With the entrance of Yuliya Tymoshenko the quiet life of Yushchenko’s Cabinet has ended
On January 18 the Interfax- Ukraine news agency reported sensational news: President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma agreed to Viktor Yushchenko’s proposal to introduce a state of emergency in Ukraine’s energy sector for three months.
According to the agency, a letter signed by Viktor Yushchenko was forwarded to the President, suggesting that eight anti-crisis measures be implemented to eliminate the critical situation that has arisen in the energy sector. In particular, to stop privatization and corporatization in the energy complex, to re-privatize energy enterprises whose privatization was carried out illegally and especially those “accompanied by revelations of corruption,” to implement an anti-corruption Clean Energy Program, etc.
The day before Deputy Premier Yuliya Tymoshenko announced that the relevant presidential decree was being prepared and could be signed as soon as next Thursday. Meanwhile, in his recent interview Leonid Kuchma said that “the situation on this country’s energy market is critical indeed, but I would not talk about introducing a state of emergency. This is just deafening words.”
At this point, a question arises: Was the disturber of the Cabinet’s peace really talking so loudly, that she was not only heard but listened to, or has she for some reason mistaken the wish for the reality or (which, in fact, is highly improbable), has the Deputy Premier has again decided to correct the President a little (as was the case with her appointment to the government: Leonid Kuchma spoke of Yushchenko’s liberty to man his team, while Yuliya Tymoshenko stated she had been “invited” to the Cabinet by the President himself).
Meanwhile, energy specialists have no consensus on the presidential decree being prepared. “The regulation of the energy sector has been in the phase of reorganization over seven years,” reads a statement of the Ukrainian Nuclear Society. “Powers and responsibilities have not been clearly defined, and issues relating to the allocation of functions have not been settled... Under these conditions, a new spiral of administrative reform begins, leaving the sector without effective regulation for an uncertain period.”
“No emergency measures will produce [the desired] result,” vice president of the Enerhiya (Energy) Concern, Doctor of Technical Science and Professor, head of department of the Institute of Engineering Thermal Physics Yevhen Domashev told The Day. “It will be zero, if not negative. We have practically no energy sector. Over 70% of the equipment is worn out. The awful violations committed in this market also cannot be eliminated by a state of emergency. One should work on the quality of energy engineering itself.” Head of the State Property Fund Oleksandr Bondar also opposed the state of emergency. He thinks it will hamper investments into Ukraine’s energy sector.
INCIDENTALLY
Passions are heating up. Unlike politicians, the newspapers, which support them, speak more clearly. Following the best traditions of revelatory journalism, Vecherniye Vesti, a newspaper close to Yuliya Tymoshenko, wrote this in the article called “Dirty Oligarchy against Clean Energy” carried in its Tuesday issue: “Behind this muddy wave of propaganda (against Yuliya Tymoshenko —Editor) there are such dubious characters as head of the Naftohaz Ukrayiny National Joint Stock Company Bakai, Vice Speaker Medvedchuk and his associate, a member of the same Social-Democrat holding Surkis. Medvedchuk and Surkis are AT PRESENT (capitalized by the Editor) within Ukraine, and using Kievskiye Vedomosti and the Inter television channel, which belong to them, try to discredit the first steps of the new government aimed at cleaning the Augean stables of Ukraine’s energy sector, where these gentlemen have settled so comfortably.” The day before Kievskiye Vedomosti carried an article titled “The Women of the Premier”, where they compared Yuliya Tymoshenko to a flea taking a ride on a big dog. “They say, she’s got a new ‘dog’ now, one different from the others. And using this ‘transport’ Yuliya Tymoshenko is today indisputably woman politician No. 1,” concludes the newspaper. No doubt, this is just the beginning. Last Tuesday, the Batkivshchyna fraction appealed for a decisive rebuff to the oligarchs conducting a campaign of slander against the Yushchenko government.
