Yevhen MARCHUK: “To enter Europe we have to put our own house in order”
The Day: Mr. Marchuk, how do you feel?
Y.M.: I think I’m doing fine. The only problem is I have to wait until the my fracture heals, and it takes time, while nature knits the bone. I’m starting to exercise separate muscular groups, preparing to get on my feet.
The Day: When do you expect to be discharged?
Y.M.: I don’t decide that. However, they told me at the beginning that I would be bed-ridden for about six weeks. After the x-ray shows that everything’s fine I will start on more complicated exercises using all kinds of rehabilitation devices, monitored by all kinds of instruments and monitored by the doctors. That means another couple of weeks. Everything is going according to schedule. The main thing is that my head is working, and there are no more distracting moments of pain.
The Day: I heard you are working very actively.
Y.M.: I am, looking over documents, and I am daily visited by council personnel. I am in contact with security ministries and agencies. We are getting prepared for another council meeting to deal with the railroad situation.
The Day: Do you have any other visitors except relatives and colleagues?
Y.M.: Yes, of course. Unfortunately, the doctors are very strict about the duration of such visits. Sometimes I have extremely warm meetings. A woman came all the way from Luhansk (we met during the election campaign) and brought me some medicine I needed very badly during the first couple of days after the trauma.
The Day: You mean you could not get it in Kyiv?
Y.M.: She didn’t know I had it, but that’s not the point. The point is that she made a special trip from Luhansk to bring me the medicine. Also, as you know, Leonid Kuchma visited me Tuesday. My colleagues and I cope with a lot of problems, mainly dealing with the energy sector of late, under the presidential decree. There is a huge complex of problems requiring attention.
The Day: We also know that there is a lot of resistance to that decree. How does the President react?
Y.M.: Fine. This resistance will be overcome, this is already a matter of principle. The thing is that the energy sector makes up 46.8% of our GDP. Unless we straighten it out and adjust all the mechanisms, market ones, and place them under government oversight to make sure they can be used equally by all, the entire economy will get nothing from it, no fuel for the sowing, no nuclear fuel, and so on. This was one NDSC decision, and it was enacted by a presidential order. Of course, this should have been done much earlier. Our foreign colleagues and partners told us previously that the fuel and energy reform would be a test showing whether Ukraine is capable of reform. For this reason whatever resistance we may encounter has to be broken. Of course, they will resist, because the edict affects the interests of certain business groups. We’ll have to investigate into many business entities like Enerhoatom, Naftohaz Ukrayiny, Ukrnafta...
The Day: Some media claimed the political leadership had to make concessions and return the oil traders some of their privileges.
Y.M.: No, the difference is that these privileges were given to all, not a select few. Until now we had several joint ventures with the monopoly status and some of them were super monopolies. The domestic market became dependent of three such monopolies. This must not be tolerated under any circumstances. What we have now is not a retreat. We have a problem here, but it’s temporary, as we need fuel supplies to form a reserve for the sowing and harvest campaigns.
The Day: We know that top-level decisions are being prepared to legalize shadow capital. Do they include your proposals made during the presidential campaign?
Y.M.: This is a whole complex of issues. One council session will deal with bank monetary turnover and the shadow economy. As for legalizing the shadow economy and shadow capital, this is made up of a lot of things, presidential edicts, Cabinet resolutions, tax authorities and their performance, and such sensitive issues as so- called shadow capital. But the word, amnesty, is associated with crime, and this kind of money is not that directly involved in unlawful operations. To get this money back into legitimate circulation, one must have guarantees like bank anonymity and so on. The Security Council’s decision will be put into force by presidential decree. This form of order has advantages over other forms of actions by other entities in that it can immediately touch on many spheres of activity.
The Day: Did you discuss any of this with the President when he visited you Tuesday?
Y.M.: His visit was a personal gesture in the first place. Of course, we got around to discussing work, mainly with regard to council work. Exercising oversight over the activities of state authority is now a very acute issue.
The Day: By the way, Mr. Marchuk, would you consider the possibility of a separate interview to discuss the problems of Ukrainian information space and information security?
Y.M.: Yes, in fact, the council plans include the information security issue. We intend to deal with it this summer.
The Day: What would be the key issues on the agenda?
Y.M.: We are working on it to single out the key issues, like how we are to go about preserving our national identity in the information space without getting isolating ourselves from the outside world. This is a very complicated problem. The globalization of financial and information flows is a fact. Soon the Internet with its uncontrollable information will become as widespread as television. Meanwhile I see that now there is a great temptation to take restrictive measures here, for example, forceful Ukrainization of the information space. However, I think that supporting Ukrainian language publications, television, and Ukrainian culture in general is a first order necessity. This goes without saying. On the other hand, if all this serves to hinder the quality of the end product, if we ban something and not raise our competitiveness, this would be wrong.
Here in the hospital I often watch Russia’s Culture channel, where you can watch serious, quality programs. One can meet thinking people trying to figure out our ragged realities, thinking and looking ahead. Do we have a channel like that in Ukraine? Obviously, we should set on up, while retaining the viewers’ right to choose between sources of information.
The second question is how do we provide equal conditions and chance to compete. The third issue is state support of the media. The question is how and whom to support. Should we support periodicals with large press runs or conceptual ones, dealing with serious aspects of European integration, uniting the nation, and the intellectualization of society, periodicals working for the country’s strategic interests and future prospects? These are very complicated and unusual issues. We must secure conditions in which this society, through its institutions, foundations, and organizations could influence how the information space is formed.
The Day: You have to stay in bed, but this obviously has not produced any negative effects. You are not depressed, as is often the case with people in your situation. Yet you can’t spend all the time working or undergoing medical procedures. You must have time to spare. How do you spend your leisure?
Y.M.: My television picks up twenty channels, and I made a small schedule, so I can watch what I need or like. I know the time of every newscast on every Ukrainian channel and the same applies to NTV and RTR. I also tune in to CNN, the BBC, and German channel. And of course I watch soccer games. And some movies.
The Day: Did you watch the Bourgeois series?
Y.M.: Unfortunately not. I can’t watch television for long, and the series aired late at night. But I watched With Fire and Sword (I have a video cassette and I watched it three times).
The Day: Cassette? Legal or pirated?
Y.M.: You know, I think it’s pirated. Someone brought it, and I didn’t bother to check. Later it occurred to me that film had not been officially released. Yes, this is a serious question. I became aware of it at the Kuchma-Gore meeting in the United States. They are very serious, even tough about the protection of intellectual property. Unfortunately, here concerning its illegal and unsanctioned use, Ukraine has behaved very badly. And I can tell you that the American side during the talks broached the subject even when dealing with some credit matters. The Americans detected several illegal CD producers in Ukraine. This problem is still to be solved and it tells badly on Ukraine’s image. We will cope with it on the national level. In order to enter Europe, we must first put our own house in order.
The Day: In a word, you keep busy all the time. How did you feel the coming of spring outside?
Y.M.: You know, only from the mood of those visiting me. I would receive bouquets of tulips and other spring presents. I feel the spring indirectly, through people’s mood.
The Day: What would wish at the moment, more than anything else?
Y.M.: I wish I could get up, run a couple of laps at the stadium, go swimming, or play a game of tennis. Seriously, I wish I could work using my whole capacity. Of course, I receive and sign documents and discuss serious matters, yet I am looking forward to the time when I can have people in my office for another brainstorm concerning some problem. In a word, I want to get back to normal life.
