ELECTION WATCH (01/02/05)

ELECTION WATCH

Yushchenko to right relations with Russia

MOSCOW - Viktor Yushchenko said in an interview published in the December 28 issue of the Moscow-based newspaper Izvestia that his first visit as Ukrainian president will be to Moscow. "I should show Russia that our previous relations were distorted - they were being formed by Ukrainian clans," Mr. Yushchenko said. "This page needs to be turned over if we are [to be] friends and want to look each other straight in the eye. We can forget that Moscow was covered with [Viktor] Yanukovych's [election] posters." Mr. Yushchenko stressed that none of the parties forming his Our Ukraine bloc opposes the development of Ukrainian-Russian relations. "If you think about Ukraine's interests, you need to learn once and for all: Russia is your partner. We need to be more considerate of each other. Problems of the past should not govern the future," Mr. Yushchenko added. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Yanukovych vows 'harsh opposition'

KYIV - Defeated presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych said in an interview published in Izvestia of December 28 that he is not going to cooperate with Viktor Yushchenko "under any circumstances." He stressed that he will go into opposition if Mr. Yushchenko is eventually declared president. "We will go to harsh opposition," Mr. Yanukovych said. "We will get a majority in Parliament and will in this way pressure Yushchenko.... The objective of our harsh opposition will be to win the 2006 parliamentary election. We need to win a majority in the Verkhovna Rada and form a coalition government of our own." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Russia recognizes election outcome

MOSCOW - Speaking at a press conference in Moscow, Russian Central Election Commission Chairman Aleksandr Veshnyakov said on December 27 that although the rerun of the Ukrainian presidential election on December 26 won by opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko was "not entirely faultless" and Russian and foreign observers observed "violations," these facts "have not yet called into question the general outcome [of the elections]," Interfax reported. Over 900 observers from Russia and the CIS were among the 12,000 international observers monitoring the Ukrainian election. Mr. Veshnyakov also said that the demonstrations and other events in Ukraine known as the Orange Revolution that led to the repeat of the presidential run-off are impossible in Russia. "There are neither political nor organizational prerequisites for that in Russia," utro.ru quoted him as saying. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Putin criticizes Yushchenko entourage

MOSCOW - Speaking at a three-hour year-end press conference in Moscow on December 23, President Vladimir Putin repeated his earlier statement that he had good personal relations with Viktor Yushchenko when Mr. Yushchenko was Ukrainian prime minister and expects no problems interacting with him again, RTR and ORT reported. Talking about Mr. Yushchenko visiting Moscow, Mr. Putin said, "We are always glad to receive in Moscow a leader who wins the confidence of the Ukrainian people," kremlin.ru reported. President Putin noted, however, that he is concerned about the composition of a Yushchenko Cabinet. "The only thing we are counting on is that Mr. Yushchenko's inner circle will not include people who are building their political ambitions on anti-Russian, Zionist slogans and so on," kremlin.ru quoted Mr. Putin as saying. Such slogans are "totally inadmissible" and "we do not ignore them," Mr. Putin added. Kremlin.ru noted that "Zionist" was a slip of the tongue and the president meant to say "anti-Semitic." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Yushchenko sees no role for Yanukovych

KYIV - Presidential candidate Yushchenko told Russian journalists in Kyiv on December 22 that if he is elected president, Prime Minister and presidential rival Viktor Yanukovych will "under no circumstances" be included in a new Cabinet, Interfax reported. "If you have lost, you should go," Mr. Yushchenko added. Mr. Yushchenko did not rule out talks with his presidential rival regarding "the political work that could ensure mutual understanding and the formation of healthier relations." Answering a question about his dioxin poisoning, Mr. Yushchenko said the Procurator General's Office should have no major problems in discovering who poisoned him. "It is not a complicated criminal case, because the [poisoning] is limited by a [short] interval of time," Mr. Yushchenko said. (RFE/RL Newsline)

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