Yevhen Marchuk Presented his Election Program

Yevhen Marchuk has shown he is carrying out his election campaign most professionally and skillfully. At the same time, he has dispelled an ill-conceived myth that he is not a public politician. Last Tuesday Mr. Marchuk presented his election campaign to journalists. It still has to be analyzed in detail, but what we can say now is that it embraces all spheres and is worded in a language easy to understand.

To create a really strong power, Mr. Marchuk thinks, the president must propose such steps to put things in order, first of all in the executive power structure, which will enlist the support of the overwhelming majority of citizens. In his words, power is only strong when it enjoys the trust of most citizens who know what and why the president is doing. Answering the UNIAN corespondent's question about the resignation of Volodymyr Kuratchenko, Mr. Marchuk noted that a country which strives for a European level of public politics cannot put up with a situation when changes in the government remain without comments or motivations. “As of today, Kuratchenko's position is clearer than that of the President,” Mr. Marchuk said.

In addition, he also made a series of other interesting statements. He stated, in particular, that Ukraine's unsettled foreign debt hampers cooperation with all international financial structures. The candidate believes the payment of foreign debts will be the main problem for a new president. According to Mr. Marchuk, a UAH25- billion hole in this country's budget (with due account of UAH10-billion social benefit arrears), with revenues running to UAH30 billion, will provoke serious danger for Ukraine's default, which will amount to a catastrophe, above all in terms of politics and reputation.

Mr. Marchuk noted that Russian Public Television has already begun to air “programs aimed at building up the current President”s image.” However, the candidate is sure that foreign support for any contender will fail to essentially influence the election campaign. “We can and must cooperate with Russia. But Russia is very complex. The era of Yeltsin is already over... Speaking of Russia, we must ask ourselves a question: which Russia should we deal with — the Russia of Yeltsin, Luzhkov, Lebed, or Yavlinsky? I cannot answer this question unambiguously just now,” Mr. Marchuk said. He also said he was prepared to compete with any candidate in the second round, but he would like to have the current President Leonid Kuchma as his opponent. This wish, as Mr. Marchuk”s press conference showed, has quite a logical basis. The real competition is not only and, probably, not so much between the two men in different political “weight” categories as between the two entirely different approaches to the solution of problems this country faces. And while everybody can see clearly the results of Mr. Kuchma”s five years in office, Mr. Marchuk”s program is a realistic way for Ukraine to ride out the crisis.