Tymoshenko tapped as prime minister (01/30/05)

Tymoshenko tapped as prime minister

by Olga Nuzhinskaya
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

KYIV - A day after being sworn-in, Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko nominated the fiery 44-year-old politician Yulia Tymoshenko as acting prime minister and is expected to shortly ask Ukraine's Parliament to formally approve her.

"I'm up to the task of the prime minister's job," Ms. Tymoshenko told the media on January 25 and pledged that Ukraine would "become a more civilized country."

Mr. Yushchenko's office announced the decision while the president was in Moscow on his first foreign trip.

"Tymoshenko, of all the candidates that were proposed, was the most acceptable," President Yushchenko said after a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, "I hope that Yulia and her Cabinet will be successful."

Ms. Tymoshenko was the most visible of Mr. Yushchenko's allies in the Orange Revolution. Side-by-side with Mr. Yushchenko, and more than anyone else, Ms. Tymoshenko was the political face of the mass movement dubbed the Orange Revolution when tens of thousands of opposition supporters flooded the streets of Kyiv following the fraud-marred presidential run-off of November 21, 2004.

At her behest, protesters stayed on the streets to press for democracy and honest election. She jumped on the backs of trucks to rally the crowds and clamored over a riot police line. She repeatedly called for a seizure of power from the opposition's stage on Independence Square.

"I strongly helped the revolution ... I managed to demonstrate that politicians sometimes serve the people, not themselves," Ms. Tymoshenko said.

The charismatic Ms. Tymoshenko, who is considered to be the most radical person among Mr. Yushchenko's allies, is someone that almost no one feels neutral about.

Even as President Yushchenko walked to an outdoor rostrum on Sunday to give his inauguration speech, chants of "Tymoshenko!" and "Yulia for prime minister!" were a counterpoint to cheers for the new president.

"Together with Yulia our people can really change the country," said Vitalii Strutynskyi, 47, a businessman from Kyiv.

"A person involved in stealing state money and under prosecution cannot be our prime minister," said Irina Leshchenko, 20, a student from Donetsk.

Before joining the ranks of President Leonid Kuchma's foes, Ms. Tymoshenko headed the now-defunct United Energy Systems, the country's predominant gas dealer, where she pushed through energy sector reforms that angered influential tycoons but won praise from Western observers.

Ms. Tymoshenko served as deputy prime minister under Pavlo Lazarenko, who was convicted in June in San Francisco of fraud, money-laundering and extortion. She was ousted from government in 2001, turning against President Kuchma and forming a faction in the Parliament.

Since 2001, prosecutors have opened several probes against her, and she was jailed briefly on charges of bribery, money-laundering, corruption and abuse of power while working for UES. She has dismissed the charges as politically motivated.

However, President Yushchenko's choice for prime minister will sow fear among that part of Ukraine's business elite which was closely connected to the government of former President Kuchma, and it is also likely to be a bitter pill for Russia, where Ms. Tymoshenko is accused by prosecutors of bribery.

"Especially in first months it will be a tough and offensive style of leadership that can affect some business elites and their interests," said Oleksander Dergachev, an analyst with the Kyiv-based Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies.

Ms. Tymoshenko pledged to crack down on wealthy coal and steel tycoons from Ukraine's east who backed Mr. Kuchma's hand-picked presidential candidate, former Prime Minister Yanukovych, and said she would likely look for reprisals, with Mr. Kuchma as a prime target.

The former president was implicated in several murky affairs, including the slaying of an investigative journalist. Mr. Kuchma has denied the allegations.

Although many speculated that Mr. Kuchma sought assurances for his immunity from prosecution from top opposition leaders, Ms. Tymoshenko claimed she "gave no guarantees" to the former president. "I believe that he must be accountable for everything he did with Ukraine," she said.

Ms. Tymoshenko has pledged to restart Ukraine's efforts to become a member of the European Union, a key aim of Mr. Yushchenko's presidency, and to improve Ukraine's ties with Russia.

Many observers expected Mr. Yushchenko to give the prime minister's job to one of his more moderate allies to avoid polarizing society. But the president gave the nod to Ms. Tymoshenko and proposed other appointments to his allies.

Mr. Yushchenko created a presidential secretariat in place of the presidential administration, and tapped his campaign chief, Oleksander Zinchenko, for the top post of state secretary. Another close aide, businessman Petro Poroshenko, was put in charge of the National Security and Defense Council. Both men were candidates for the prime minister's job.

Now Ms. Tymoshenko will need to win a simple majority (226 votes) in the 450-seat legislature. The Verkhovna Rada is currently in recess, but resumes sessions next Tuesday. Current Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn has said repeatedly that lawmakers would support any candidate proposed by Mr. Yushchenko, who took office on January 23 after a bitterly fought campaign.

Even former rivals supported the appointment. Nestor Shufrych, a lawmaker and Mr. Yanukovych ally, called Ms. Tymoshenko's appointment "most inconvenient for the opposition, but "just," as she did a lot for Mr. Yushchenko's victory. He predicted that she would "strengthen Mr. Yushchenko's position."

"If you take into account her work in previous governments and in the parliamentary Budget Committee, she can solve Ukraine's main problems if she is really allowed to do her work," Mr. Shufrych said.

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