Serhiy TULUB: “We know clearly what to do and how”

Serhiy Tulub’s office is equipped with a voltage frequency meter, the kind that he had while serving as fuel and energy minister and later as chairman of Enerhoatom. I look at the meter readings: 50 Hz, 49.9 Hz; then back to 50 Hz. Clearly, the country’s power grid is running like clockwork, despite the freezing temperatures. It occurs to me that Ukrainians often unjustifiably question the legitimacy of the high honors that are bestowed upon their fellow countrymen, even such an accolade as Hero of Ukraine. Skeptics will ask: Whatever did he do to deserve to be called a Hero in peacetime? If this question is ever asked about Tulub, skeptics should know that this man built two 1,000,000-kWt nuclear power units in one year at a time when only four such units were built in the whole world. It is to him that we largely owe normal voltage frequency in our homes, when most households and institutions are using additional electrical heating equipment that consumes huge amounts of electricity. Tulub is now adapting to his newfound role in politics, not that he has been especially keen on it. For the most part he is still in power engineering, to which he has dedicated his whole life.

“The president’s election slogan urges us to ‘think Ukrainian.’ Have you been able to implement this principle in your daily work? What is the main problem that Ukrainians face, which should be resolved wisely and in a patriotic spirit?”

“The way I see it, to think Ukrainian means to feel a responsibility for our country and the actions of each Ukrainian citizen. We must focus on improving citizens’ lives. Unfortunately, the situation today, and especially last year, has made it very hard to implement this principle. I know this from my own experience. For example, we assembled a team of young businessmen and started working on three investment projects that are very beneficial and greatly needed by the entire country and all Ukrainians. One project involves creating jobs in such depressed regions as Kirovohrad oblast: if we succeed in implementing this project to boost open-pit production of brown coal, of which Ukraine has rich deposits totaling some six or eight billion tons, this will increase the efficiency of the nation’s coal mining sector and provide additional sources of energy. With the help of Ukrainian research and development institutions our German partner has developed a master plan that envisions creating a powerful brown coal energy complex on the basis of brown coal deposits in Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, and Cherkasy oblasts. Experts estimate that this type of coal will cost no more than five or seven dollars per ton. And since fuel costs make up 80 percent of the price structure of electricity, this cheap coal will become an alternative source of fuel for the production of electricity, which is now being generated by expensive natural gas. During all of last year we held talks to secure investments from French, German, and Italian companies. Meanwhile, we have several other similar large-scale projects. Today we are actively cooperating with foreign companies, and research and development institutions in Ukraine.”

“I know that you come from the Donbas. Do your fellow citizens from this region realize that they live in Ukraine, that they are building Ukraine, and that they will have no other home or native country? How did the results of the presidential elections and the past year affect the Ukrainian question in the coalminers’ region?”

“The Donbas has always been part of Ukraine. The Donbas and Ukraine are inseparable, even though it is home to 119 nationalities. But most of them are Ukrainians, if not by ethnic origin, then Ukrainians by birth, education, and in spirit. I worked at many mines whose names reflected the origins of local miners: Ternopilska, Zhytomyrska, etc. In the past many people from the western oblasts used to come to the Donbas to build or rebuild coal mines, and they stayed there. Their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren live there to this day. My father was brought from Cherkasy oblast in 1947 to rebuild the mines. My mother came from Kirovohrad oblast. They worked there, rebuilding mines. This is where they met and got married. The Donbas is a multiethnic community, a territory inhabited by people of all the nationalities that are represented in Ukraine. And they consider themselves Ukrainians.”

“Do you mean to say that the Donbas is not in any way estranged from the rest of Ukraine?”

“Absolutely not. It has never been and never will be. Nobody in the Donbas ever wanted to become isolated, let alone break away from Ukraine. Expanding certain rights and local budgets for the regions is a different matter. But all these issues must be resolved in a legitimate and constitutional way, bearing in mind the fact that Ukraine is an undivided country that should resolve all of its problems in a collective manner.”

“Speaking of the country as a whole, is it now moving toward consolidation or is it creating problems in this respect? What is your assessment? Consider the forces behind the Orange Revolution, for example: it was such a consolidated team and now just look at what’s happened to it. Could the nation’s political forces be splintering? This applies to all forces.”

