Quotable notes

"[Ukraine's] problem is not the president but the oligarchs, and this is realized perfectly well by ordinary citizens. ... Focusing on the slogan 'Down with Kuchma' and not proposing a program of cardinal social transformations is not just the Ukrainian opposition's tactical mistake that can be corrected. It is a distinctive trait of this opposition. ... Enjoying considerable support of the electorate after the Ukraine Without Kuchma campaign [in 2000-2001] ... the political opposition has remained under the leadership of oligarchs of the 'second echelon.' The lack of a position of the most likely [presidential] candidate from the opposition, Viktor Yushchenko, regarding the most acute social issues, and [his] actual rejection of a change of the political system - that is, a move to a parliamentary republic - fully meets the interests of politicians and businessmen who have been offended by the current authorities and are now desiring to recover lost positions by influencing a future government."

- Volodymyr Chemerys, a leader of the Ukraine Without Kuchma movement in 2000-2001, in an article published on the Ukrainska Pravda website on December 15, as cited by RFE/RL Poland, Belarus and Ukraine Report.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, December 28, 2003, No. 52, Vol. LXXI

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