Second Energy Purge
Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko said on February 16 he would “insist” on the dismissal of Minister for Fuel and Energy Serhiy Yermilov and his intention to achieve this should not be confused with emotion, as the minister characterized the premier’s earlier utterances at a press conference. The minister’s spokesman Mykola Koval told The Day that Mr. Yermilov had not yet reacted to the premier’s statement.
That personnel replacements have again been made the object of a public debate shows the point is not only in changing bureaucrats. On the one hand, this can be assessed as a kind of kickback to the pro-premier political forces which leveled scathing criticism at Mr. Yushchenko when he, together with Messrs. Kuchma and Pliushch, signed an appeal to the people. This version can be confirmed both by the cabinet head’s Friday statement (the intention to discuss with the Prosecutor General the circumstances of the arrest of former Vice Premier Yuliya Tymoshenko) and by the choice of possible successors to the current minister for fuel and energy and chairman of the National Electric Power Regulation Commission. Informed sources claim the premier plans to replace Mr. Yermilov with the current head of Kyivenerho and former Energy Minister Plachkov, while Mr. Hrydasov is to be replaced as national commission chairman by manager of the Enerhorynok (Energy Market) state company Yuri Prodan. The sources also claim this kind of staff reshuffle was conceived by Ms. Tymoshenko when she was still vice premier. This version has two weak points. First, throughout his premiership, Mr. Yushchenko never openly showed a desire to be any flagship for the opposition: he would either keep silent, beat around the bush, or support the president. We can believe that his supporters’ criticism had an effect and the premier is showing a twinge of remorse, but still... Secondly, on February 16 (after the premier expressed the desire to dismiss Yermilov and Hrydasov) Mr. Kuchma said he was not going to raise the question of Mr. Yushchenko’s resignation. “He is still young. Let him keep his nose to the grindstone,” said the president. In his words, the economy “developed well” in 2000, “the situation was normal, and people began to have hope in tomorrow.” Simultaneously, Mr. Kuchma pointed out, “this is not to the liking of those whom the people are beginning to forget.” He opined that “nobody will remember these people in a positive light,” hinting at the opposition which is causing tension in Ukraine, Interfax-Ukraine reports.
The second version boils down to the idea that Mr. Yushchenko was given the freedom to change ministers in exchange for his signature under the appeal to the people. Yet, this raises the question: what does he need this for? There can be two main hypotheses: the premier is forced to say one thing but will in fact do another (i.e., verbally support the president while following the Tymoshenko line). Mr. Yushchenko has proved much more a pragmatist than expected, by finally shedding the opposition support with a hypothetical chance to become president in favor of a full-fledged prime ministerial office, hoping to enlist the backing of the pro-presidential part of the former parliamentary majority and Mr. Kuchma himself. The number of those supporting the first hypothesis must have dropped to the minimum after the Expert Council for Domestic Political Matters heard last Friday the government officially recommend the head of state veto the law on proportional representation elections to Verkhovna Rada. It will be recalled that this law is being actively lobbied by what was hitherto considered as pro-government parties and parliamentary factions, while it is opposed (or, at least, not supported) by pro-presidential factions and Leonid Kuchma.
What Mr. Yushchenko is now really guided by is anybody’s guess. In any case, the impression is he that he is not trying to pass between Scylla and Charybdis but is showing quite a familiar desire “to garner capital and remain innocent.”