“Consider the agenda of the Party of the Regions. (I’m not generally a party man, but now I’m running for parliament on this party’s slate.) Its agenda shows a desire to restore a united Ukraine and create the political and economic conditions that are necessary for this and make sure that people, regardless of what language they speak, Ukrainian or Russian, feel like they are Ukrainians, and live in a united, rich, and happy country. This appealed to me. I think that by implementing its agenda, the Party of the Regions can ensure economic growth in the country, as it did in 2003 and 2004, thereby ensuring Ukrainians’ constitutional rights and liberties.”

“It would seem that both the government and opposition have the same goals in this respect, and they should be moving in the same direction. Is this possible to accomplish, or will the goal of national consolidation materialize only after the elections?”

“The government must support the policy it proclaims with concrete actions. Can you see what is being done today? Quite the opposite: actions become disconnected from words. Tell me, how justified are all those statements that we have been hearing non-stop about Russia this year and last year? Why create tension? I think this will do Ukraine no good. A glaring lack of professionalism shows in all issues, both technical and ideological ones.”

“Coal miners — and it appears that you consider yourself to be one of them — use the term ‘coal bed tension.’ Sometimes this tension reaches a critical point. What event last year matches this definition most closely?”

“In my view, last year saw a very large number of errors on the part of the nation’s leadership. After all, the words that were spoken in Independence Square filled people with great expectations, and everybody thought that any day now miraculous improvements would take place in society, in the economy, and in relations among people. However, the levers of power ended up in the hands of those who promise one thing while thinking about something else and doing something entirely different. The events last September were a major disappointment for me: all those scandals revolving around accusations of corruption; all those decisions of the Tymoshenko government relating to meat, grain, and fuel; the dismissal of the cabinet. This was followed by the appointment of a new government. Again, who was appointed to work in the new cabinet: mostly those who had worked in the previous government. The much needed infusion of fresh blood did not take place. In my view, this created tremendous tension for the entire country. But the president diffused this tension in the right way.”

“As a two-time fuel and energy minister you must be privy to many secrets. What, in your view, provoked the recent natural gas crisis? Was it entirely a result of pressure from Russia, or does it have its roots in Ukraine? Can we say that for certain reasons the new government tried to use the old scheme, but a mutual rejection occurred instead?”

“Analysis has shown that the actions of the fuel and energy complex managers are specifically to blame for the current situation. This happened because management of the sector was taken over by people who are not quite competent and not experienced enough in the sphere of international relations and conducting talks. In my view, they tried to add something of their own to the tried and true system so as to appear bigger and better market reformers than their predecessors. All their actions were based on attempts to distinguish themselves from the previous managers and prove that they were better. Because of this ‘superiority,’ which in reality is lack of experience and professionalism, they mishandled the negotiations, causing this scandal to erupt, because the principle of continuity should always and in all matters be upheld, especially in the nation’s energy security and international relations. Meanwhile, consider their slogan: away with all those who worked in the previous government! New people will come and they will do their work. Meanwhile, what have they accomplished? So they replaced 20,000 officials? To what end? Things have gone from bad to worse.”

“Do you have a positive agenda aimed at preventing an economic recession, which everybody predicts will be a result of the higher gas prices? It appears that you do not intend to assist the government in this matter, but hope that you will improve the situation only after you come to power after the parliamentary election. Don’t you feel sorry for the country? What if it takes a dive and nobody will be able to stop it?”

“First of all, the Party of the Regions has a definitive program to lead the country out of the current situation, a program of anti-crisis measures and further development of the Ukrainian economy. The program makes it possible to see dynamic growth of the economy and a return to the growth rates and indicators that were lost during the past year. But I must say that all these measures will be very hard to implement now, because every action of the current government brings down one indicator or other, and you are well aware of this. Take a look at any economic indicator or any performance indicator in the fuel and energy complex. The year 2005 is over. However, the trends of decline, stagnation, and recession resulting from the government’s actions have not yet fully manifested themselves. Some mistakes that were made last year will eventually lead to problems sometime in mid-2006. Let me give you an example. If you look at absolute figures, this year’s budget allocations for the coal industry are higher than last year’s. However, the source of more than half of these allocations is a special state budgetary fund. Meanwhile, this special fund is replenished with revenue for consumed electricity. We know from experience that in January and February the level of such payments is normally very low, which means that this fund will not be replenished. Consequently, the coal industry will not be financed. At the same time, the cycle for manufacturing equipment for coal miners takes nearly three months. This will delay the preparation and launching of new mining faces. The lack of mining faces means there will be no coal. Last year saw a drop in coal production from 2004, and preconditions for further reductions have been created for this year.”

