Firebrand of Choice

Transitions ^ | 7 February 2005 | Ivan Lozowy

[Tailgunner Joe]

KYIV, Ukraine--If politicians are supposed to speak softly but carry a big stick, then Ukraine's newly inaugurated president, Viktor Yushchenko, has made no secret of whom he has chosen as his stick. The day after his inauguration on 23 January, Yushchenko designated the firebrand politician Yulia Tymoshenko as acting prime minister. On 4 February Ukraine's parliament confirmed Tymoshenko in the post by a resounding and unprecedented 373 votes out of a possible 450.

DISARRAY ON THE FLANKS

The overwhelming vote for Tymoshenko reflects just how resounding was the defeat of former President Leonid Kuchma and his handpicked successor Viktor Yanukovych following the heady events of the "Orange Revolution."

The former government's supporters are in complete disarray. Political groupings that provided close support to Kuchma, such as the Party of Regions and the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (United), have been bleeding members of parliament profusely. Since November, the Party of Regions has lost 12 parliamentarians out of 66, and 17 deputies have left the SDPU(o) faction, which once numbered 50. The Workers' Ukraine party, headed by Yanukovych's former campaign manager Serhiy Tyhipko, collapsed entirely after losing 43 deputies, then revived through a merger with the People's Democratic Party. That failed to stem the losses, however; the united faction has since lost four out of 18 parliamentarians.

Following a meeting of the SDPU(o)'s governing council on 25 January, party chairman Viktor Medvedchuk announced it was going into opposition, the only party to formally do so. During the 4 February vote on Tymoshenko, however, 18 of the 23 SDPU(o) members present voted to confirm her as prime minister.

Medvedchuk has his task cut out for him, because apart from the vote and a rash of parliamentary defections, over the past several weeks two ministers from the previous cabinet left his party and the head of the State Reserve Committee resigned from its governing council.

Yushchenko's own faction, Our Ukraine, remains the largest with 101 deputies; Tymoshenko's eponymous party has 18; and another Yushchenko supporter, Socialist Party chairman Oleksandr Moroz, controls 21. New parliamentary elections, together with local elections, are due in just over a year's time, and much of what Tymoshenko's government does until then will help draw the contours of the new parliament.

A DRIVING PERSONALITY

Most observers agree that Tymoshenko's strong personality and high ambition will drive the current government and its initiatives.

Tymoshenko has been a steadfast supporter of Yushchenko's bid for the presidency since the two signed a cooperation agreement entitled "Power of the People" on 2 July 2004.

Educated in the eastern city of Dnipropetrovsk as an economist, Tymoshenko went into business very early and by the mid-1990s took control over close to a quarter of Ukraine's entire economy by monopolizing the supply of natural gas to the heavily industrialized eastern regions and the shipment of gas from Russia’s Gazprom through Ukraine to Western Europe. Her company, United Energy Systems, was granted the monopoly by then-Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko, another Dnipropetrovsk native. In 2003, Lazarenko was convicted on 29 counts of extortion and money laundering in the United States.

In 1999, the newly appointed Prime Minister Yushchenko, who had not yet aroused Kuchma's ire, appointed her a deputy prime minister in charge of fuel and energy, but in 2001 Kuchma removed her from the post. She was arrested in 2001 on charges of tax evasion but was soon released; she then initiated an impeachment drive against Kuchma. The party she founded, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, did well in parliamentary elections in 2002, winning 7.2 percent of the vote.

On 4 February, the same day parliament approved Tymoshenko as prime minister, Yushchenko appointed 21 ministers by drawing heavily on the coalition of political forces that supported his candidacy during the presidential elections.

Though there were few surprises, the new cabinet represents a departure from business as usual.

Out of four deputy prime ministers, only Anatoly Kinakh, who joined Yushchenko's campaign after the first round of presidential voting last October, once occupied a high government post (as prime minister in 2001-2002). The other three come from Yushchenko's inner circle: Oleh Rybachuk, who is responsible for European integration, Roman Bessmertny, in charge of administrative reform, and Mykola Tomenko in the humanitarian policy slot.

Borys Tarasiuk, who has strong pro-Western leanings, returns to head the Foreign Ministry for the second time.

The Socialists received three ministries: agriculture, education, and interior. The new interior minister, Yuriy Lutsenko, was one of the leaders of the anti-Kuchma campaign in 2000-2001, when he faced Interior Ministry troops across barricades on a regular basis. Now he is in charge of them.

The Defense Ministry will be headed by Anatoliy Hrytsenko, formerly head of a think tank called the Razumkov Center.

Tymoshenko's close aide, Oleksandr Turchynov, only a lieutenant by rank, was appointed head of the Security Service.

Yushchenko named businessman Petro Poroshenko, Tymoshenko's chief challenger for the premiership, to head the Council on National Security and Defense, a position that will be upgraded under the new president. While in the past the council was used occasionally to push through unpopular personnel changes, Yushchenko has indicated that it will serve as his principal policy-making body.

Oleksandr Zinchenko, Yushchenko's campaign manager, was named state secretary and head of the presidential secretariat. For the last two years of Kuchma's term, the office was headed by Medvedchuk and was a constant source of discontent and controversy. Medvedchuk was held to be the author of the ***temnyky,*** or secret instructions to the media on how to cover, or not cover, news events. He was also widely believed to have stood behind numerous attempts to pressure politicians around Yushchenko and Tymoshenko by instigating tax investigations and other forms of legal pressure.

THIS LADY'S NOT FOR PLACATING

If Tymoshenko's past statements are any indication, she will work energetically to clean up a government machine that was a source of intense and prolonged pressure against her and other opposition figures, including Yushchenko himself.

Prior to her appointment, Tymoshenko stated repeatedly and forcefully that Ukraine needed to be "cleansed" of the corruption of the past.

In this Tymoshenko has been supported by Moroz, who said on 27 December on Ukrainian television that "the most important and most difficult task for Yushchenko's team will be the return of the people's trust in government. The guarantee for this should be the cleansing of the oligarchs [wealthy businesspeople] from the government."

Tymoshenko has already coupled words to deeds. At its first meeting, on 5 February, her cabinet voted to return to government ownership the Krivorizhstal steelworks, source of 20 percent of Ukraine's steel exports, and to conduct a new privatization. In the original privatization, Krivorizhstal was bought by a consortium of Ukraine's two richest men, the Donetsk-based Renat Akhmetov and Kuchma's son-in-law, Viktor Pinchuk. That deal is under scrutiny in several cases now making their way through the courts.

The prime minister, who herself made a fortune on trading in gas during the 1990s, then put even more pressure on the oligarchs, saying at a press conference that all of the government's decisions on property-related issues since 1991 would be reviewed.

Following last week's whirlwind tour to Russia, Poland, Strasbourg, and Davos, Switzerland, Yushchenko is due to meet U.S. President George W. Bush during a NATO summit on February 22. While off on foreign visits, the president can be sure that at home the fires are being stoked by his determined new prime minister.

[Calpernia]

Now here is a headline....

Firebrand of Choice

[Jimmy Valentine]

Hawa Ykpana!

[Cicero]

She's an absolute knockout, to boot.

Check properties on this photo to see her personal website and more photos.

[Cicero]

For those who need help, here's the site:

http://www.tymoshenko.com.ua/eng/photo/

[firebrand]

snork