current work as a Verkhovna Rada national deputy. He listed his assets as a 52-square-meter apartment in Bila Tserkva and a 170-square-meter summer home outside Kyiv. He also owns a Russian-made VAZ Lada automobile.

Among the other leading presidential hopefuls, those on the political left revealed in their statements that their personal economic situations were even less robust than Mr. Marchuk's.

Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko submitted information that shows he earned a total of 8,906.22 hrv. in 1998, with 1,816 hrv of that coming from gifts and donations. He stated that he owns no real estate, except for a 24-square-meter garage, in which he presumably parks the Russian-made automobile he claims to own.

Natalia Vitrenko, the presidential candidate of the Progressive Socialist Party, whom many polls show to be President Kuchma's most serious challenger, declared a 1998 annual income of 9,833.44 hrv, of which 1,816 hrv was derived from gifts and donations. She claimed to own no real estate and no automobile, and reported a bank account containing 350 hrv. She also stated that she took a 1,000-ruble loan in 1990 to buy a color television. She did not explain whether she repaid it.

Socialist Party candidate Oleksander Moroz's 1998 earnings totaled 12,193 hrv, with 2,044 hrv received in gifts and donations. Mr. Moroz owns a single 112.6-square-meter apartment. He holds no bank accounts or stock certificates and does not have a car.

On the other side of the political spectrum, the two candidates from the divided Rukh also showed that they are not Ukrainian Rockefellers.

Hennadii Udovenko listed 18,132 hrv in income from his work as a Verkhovna Rada national deputy and his assets as $5,000 (U.S.) in foreign currency savings, as well as 7,155 hrv in two other bank accounts. He also owns a Volga automobile.

Yuri Kostenko showed an income of 31,668 hrv in 1998, which includes 13,227 in honoraria from his publications. He did not list any real estate or other personal holdings.

Since the nomination process began on May 14, the names of 14 presidential candidates have been placed in nomination by various political parties or public organizations and certified by the CEC. Besides the contenders already listed, the registered nominees are: Vasyl Onopenko, nominated by the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party; Ivan Bilas, Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists; Oleksander Bazyliuk, Slavic Party; Hennadii Balashov, For a Beautiful Ukraine Party; Volodymyr Olijnyk, who is not aligned with a party but is on the Cherkasy City Council, nominated by voters from the city of Kirovohrad; and Mykhailo Pavlovsky, a non-aligned member of Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada, nominated by voters from the city of Khmelnytskyi.

Two other canditates were nominated over the weekend, but have yet to be certified by the CEC: Green Party leader Vitalii Kononov and Dmytro Korchynsky, who was nominated by a public organization of farmers from the Chernihiv region. Today Mr. Korchynsky, a former leader of the ultra-nationalist UNA-UNSO, heads the Bratstvo Party.

The nomination process for presidential candidates continues by law until June 13. Several potential candidates have yet to officially decide, among them Oleksander Tkachenko, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, whose Peasant Party will hold its political congress on May 29. Mr. Tkachenko has repeatedly said he harbors no presidential aspirations. However, by refusing to categorically dismiss the possibility of his presence in the 1999 presidential campaign, he has left many political analysts with the impression that he will run if nominated.

Pavlo Lazarenko, another man who would be president, has stated that he will run, even though he is currently in the United States awaiting a decision on his request for political asylum in that country. Mr. Lazarenko's Hromada Party has said it intends to nominate its leader, but has yet to do so.

In the next stage of the nomination process all presidential candidates must gather 1 million signatures, with at least 30,000 coming from each of at least two-thirds of Ukraine's oblasts.

| Home Page |