“Were there any attempts to gather at a round table with the government and explain these problems to the new government?”

“No matter how much our leader Viktor Yanukovych tried to establish contact, nothing worked out. The government continued its search for enemies and responded with political reprisals. However, when it became clear that the government had no real support in parliament, we managed to sign at least some sort of pact — a memorandum aimed at halting the discord in the country. But all of a sudden the nation’s leaders decided to recall their signatures. Before doing so, they should have taken a closer look at all the items in the memorandum. These efforts had to be continued, deepened, and expanded, because this memorandum provided the solid groundwork for building a single, prosperous country. Moreover, the current government has a unique experience: it was the opposition under the previous government, so it should have drawn lessons from this experience and learned to work with the opposition and accept its reasonable proposals. What stopped them from enlisting the services, if not of the opposition forces then simply of those professionals who support this leadership?”

“Working at Enerhoatom, you have not only put this organization back on track, but have launched two new nuclear units that largely offset the impact of the current energy crisis. Moreover, as far as I remember, you managed to significantly raise the rate of utilization of the nuclear units’ installed power. Have they been able to maintain this level to this day?”

“The nuclear plants are running, which means that Enerhoatom is managing them satisfactorily. But frankly speaking, since I know their potential, I expected better results in terms of power generation at nuclear power plants. However, the volume of production grew slightly from the previous year, by a mere 1.6 percent, if I’m not mistaken. But 2004 saw the launching of two new 1,000,000-kWt units, which operated during all of 2005, though not at full capacity, but still had to produce at least 12 billion kilowatt hours of electricity (allowing for all kinds of shutdowns, repairs, fuel changes, etc.) But what do we get? An increase in the volume of electricity production that is 10 times lower than in 2004. The rate of utilization of installed power went down by six points. I will not mention social and housing programs, the financial status, etc. We know clearly what to do and how to make this state company work effectively.”

“Has parliament’s dismissal of the government increased stability in the country? If not, why was it necessary? What should be done to restart the stalled state machinery? Do you get the feeling that chaos in the country is a very dangerous thing?”

“The Yekhanurov government was dismissed because out of all possible options it chose one that is most destructive for the country: it drafted a budget that continues to ruin the country and essentially contradicts the principles proclaimed by the government. The final straw was the government’s betrayal of national interests in the way it resolved the natural gas crisis.

Therefore, the government’s dissolution is not about dismissing it. It is now an interim government that has to continue implementing the state budget and state programs. Nobody relieved the government of its responsibility to make timely payments of pensions and wages and managing all current activities. The parliamentarians only deprived the Cabinet of Ministers of the possibility to make strategic decisions and appointments, thereby shouldering political responsibility for stabilizing the situation and preventing further complications. Remember what happened in 2000 and what I, the then fuel and energy minister, did when I disagreed with the policy of then Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. I submitted my resignation, saying “I will not work.” I did not hold onto any seats or power. But nobody learned anything from this, and no one in our country drew any conclusions, even though this step was unprecedented in the Ukrainian government. In our country people prefer to repeat old mistakes, and Mr. President saw this for himself last September. He himself was forced to fire Yulia Volodymyrivna because he realized the true nature of this person.”

“What was the cause of your conflict with Yulia Tymoshenko when you were the fuel and energy minister? Did you approve of the plans that must have also included some positive ones, which she implemented while she was in the government?”

“I approved all the positive approaches, and today, with the benefit of hindsight, I can say that we had some differences concerning individual aspects and directions, but they helped me to analyze the situation and see some of the things where I had gone wrong. Meanwhile, I was right in other ways. Today the results show who was right and who was wrong. Compare the current results with the indicators of previous years and their dynamics, and you will see who was right.”

“You have always been an optimist. Today economists, including foreign experts, are making gloomy forecasts for Ukraine. Do you believe that the country will be able to overcome the looming sociopolitical and economic crises?”

“I think the Party of the Regions will win the elections and will enlist professionals to implement its program. Of course, some difficulties are inevitable, but there will be no crisis, just lots of hard work and positive results.”