| Ukrainian pressure groups took over government leadership Ukraine’s “European choice,” to which the pro-Western government of Viktor Yushchenko routinely insists, is again in question. And the reason for this is not so much the “intrigues of Russia,” which supposedly does not want to lose control over Kiev, but rather the internal Ukrainian situation. Local influence groups have a huge grudge against Yushchenko and his Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko: in just a few months of her fuel and energy reforms, the clans' losses have already amounted to a billion dollars - this amount went to the budget to pay for the usual free energy resources.
Oligarchs do not remain in debt. First, Valery Falkovich and Alexander Timoshenko (confidant and husband of the Deputy Prime Minister for the fuel and energy sector) were arrested. They are accused of illegally selling rolled metal to the countries of the Far East for $800 thousand. Falkovich, according to the Prosecutor General's Office, is also involved in forgery of documents, thanks to which Russian gas was re-exported to the UK through the Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine, which is owned by the Tymoshenko family.
At the end of last week, Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolai Obikhod supplemented this information with new information: during a search of the UESU office in Dnepropetrovsk, listening devices were found. A case was brought against the corporation under Article 131 of the Criminal Code - violation of the secrecy of telephone conversations. In addition, UESU is accused of misappropriating $1 billion as a result of illegal transactions, of which $1 million went to ex-Prime Minister Pavel Lazarenko.
“What is happening to members of my family, the people who surround me, began from the moment when I consistently began to destroy everything that is incompatible with a civilized country,” Ms. Tymoshenko said in an interview with one of the Kyiv newspapers on September 2. “I immediately felt enormous pressure, there were constant warnings.”
From sources close to the government, the correspondent of the Vremya Novostey newspaper knows that in parallel with the Tymoshenko family, the investigation took up the case of Viktor Yushchenko’s brother. Most likely, they will try to come to an agreement with the prime minister “in an amicable way,” because they have something to “scare” him with. A group of American investigators is expected in Kyiv in the coming days to question witnesses in the Lazarenko case. It is possible that they will be given an additional portion of “incriminating evidence”, which will cast a shadow on the Yushchenko family, whose brother allegedly had a common business with Lazarenko.
The president, still loyal to Yushchenko, recently criticized him publicly. According to Leonid Kuchma, the economy, including the energy sector, cannot do without barter, and the prime minister’s policy will bring the country to the point where the lights go out in the windows. Thus, the head of state expressed dissatisfaction with the main postulate of the reforms of the Yushchenko-Tymoshenko government - the fight against barter, on which all “shadow” schemes are actually built. On the one hand, Kuchma is afraid of Yushchenko's increasing influence; on the other hand, the president's entourage is afraid. And if the president would still put up with Yushchenko the puppet, then the influence groups do not want that either.
Over the past few months, there have been persistent rumors about the deterioration of Leonid Danilovich’s health. It is difficult to judge the reliability of such information (the presidential press service denied these rumors), but if this is so, then the best starting opportunities will be given to the current prime minister and the group of influence that supports him. Therefore, the president’s entourage needs to achieve Yushchenko’s resignation at all costs. Several groups are competing in the fight for the premiership: Kuchma’s son-in-law Mr. Pinchuk, who has joined forces with Igor Sharov (their protege is Sergei Tigipko), the head of the presidential administration Vladimir Litvin (he sees the chief of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yuri Kravchenko or the head of the tax inspectorate Mykola Azarov in the coveted chair ), the Surkis-Medvedchuk group, which is joined by the head of the National Security and Defense Council Yevgeny Marchuk, and the Derkach family (Leonid Derkach heads the Ukrainian security service). Opposition leader Alexander Moroz is already predicting an aggravation of the political situation in the autumn and a government crisis that “someone is planning.”
Will Russia benefit from the departure of Yushchenko and Tymoshenko? On the one hand, Moscow does not need a Ukraine with geopolitical ambitions and independent policies, which is exactly what the current cabinet is trying to achieve. On the other hand, without Tymoshenko and Yushchenko, who sought to bring the energy sector out of the “shadow”, stop the theft of gas and pay for it 100%, Russia will be left alone with Ukrainian influence groups who did not pay and do not want to pay. Svetlana STEPANENKO, Kyiv |
|
