Kyiv not concerned about Yeltsin's resignation (01/09/00)

Kyiv not concerned about Yeltsin's resignation

RFE/RL Poland, Belarus and Ukraine Report

PRAGUE - President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine announced on December 31, 1999, through his spokesman Oleksander Martynenko, that President Boris Yeltsin's resignation was "a step of a courageous man who is worried over the future of his country and all Russians."

Mr. Kuchma said he is sure that Russia's acting president, Vladimir Putin, "will continue to develop the strategic partnership" between Russia and Ukraine. Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko stated that President Yeltsin's decision was "a logical continuation of his lifelong outlook" and testifies to the fact that events in Russia "develop in the context of the normalization of the situation in the country." Mr. Yuschenko praised Mr. Yeltsin as "a wise and talented man who made a great deal of efforts to develop Ukrainian-Russian relations."

The leader of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Petro Symonenko, commented that Mr. Yeltsin's resignation was expected by both Ukrainian and Russian communists. "Most likely, clans have already decided who will rule Russia in the future, therefore [the succession in the Kremlin] was decided in this way," Interfax quoted Mr. Symonenko as saying.

Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz commented that Mr. Yeltsin "realizing the inevitability of this step, made a skillful and balanced move." According to Mr. Moroz, following Mr. Yeltsin's resignation the relations between Russia and Ukraine will be given "more substance."

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