Why should they lead us around by the nose?

It looks as though our “transparent” government is trying to keep secret even the fact of Finance Minister Viktor Pynzenyk’s resignation. Interfax Ukraine quotes the president’s press secretary, Iryna Hryshchenko, as saying on Feb. 17: “I have no such information.” She added that last Wednesday Pynzenyk accompanied the president on his trip to Dnipropetrovsk oblast and that he took part in a meeting on space exploration. Hryshchenko noted, however, that all matters relating to individual cabinet members’ performance would be considered by the government after the constitutional reform is enacted. In a word, she admitted that a statement can be forwarded to the prime minister rather than the president. The press service of the Cabinet of Ministers says that they have no such information. The Day called the minister’s press secretary and the finance ministry’s PR department but received no answers.

Only parliamentarian Volodymyr Filenko was more forthcoming in his commentary in www.proUA.com. He said that Pynzenyk forwarded his resignation to the president on Feb. 14, specifying that he wanted to give his undivided attention to the election campaign. Filenko said that Pynzenyk did not submit a request for a leave of absence but a letter of resignation. Other sources claim that Pynzenyk’s resignation will not be accepted and that he will be told to take a vacation.

But the above statement was partially confirmed by Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov, who officially declared in Warsaw: “It is true that Viktor Pynzenyk has applied for a leave of absence for the duration of the election campaign, but the rest is untrue so far.” The prime minister noted that Pynzenyk and he had agreed on a meeting after his holidays, and that they would “coordinate their stands on the matter.” Well, all of us, including the most high-ranking officials, must still be wet behind the ears if we needlessly indulge in such cunning (“so far”), as though we were hiding bad marks from our mothers. Or perhaps these are just simple people, who because of their naivety expect the country’s leadership always to speak the truth. It is high time for us to get used to the fact that all those declarations about “transparent” public administration are for all of those “little Ukrainians,” who are obviously considered to be so stupid that they cannot possibly understand such complicated issues. In a word, folks will swallow just about anything.

Serhiy Teriokhin, the former economics minister and member of the party “Reforms and Order,” claims that Pynzenyk did tender his resignation. “Pynzenyk really did write a letter of resignation. From what we know it was not accepted by the president,” said the truthful Teriokhin. He also expressed the assumption that Pynzenyk might hold his post as finance minister until the new government is formed after the parliamentary elections.

Viacheslav Yutin, the president of NRB Bank, believes that the situation with Pynzenyk won’t be a surprise for the market. In the past couple of months the finance minister’s position has often been criticized. The banker has also not ruled out the possibility that the whole thing is another parliamentary campaign stunt.

Valeriy Lytvytsky, head of the advisory team reporting only to the head of the National Bank of Ukraine, told The Day that this is a bad signal. He says that the whole issue pivots on the differing assessments by the members of the government’s economic bloc on the gas agreement with Russia and on approaches to the budget. “Some people are saying that it should not be changed, while others have even withdrawn their budgetary macro-indicators, which in practice means that the government must recall the budget that is ‘sitting’ on a ‘prognosis.’ Of course, this is a bad signal for the market, but it’s not the end of the world.” Lytvytsky went on to say that Pynzenyk is a decent, hardworking man, but you always need to show flexibility in politics.

It may be assumed that we know how to do this. After soft-pedaling the vacation situation of a leading minister, this government, which has already been dismissed, appears to have avoided another scandal from which it would have a hard time ever extricating itself in view of the additional losses of reputation. At the same time the “sheep” are partly sated, for they will be able to work secretly in this government while occupying themselves completely lawfully in the electoral process, which has not been going well lately. Anyway, experts believe that the “pure, i.e., implemented resignation” would bring the political force actually led by Pynzenyk far more political dividends, since it would distance it from many of the government’s blunders and an avalanche of criticism. How many points could be scored in discussing at least tactical matters with the government? No, the laws of physics say that we can’t expect any flexibility, not after the freezing weather in January.