UKRAINE ALREADY HAS A PROSECUTOR GENERAL

Verkhovna Rada solved one of Ukraine's pressing problems Thursday morning, electing Mykhailo Potebenko Prosecutor General, putting an end to what Mr. Karmazyn described as the "epoch of acting Prosecutors General," resulting in the executive placing the judiciary under its sole arbitrary control.

"The political loading of Prosecutor General's Office connected with the illegitimacy of its leadership and personnel shuffles helped bring about a decline in professional discipline and the performance of the office's official duties," declared People's Deputy Serhiy Kyrychenko. Unlike the President's previous protege Lytvak, Potebenko's nomination proved remarkably dynamic, winning 266 votes on the first ballot.

Oleh Lytvak, former Acting Prosecutor General, thinks that such a spectacular result was evidence that the Solons were sick and tired of the Prosecutor General and Speaker political soap opera, and that the appointment will "in no way affect the country's destiny, nor will it make the people's position any better." Mr. Lytvak also says that Ukraine has not suffered in the judicial sphere because the protected absence of a Prosecutor General. But most legislators think otherwise, blaming the two-year absence of a full-fledged Prosecutor General for the noticeable increase in crime and corruption. Thus, Mr. Onopenko believes that the nation's new top lawyer should concentrate primarily on the growing number of contract killings and on implementing the civil rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. Comrade Kriuchkov from the Communist camp feels confident that Prosecutor General Potebenko will become worthy of his high post only if he shows enough willpower and professional skill to resist all attempts by certain political forces to meddle in his new professional bailiwick.