Only a Few More Months Left of Agony under Presidential Patronage 

Some are truly striking: at the Cherkasy tuberculosis hospital Mr. Marchuk recently visited, medical staff members faint from the hunger resulting from long-term salary arrears. In Kirovohrad oblast, the authorities force reproductive-age women, who apply for teaching positions, to commit in writing that they will not give birth while they work in school in order not to claim paid maternity leave. In one Carpathian foothills districts, the authorities decided to hold the traditional feast of sending the cattle to summer pastures under the President's patronage.

Mr. Marchuk not only gave facts of mismanagement, criminality, and ruin, but also gave them a legal and economic assessment, and pointed out clear ways of overcoming Ukraine's crisis. In his words, he must form a team, as soon as late August, with which he will work after the elections as President. By then, several hundred decrees will have been prepared, which he thinks will make it possible to rectify the disastrous situation in a matter of months.

Commenting harshly on the pressure exercised by office-holders with respect to potential presidential candidates, Mr. Marchuk noted that, more often than not, the former's actions fall under a criminal code article: "Some may be thinking that the victors will be magnanimous, forgive, and forget everything. Don't bet on it: we'll forget nothing."

As chairman of the Christian Democratic Union Volodymyr Stretovych pointed out, the regime is afraid of Mr. Marchuk; they blocked any access to television to him, even banning his very name. But there is a sphere, the thoughts of people, where the regime is powerless. Chairman of the Ukrainian Peasant Democratic Party Viktor Prysiazhniuk expressed certainty that very soon the Our President Yevhen Marchuk coalition would be joined by more that thirty additional political organizations in Ukraine.

The representative of the Cherkasy Association of Physicians, Liubov Maiboroda, said, "We do not want to live in lies. We need a President who is a personality, not just a puppet on the string of fat cats. In my opinion, the leaders of other parties - Yuri Kostenko, Hennady Udovenko, and Vasyl Onopenko - should support Yevhen Marchuk."

Cherkasy