Volodymyr Polokhalo
The President recently made a number of staff appointments in the Presidential Administration among which that of Interfax-Ukraine chief Oleksandr Martynenko caused a sensation. Along with him, President Kuchma appointed department heads Oleksandr Yakovenko (organizational work), Viktor Onyschenko (oversight), and Volodymyr Polokhalo. Polokhalo will be responsible for domestic policy.
The Day correspondent Larysa Rudenko asked Mr. Polokhalo on how he views his activity in his new post.
V.P.: Concerning management tasks proper, the issue is above all about analyzing the social and political state of affairs, making predictions, and studying the trends of the political process. Insofar as I am acquainted with the staff, there are interesting intellectuals working here who are able to analyze on a high level. When it comes to domestic policy, I think we should gather our potential, which would be able to intellectually influence choices among options and the course of events. In any case, incompetence and lack of professionalism in politics might be even worse than corruption.
Q.: Do you connect your appointment with the approaching presidential elections?
V.P.: I must say it was not a simple choice for me. I personally divide political scientists into a number of groups: independent (a narrow stratum), party or official, conformists, and marginal ones. You can rise above everything and watch from the sidelines, or you can try to intellectually influence it. I did not seek power, as my colleagues will tell you. My social status of the editor-in-chief of a journal was enough for me.
Q.: Volodymyr Ivanovych, do you have any experience in campaign work?
V.P.:My political experience is from 1987-90, before I left the CPSU. I was a Democratic Platform delegate to the XXVIII Party Congress, and I was also cochairman of the Democratic Platform in the CPU. After that I did not participate in any elections, because I saw no prospects in it.
COMMENTARY
Many observers connect the most recent appointments in the Presidential Administration with the upcoming presidential elections. Oleksandr Martynenko is surely the man for informational support for the election campaign. Yakovenko, who worked in supply sphere at the Artem Factory is a right man to carry out staff policy. Mr. Onyshchenko, Azarov’s former deputy in the Tax Administration, will look especially good as the head of the oversight department. Even the nature of his work will remain the same. The only question arises with Polokhalo, the editor-in-chief of a thick journal.
Observers consider the position he now holds to be the one of the key posts in the Administration, because domestic policy has always been carried out as work with local administrations. And here lies the problem: Polokhalo is not ready to order the governors to snap to attention like Petro Lelyk did when he held the job. It is telling that Yakovenko, who did administrative work in the Cabinet of Ministers was not appointed to the domestic policy department.
Obviously, the domestic policy department is turning into some kind of center for information and analysis oriented toward the presidential elections. And since Mr. Polokhalo himself has no experience with elections, his department will become the analytical part of an election team, to be headed by someone experienced in running big campaigns. Yevhen Kushnariov is rumored to retire soon. With this in mind, we might soon find out what are these staff changes aimed at.







