Ten years ago, on February 25, 2010, Viktor Yanukovych was sworn in as Ukraine’s president, and his first steps and statements mirrored those of President Leonid Kuchma’s first presidential term (1994-1999).
Mr. Yanukovych selected Mr. Kuchma’s former secretary as head of his administration and demonstrated that in foreign policy he would revive the multi-vector approach of the Kuchma era; in economics, Mr. Yanukovych appealed to populism, focusing on increases in wages and pensions.
As head of his Presidential Administration Mr. Yanukovych appointed Serhiy Lyovochkin, who had previously served Mr. Kuchma as his secretary and officially his first assistant.
More indicators about the new administration emerged when Mr. Yanukovych removed the informational banners from the presidential website about the Holodomor of 1932-1933.
Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was in the firing sights of the new president, when upon taking office he instructed prosecutors to tighten tax enforcement and to investigate government spending of domestic funds and loans from the International Monetary Fund.
The new president stated that Ukraine would not join the customs union with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. The political moves by the Yanukovych administration appeared to confound Moscow, as President Dmitry Medvedev instructed the Federal Customs Service to begin preparations for Ukraine’s possible membership in the customs union.
Source: “Does Yanukovych inauguration mark beginning of pseudo-Kuchma era?” by Pavel Korduban (Eurasia Daily Monitor), The Ukrainian Weekly, March 7, 2010.