The Fourth Will Not be Fifth

Yuri Kostenko, who was fourth to sign the fair elections agreements will not join the Kaniv Four, he stated on August 27 in a joint news conference with Vasyl Onopenko.

Unlike Marchuk, Moroz, Tkachenko, and Oliynyk declaring their agreement on putting forward a single presidential candidate on Independence Day in Kaniv, Messrs. Kostenko and Onopenko performed the traditional climb to the top of Mount Hoverla, the peak of Ukraine's Carpathian Mountains on August 24. Meanwhile, Leonid Kuchma was in the Ukrainian capital, and it was perhaps the geographical separation of the presidential candidates that prompted Yuri Kostenko to state that three main forces had taken shape clearly to vie in the presidential marathon: the Left, the party of power, and the Right represented by the Kostenko-Onopenko tandem. Under the circumstances, Vasyl Onopenko assured the media, the quadrilateral agreement had «the only positive aspect, as this team will operate against the regime.»

However, the pattern suggested by Yuri Kostenko gives rise to several questions, namely: 1. What is actually the positive aspect of his own bilateral agreement? 2. How does the Right orientation agree with the presence of Vasyl Onopenko with his Social Democratic ideas (generally interpreted as Leftist), and

3. How does Kostenko's Rukh actually manifest its rightist stand?

In response, Mr. Kostenko once again expanded on the national idea that has to be the basis on which to build an independent Ukraine, leaving one with the impression that, so far as the Rukh leaders are concerned, this idea remains just that, an idea, a tool of political self-expression. Mr. Kostenko called on Hennady Udovenko to join his bloc. «If he campaigns for our ideas, he should be with us.» Mr. Udovenko, however, seems to have his own concept of the national idea; earlier he sent Yuri Kostenko an invitation to return to his section of Rukh. Mr. Kostenko replied, «I have been with Rukh since 1989. At the time Mr. Udovenko was not there and he did not give me my membership card. I would rather suggest that he return to Rukh.» The Right- wing (in the Ukrainian terms) politicians do not seem to have learned to come to terms and overcome personal ambitions for the sake of their country, unlike Marchuk, Moroz, Tkachenko, and Oliynyk demonstrated in Kaniv.