BATTLE FOR ELECTRIC CHAIR
Vice Premier Yuliya Tymoshenko has said she is also prepared to head the Ministry for Fuel and Energy. “I would do so with pleasure. I am so fed up with all these confrontations and squabbles. There must be a person to make, pursue, and be responsible for policy,” she said.
Until now, only agrarian sector leaders have had experience of being seated on two chairs: Mykhailo Zubets and Mykhailo Hladiy were simultaneously vice premiers and ministers, which, nonetheless, failed to keep agriculture from sinking deeper into its hole.
Is an option like this also possible in the fuel and energy complex (FEC)? Very few of those polled by The Day disagree with the direction that sector is headed, and still fewer believe in the success of the cadre maneuver Ms. Tymosheko has conceived.
People’s Deputy Serhiy Teriokhin told The Day that the proposal to concentrate in one pair of hands the running of the energy sector is either the sign of power based on personal relationships within the government or a gesture of despair. In his words, there are three teams in today’s Ukraine, waging a war of position around the energy pie, each having parliamentary support but also being under the threat of losing not only its property and some incomes but also freedom. Ms. Tymoshenko’s supporters, according to Mr. Teriokhin, said more than once they had a golden stake in the parliamentary majority, hinting at their ability to influence its stability. It is hence quite easy to conclude where such lofty ambitions of the vice premier come from.
Simultaneously, one of The Day’s sources in the government, who openly sympathizes with Ms. Tymoshenko, points out that under current conditions, she would do better not to lay claim to both such high-powered electric chairs. In his opinion, Ms. Tymoshenko should concentrate on the urgent problems of the commodity-money relationship in the FEC, channeling the money earned into the sector in order to purchase fuel and equipment, while the ministry should be headed under these conditions by a specialist of the type of former Minister Ivan Plachkov (the expert thinks the President will not support this candidacy this time) or former First Deputy Minister Serhiy Yermylov. However, The Day’s informant believes it is only in the current pre-disaster energy situation that the vice premier has any need for such humble business. By all accounts, the minister’s duty is to solve both tactical and strategic problems, while the vice premier is only supposed to coordinate this activity, identifying priorities in timely fashion.
However, Ivan Diyak, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada fuel and energy subcommittee, thinks now is not the time to juggle staff and bicker over the top posts. In his opinion, what is to be done first of all is to prepare for the coming winter, which is likely to be extremely difficult. According to Mr. Diyak, Ukraine has today only half the fuel supplies it needs. Especially alarming is the situation with natural gas. Not a single gas delivery contract has been signed. Not a single cubic meter of Ukrainian gas has so far been pumped into underground storage tanks. Mr. Diyak is sure the vice premier is fully capable of putting on the agenda and solving these issues even today. The more so that the situation is being aggravated by the dwindling gas production in Russia.
An original point of view was expressed to The Day by People’s Deputy Viktor Suslov. In his opinion, the assumption of two energy offices is dangerous because it could produce a sort of schizophrenia in the current contender. The lawmaker says it will be more effective for the government to take the President’s advice to abolish the office of vice premier for the FEC and introduce that of a vice premier for industry. In this case, Ms. Tymoshenko will get the post of minister, leaving everyone or almost everyone happy.
People’s Deputy Ihor Kyriushyn also thinks it quite unlikely for Ms. Tymoshenko to be appointed simultaneously to the two positions. If the vice premier has no counterbalance, neither the premier nor the President will be able to act as arbiters. And this will hardly suit them, Mr. Kyriushyn told The Day, for in this case every decision will be put across as one without an alternative. “I don’t think, either, that Ms. Tymoshenko needs these two posts at the same time. For in this case she will also have to take the flak for all mistakes made by the ministry’s staff, now practically out of control. Since the previous minister, Serhiy Tulub, had to quit, the next one should be a person who can work well with her. If nothing comes out this time, too, it is she who will have to quit.” According to Mr. Kyriushyn, the President will in the coming days prepare for a new Cabinet meeting which will settle all energy-related issues. But, in his opinion, the new minister can only be appointed on the eve of the Ukrainian premier’s visit to Moscow scheduled for July 19. Before that date, a staff compromise should be found. Otherwise, the legislator thinks, the post of vice premier for the FEC will have to be scrapped.
