New Bankova occupant

Yulia Tymoshenko’s prophecy did not come true – Viktor Yanukovych eventually put his hand on Peresopnytsia Gospels. Last Thursday saw the main political event of 2010: the fourth president of independent Ukraine was sworn into office, ushering in a new five-year, this time “white-blue,” period. Obviously, this country is going to change. The only question is the extent and the nature of these changes.

Let us start from the very beginning. Journalists went down a very difficult, if not thorny, path: they had to go through three (!) metal detectors and get checked on three lists. One “archway” was in the Mariinsky Park, the second right next to the parliament building, and the third inside the latter. It took The Day’s correspondent 40 minutes to pass the entire process of examination.

The solemn ceremony itself was not exactly flawless. Viktor Yanukovych was almost hit by the door, when he was entering the Verkhovna Rada. But this was just a trifle compared to the way Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn twisted the names of foreign guests. He should have been prepared! The most glaring mistake was pronouncing Catherine Ashton with a stress on the last syllable. Firstly, in English surnames the first syllable is usually stressed, and, secondly, one is just obliged to know such influential European officials.

Although an unprecedented number of foreign guests arrived for the inauguration, the key figures of Ukrainian politics – Viktor Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko – failed to show up. Also conspicuous by its absence was the entire BYuT faction, even though many BYuT MPs had shown a desire to come.

An interesting detail which TV viewers could not see: there were about ten BYuT MPs in the hall just before the ceremony. They first occupied their seats and then moved to the fringes of their sector. Then, when Lytvyn began to read out the names of foreign delegation heads, they quietly stood up and went out.

The Day’s correspondent managed to recognize the parliamentarians Senchenko, Pidhorny, Poluneiev, and Pavlovsky – the BYuT faction members who can in no way be suspected of pro-Yanukovych sentiments. We will take liberty to suppose that their mission was to make sure that the BYuT sector remained vacant and thus prevent the Party of Regions faction from bringing in their “crowd.” So the picture was marred: Yanukovych walked to the rostrum against the backdrop of empty chairs.

Yushchenko was expected to come. In the last minute, security guards bustled and put a chair next to Leonid Kuchma. But the outgoing president never showed up.

“Viktor Yushchenko helped Yanukovych to win, it is common knowledge, and his failure to come is demonstration of an uncivilized way of power transfer,” MP Olha Herasymiuk told The Day. “And why did the BYuT not come? It is the decision of their leader. But we claim we are going towards European values, and one should also know how to lose.”

After all the ceremonial procedures of power transfer, the fourth President, Victor Yanukovych, made a public address to the people of Ukraine. As The Day readers must have watched a live broadcast, I will only mention two points.

Mr. Yanukovych made it clear in his inauguration speech that he would balance between Russia and the West. The new president views Ukraine as a “bridge between the East and the West.”

As a matter of fact, being a bridge is not exactly a rewarding role. For bridges tend to be trampled upon. During a war, bridges are destroyed in the first place. People usually try to keep to a river bank instead of doing the permanent splits.

Speaking of the foreign policy, Mr. Yanukovych said that Ukraine would “choose a foreign policy that will allow this county to benefit as much as it can from the development of equal and mutually advantageous relations with the Russian Federation, the European Union, the US, and other states that influence the development of the world situation.” That Yanukovych chose to put Russia first is also significant. But let us still not forget that he, nevertheless, decided to pay his first visit as president to Brussels.

It was a bit strange to hear

Mr. Yanukovych railing at “crony capitalism.” For as much as a half of the Party of Regions faction amassed their capital at that very period. Besides, Yanukovych was the prime minister under Kuchma, and it is during his presidency that “crony capitalism” flourished. Incidentally, Yanukovych and Kuchma kissed each other three times later at Ukraine House. It is undoubtedly a telling moment.

But let us get back to the Verkhovna Rada’s corridors. When Mr. Yanukovych had left for Bankova Street, those corridors still bustled with people and activity: they were exchanging impressions and discussing portfolio distribution and the future coalition.

“In my personal view, Mykola Azarov will be the premier, for he has drawn up 15 budgets,” the Party of Regions member Volodymyr Makeienko assured The Day’s correspondent. 

“And who will vote for him?”

“The one who will not want to lose their MP badge.”

“Are you serious that the national democrats and NU-NS will vote for Azarov?”

“I do not even doubt that they will vote for Azarov because I know what an election is: it is very difficult and expensive – moreover if you have a chance to be in parliament for two and a half years.”

The newly-elected president’s trusted aide Hanna Herman posed to cameras in a black-and-red embroidered blouse and a long black skirt.

A few strings of red necklace lay in splendor over the blouse.

“Whence is this beauty?” The Day’s correspondent asked her.

“A true Galician woman always has some of her grandmother’s things in her box. This blouse is 200 years old,” the politician boasted.

But from now on, Ms. Herman will be flashing her apparel around at the Presidential Administration, not in the parliament’s corridors. She is now the deputy of Serhii Liovochkin, the brand new chief of the Presidential Administration, for domestic policies and communications. Renaming the Secretariat as Administration is supposed “to reduce state budget expenditures,” although it is not clear what kind of reduction is in question. On the contrary, any renaming usually requires additional funding.

And as dusk was coming down, Yanukovych resolved to cut the salaries of himself and his administration’s officials by 50 percent. It also became known that Liudmyla Yanukovych would perform all the functions of a First Lady. “She will have her own office at the Presidential Administration – the First Lady’s office, and she will be present whenever the protocol requires this,” Ms. Herman said.

It will be also noted that Iryna Akimova, reportedly a good economist, is now to be First Deputy Chief of the Presidential Administration.

Well, a new broom sweeps clean—it remains to be seen how clean and effectively.