Last Thursday, at 6 a.m., after a search of his apartment and office, the police arrested Mykola Sevulsky, chairman of the natural gas consortium cofounded by the United Energy Systems of Ukraine, and leader of a political group in charge of organizing a referendum on removing President Kuchma.
Given that Sevulsky is a member of the Tymoshenko team, the arrest is automatically viewed as a way of putting pressure on the Verkhovna Rada Budget Committee Chairperson, who is demanding that the President be held accountable for sequestering the 1998 budget appropriations, and who is actively initiating his impeachment. Apart from this, the explanation is in line with the scenario envisaging “inclusion” of the most active opposition members in the government for the purpose of their final burial under the rubble of an inevitable economic collapse — the real crisis, after all, is still to come.
According to the sources close to the Presidential Administration “strategists", in this scenario Yuliya Tymoshenko is to get a leading role in charge of economic issues in a coalition government. There are also some measures developed to force her to accept this offer. Ms. Tymoshenko confirmed to The Day that she is aware of these plans-moreover, she had already received from the higher-up floors an “invitation” to become a member of the government. This invitation contains a list of things that would happen should she decline. Her position is as follows, “The current regime has committed so many crimes that to participate in some joint programs with this government means to be an accessory to the crime. I never in my life allow that.”
In the Budget Committee Chairperson’s view, Parliament’s deliberation of sequestering the 1998 budget appropriations, which keeps being removed from the agenda, is but a link of the same chain of the speaker’s fear of power. Incidentally, Yuliya Tymoshenko was planning to hire Mykola Sevulsky, former Deputy Minister of Finance, as a staff member of her committee.
PS: Mykola Sevulsky is charged with an illegal transfer of Hr 10,411,000 from Ukrhazprom (Ukrainian Gas Industry) to the bank accounts of the Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine, formerly run by Ms. Tymoshenko.






