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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

Kuchma First Approves, Then Doubts

23 March, 1999 - 00:00

By Oleksa PIDLUTSKY, The Day
Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has stated that if Chairman of the Council
of CIS Heads of State Boris Yeltsin had first submitted the issue of Boris
Berezovsky's dismissal for discussion, the leaders of the post-Soviet countries
"would surely have supported such a decision by Boris Yeltsin at the summit,"
Interfax-Ukraine reports.

On the other hand, the fact that "they first dismissed [Mr. Berezovsky
from the post of CIS Executive Secretary], and then asked us," is the result
of "poor coordination in the work of the CIS apparatus." We should remind
you that immediately after Yeltsin's having discharged Berezovsky "on his
own authority" became known, our President explicitly supported this decision
by his Russian counterpart. He was not embarrassed even by the fact that
it was he who recommended Berezovsky for the post of Executive Secretary,
because "the CIS needs an extraordinary man, a man with an absolutely market
view of the economy, who can see that something new should be infused into
the CIS organism." Somehow Kuchma "overlooked" that Yeltsin had scandalously
exceeded his powers, virtually disregarding the opinion of other CIS leaders.
And only a rather sharp response from Eduard Shevardnadze, Islam Karimov,
and Geydar Aliyev made the Ukrainian President remember dignity. Even if
not about his own, then about the dignity of the country he governs. Unfortunately,
his statement was somewhat unconvincing.

 

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