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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

It will be most interesting after the campaign

16 November, 1999 - 00:00

Respected Ukrainian political scientist Mykola Tomenko thinks that the latest series of deals between the groups led by Verkhovna Rada Deputy Speaker Viktor Medvedchuk and Premier Valery Pustovoitenko, aimed at impressing the President with the number of signatures collected from those who favor a parliamentary majority and coalition government, is kind of a compromise: Pustovoitenko’s people support Mr. Medvedchuk’s aspiration to preside over Parliament, while the latter will help Mr. Pustovoitenko to hold the Premier’s chair. However, these deals only seem to be able to work in the case of Mr. Medvedchuk, because everything depends on what attitude to cabinet formation will be taken by President Leonid Kuchma: whether to form a government wanted by the parliamentary majority or one desired by the President’s entourage. According to Institute of Politics Director Tomenko, Mr. Kuchma, who thinks that Volodymyr Lanovy and Viktor Pynzenyk, would be useless in a new government, will do the latter and distribute portfolios to those who helped him organize his presidential campaign. The first demonstrative step in this direction has already been taken: Yevhen Marchuk has been appointed Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC). “The distance between political hatred and political love is worth the post of NSDC secretary,” Mr. Tomenko commented on Mr. Marchuk’s return to power. However, he believes, if General Marchuk continues to persist that he has assumed this office to implement his strategy of social development, he will tumble from the post even sooner than another general, Russia’s Lebed, did. “Marchuk has only one chance to hold to the post of NSDC secretary for a long time: to side with a certain pressure group in the President’s entourage,” the political scientist said. Mr. Tomenko supposes that “all groups in the President’s entourage will now be fighting to draw the new Security Council secretary into their game,” which is evidenced by the invitation to rejoin SDPU(o) extended to Mr. Marchuk on October 11 by its leader. However, Mr. Marchuk would do well not to be in any hurry to accept this offer, for it would reduce his chance to be a viable presidential candidate in 2004. Anyway, this was the signal sent Mr. Marchuk by those who run the UT-1 national television channel. Last Thursday the “UTN Panorama” program hosted some experts who voiced the opinion that Mr. Marchuk is no Lebed at all: he more resembles Russian Premier Vladimir Putin currently tipped as Boris Yeltsin’s successor. According to these experts, it is Mr. Marchuk who should “inherit” Mr. Kuchma’s presidential post. In any case, “life after the second round” promises to be intriguing and breathtaking.

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