Premier for Life?

The Day has learned that Ukraine will soon have a new office dealing with material procurement for central governmental bodies. The Day’s Oleksandr MIKHELSON confirmed this information with the President’s press service which noted that, under the presidential decree On the System of Central Executive Bodies of December 15, 1999, the government was instructed to draw up a relevant normative instrument within two months. It will lead to the disbanding of the logistics departments not only at the Presidential Administration but also at the Cabinet of Ministers and Verkhovna Rada. In other words, to save public funds, as the decree says, a single specialized directorate is being set up to deal with the problems of the highest administrative offices. Rumor had it that the newly-established body would be entrusted to former Prime Minister and leader of the People’s Democratic Party Valery Pustovoitenko, but the latter denied his new appointment. He said that he had not been appointed to any state post and thinks that (says Interfax Ukraine) he “will not be in the immediate future.”

“All my efforts, in any case up to July, will be directed at building the People’s Democratic Party,” he stated. At the same time he emphasized, “All my life I will remain Prime Minister of Ukraine, and I will do everything possible to help our new state... I constantly consult with Premier Viktor Yushchenko and other Cabinet members.”