Leonid KUCHMA: “With money you get an impartial court, without it — just chaff”
In the course of his visit to Kharkiv on June 21, President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine made a number of important statements. In particular, he proclaimed that his decree On Implementing the Institution of State Secretaries in the Government will make it possible to liberate the ministers from routine job and give them an opportunity to concentrate on their political activity, including public relations and cooperation with the parliament. He also remarked that ministers preserve their principal functions, particularly, distributing budget funds, reports Interfax- Ukraine.
Speaking about the law On Electing People’s Deputies on a Proportional Basis, the president informed that he intends to prevent by all legal methods the “persistent attempts” by the parliament to pass this law. Mr. Kuchma thinks that the attempts to “force it through the parliament” are oriented toward the electoral appetites of some party leaders or party technologies created for the elections.
Mr. Kuchma also agrees that in this country human rights are not always observed. Simultaneously, he thinks that the imperfect legal system is to be blamed for this. Mr. Kuchma also said that those who stole a sack of chaff are in prison, while those who stole a Mercedes “drive it and criticize those in power.” In his opinion, money settles many things in this country. “With money you get an impartial court, without it — just chaff,” said the president. He also pointed to huge losses in the country’s economy caused by the cassette scandal. “There are billions of dollars,” he said. Mr. Kuchma declared that because of this scandal many investors have turned away from Ukraine.
The president considers that it is first of all Verkhovna Rada which takes an interest in Prosecutor General Mykhailo Potebenko’s resignation. In his opinion, deputies seeking this resignation plan not to ratify the next candidate. Mr. Kuchma also stated he does not want Mr. Potebenko to go. Simultaneously, in the words of the head of the state, the Prosecutor General could “pressure” him by his own request for resignation.
Mr. Kuchma stated that after Yuliya Tymoshenko left the post of vice premier for fuel and energy complex, this sphere began to work better. He noted that Ms. Tymoshenko never held councils out of media presence. “She worked on camera instead of solving problems,” Mr. Kuchma said. According to him, after Ms. Tymoshenko’s resignation the energy sector “works in a stable fashion”; power frequency does not fall below 50 Hz. Moreover, as he put it, “energy revenues increased dramatically.”
Speaking about Ukraine’s foreign policy, the president also declared that the strategic vector of Ukraine’s integration into the European Union remains unchanged.
