Peasants Fed More Promises

Deliberating on this, Minister for the Agro-Industrial Complex Borys Supikhanov referred to the experience of Belarus and its President Aleksandr Lukashenka. The glory of Leonid Kuchma's counterpart seems to have inspired in the Ukrainian President, who graced the conference with his presence, a new desire for paternal guidance of Ukrainian farming. In a spirit of the best Communist Party traditions, he began to lay down the law to Minister of Industrial Policy Vasyl Hureyev and Minister of Finance Ihor Mitiukov who had taken the floor, blaming them for government blunders in purchasing foreign farming machinery and financing its domestic production. The President's philippic was taken in by an undisturbed Verkhovna Rada Speaker Oleksandr Tkachenko, the former head of the Land and People Association whose bad loan for John Deere harvesters had been written off by government decision.

The straw poll in the hall conducted by The Day's reporter showed that expectations for a pre-election increase in the President's popularity have not come true. A collective farm chairman from Zaporizhzhia oblast, who wished to remain anonymous ("otherwise, I'll never leave here"), said: "The promises we've heard about revival of and aid to the countryside are general phrases. The countryside is flat on its pack. For example, in my case all the verbiage about aid boiled down to 2,500 hryvnias. All I could buy was a piston unit for one tractor. Now the President is asking ministers questions. But where was he? What did he do?"

Chairman of Vinnytsia Oblast Farmers' Association Serhiy Maniak said, "The conference left an ambivalent impression. I don't see so far any prospects for real change in farming. We must bet on the people capable of carrying out reforms. There are such people in our association. And, merely reshuffling the deck, as the President is doing, will do no good."