Kuchma names Anatolii Kinakh as Ukraine's 10th prime minister (05/27/01)

Kuchma names Anatolii Kinakh as Ukraine's 10th prime minister

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - After extensive consultations with leaders of most all Verkhovna Rada factions in order to smooth the confirmation process, President Leonid Kuchma nominated Anatolii Kinakh to be Ukraine's 10th prime minister on May 21.

"I will propose this candidacy today," Mr. Kuchma told reporters in the village of Yasnoziria, while on a tour of the Cherkasy region.

Mr. Kinakh, 46, a national deputy and president of the League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs as well as a close associate of Mr. Kuchma, had not been shy in pushing his candidacy in the days following the dismissal of the government of Viktor Yuschenko. He had kept his hat in the ring even as the name of Serhii Tyhypko, a political colleague with very similar political views and support, kept bouncing around at the top of the list of possible candidates. Mr. Kinakh was briefly the first vice prime minister in the last days of the government of Valerii Pustovoitenko.

Mr. Kinakh's appointment, which must be approved by a majority of national deputies in the Verkhovna Rada, is far from certain. There are rumblings in the Parliament, however, that a good number of leftist lawmakers are ready to support his nomination if he offers to adopt a few planks of their political agendas.

The Verkhovna Rada's powerful first vice-chairman, Viktor Medvedchuk - whose endorsement is crucial if Mr. Kinakh is to be confirmed by the lawmakers - said on May 23 that it would be better if the nominee attained a majority without Communist or Socialist votes.

Mr. Kinakh finds himself in a difficult situation because he cannot expect votes from the center-right, which might have supported him had he not been nominated to replace the prime minister whose government they desperately tried to save. The leaders of the Reforms-Congress faction and both Rukh factions said they would not take part in the vote for any candidate except Mr. Yuschenko and would become an opposition force to the new government.

"We believe the only proper government for Ukraine is the Yuschenko government, which should not have been removed," explained Hennadii Udovenko, chairman of the National Rukh of Ukraine faction on May 23.

President Kuchma dismissed Mr. Yuschenko on April 28, two days after the Parliament had approved a motion of no confidence. An unlikely alliance of Communists and several centrist parties, including ones controlled by Messrs. Kinakh, Medvedchuk and Tyhypko, organized and supported the no-confidence vote. Many political experts said the action by the centrists was a strategic move to obtain control of the prime minister post and the various resources it allows in preparation for parliamentary elections next year.

The Yuschenko government was the first one in 10 years of independence to make serious inroads towards economic and democratic reform and had stimulated and overseen the beginning of what is becoming a strong economic upturn in Ukraine.

Immediately after Mr. Yuschenko's departure, many of the centrist political leaders offered their candidacies to succeed him, including Messrs. Kinakh, Medvedchuk and Tyhypko, as well as Mr. Pustovoitenko, a former prime minister, and Mykola Azarov, chairman of the Regional Party and current head of the State Tax Administration.

Meanwhile, the Communists, who had said they would nominate several of their own candidates, ended up offering up no one.

After a series of meetings between political faction leaders and then with President Kuchma, Mr. Kinakh and Mr. Tyhypko became finalists before President Kuchma made his choice.

Mr. Tyhypko, who had led the first assaults on the Yuschenko Cabinet when he proposed last year that it should be transformed into a coalition government and whom many had considered a shoe-in as the head of a new government, failed to receive sufficient backing from leftist forces in Parliament during their discussions with President Kuchma.

He said during a press conference on May 23 that, although he initially was shocked at not obtaining the nomination, he had gotten used to the idea, was ready to support Mr. Kinakh and would even consider a Cabinet position. He added, however, that the only way the new government would be more effective than the old one would be if it learned the process of bridge-building, not only to the Presidential Administration, but also to the factions of the Verkhovna Rada.

Mr. Kinakh's current problem, however, is to devise a policy that will appease the Communists and Socialists, if he expects to be confirmed by the Verkhovna Rada.

Communist Chairman Petro Symonenko said on May 23 that he would expect the prime minister designate to incorporate a portion of the Communists' program on social benefits, while Socialist Party Chairman Oleksander Moroz said he was ready to support Mr. Kinakh if the two could find agreement "on certain points."

On the day of the announcement of his nomination, Mr. Kinakh explained that he would consider all proposals from the left, but nothing that would threaten democracy or free market reforms. He said his government would concentrate on "extensive tax reform and the formation of a goal-oriented, effective, non-populist government policy aimed at the gradual elimination of poverty."

Mr. Kinakh will meet with various parliamentary factions through the end of the week to outline his program and discuss the division of ministerial portfolios. The Verkhovna Rada is expected to vote on his confirmation on May 29. If it does not confirm Mr. Kinakh or another nominee by June 28, the president will be forced to designate a caretaker government.

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