Vitaly Portnikov. Losers: Yulia Tymoshenko

Losers: Yulia Tymoshenko
Vitaly Portnikov

Publication date: January 22, 2001

The decision of Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma to resign Deputy Prime Minister for the Fuel and Energy Complex Yulia Tymoshenko can be considered a serious defeat not only for Tymoshenko herself, but also for Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko. Kuchma was hostile to Tymoshenko from the first day of her appointment as deputy prime minister, but Yushchenko invariably supported his deputy, realizing that groups in the presidential circle, after achieving Tymoshenko’s resignation, would take on him. For Viktor Yushchenko, Yulia Tymoshenko was not only a person who achieved filling the budget by changing the scheme for generating income from the fuel and energy complex, but also a kind of lightning rod that allowed him to remain as head of government and look like a compromise figure even in the eyes of his opponents. Now the situation is changing, the Prime Minister said that he himself will control the fuel and energy complex. In the coming weeks, Yushchenko will either have to prove that he is capable of being as strong a curator of the fuel and energy complex as Yulia Tymoshenko, or find for the vacant post of his deputy for the fuel and energy complex an equally self-confident politician who can withstand the attacks of his “oligarch” brothers. Otherwise, Yushchenko's government is doomed.

Actually, this doom was inherent in the very appearance of Yulia Tymoshenko in the office. Perhaps, without her, the government would have looked completely different and would have generally been unable to withstand the blow, but nevertheless, the appearance of Tymoshenko next to Yushchenko has already programmed the future confrontation. As a politician, as an entrepreneur, Yulia Tymoshenko is a highly paradoxical figure, able to easily emerge from the shadow of her patrons and change allies and opponents with feminine elegance and masculine assertiveness. She began her entrepreneurial activity as a close associate of the most influential Dnepropetrovsk regional “oligarch” and Prime Minister of Ukraine Pavel Lazarenko. After the victory of Dnepropetrovsk resident Leonid Kuchma in the presidential elections in Ukraine, Dnepropetrovsk residents began to brazenly monopolize political and entrepreneurial opportunities. Yulia Tymoshenko was one of the key figures in this monopolization; Having headed the “Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine”, in the existing structure she was responsible for the energy super-profits of her clan. However, after the appointment of Lazarenko as prime minister, a split occurs between the Dnipropetrovsk residents: the head of government becomes a more influential figure than the head of state, and a real war begins between the two clan leaders. After his resignation, Lazarenko becomes the most influential opposition leader, head of the Hromada party and its parliamentary faction. The number two person in this faction is Yulia Tymoshenko. However, the president’s entourage continues to fight against the retired prime minister, rightly seeing his activity as a threat to Leonid Kuchma’s re-election for a second term. Pursued by the General Prosecutor's Office, Lazarenko has to flee the country and seek political asylum in the United States, his political and business empire collapses, and he himself ends up in an American prison. At this time, Yulia Tymoshenko was conducting very successful negotiations with representatives of the presidential administration, which ended in a split and the virtual disappearance of “Hromada” from the political scene of Ukraine. Tymoshenko herself is already acting as the leader of a new political party - Batkivshchyna. After Leonid Kuchma's re-election for a second term, Batkivshchyna becomes one of the parties of the new pro-presidential majority in the Verkhovna Rada, and its leader becomes deputy prime minister. Having come to the government, Yulia Tymoshenko, unexpectedly for the “oligarchs,” changes the rules of the game in the fuel and energy sector - knowing exactly how to avoid transferring income to the state, she closes loopholes for many of her opponents. In addition, the Deputy Prime Minister is forcing the cabinet to recognize debt obligations to Russia. Some consider this a courageous act, which allowed Ukraine to get rid of the reputation of a country that illegally consumes foreign gas; others believe that Tymoshenko, who has always had an exclusive relationship with Gazprom, has only increased her country's dependence on the Russian gas monopolist.

The President and his entourage frankly do not like Yulia Tymoshenko’s activities in the office. Leonid Kuchma repeatedly sharply criticized the deputy prime minister, but was in no hurry to remove her from office, realizing that this would worsen his relations with the head of government popular in the West. The balance of power was upset when a scandal began with tape recordings released by Alexander Moroz, in which the president and his associates allegedly spoke impartially about the journalist Georgy Gongadze, who had disappeared by that time, and some opposition politicians. In one of her interviews, Tymoshenko called former SBU officer Nikolai Melnichenko, who allegedly recorded these conversations, a hero, and her Batkivshchyna faction is actually going over to the opposition in parliament. The authorities also do not remain in debt: Tymoshenko’s husband is arrested on charges related to the activities of UESU and Pavel Lazarenko, and Tymoshenko herself is also being investigated in several criminal cases at once. One of the cases was started by the Main Military Prosecutor's Office of Russia, which saw Tymoshenko's connection with the former head of the Main Directorate of Military-Budgetary Financing of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Colonel-General Georgy Oleynik... The question of Yulia Tymoshenko's resignation is becoming a matter of time, but the prime minister refuses to ask the president to remove her from the government. Leonid Kuchma has to make a decision himself.

Having resigned, Yulia Tymoshenko nevertheless did not lose everything. If she manages to remain free, she will be perhaps the most influential opposition leader - if only because her close ties with Viktor Yushchenko are unlikely to be interrupted after leaving the cabinet and thus Tymoshenko’s opposition will extend exclusively to presidential structures and is unlikely will affect the government. And this is a very convenient position. In addition, as a political leader, Tymoshenko is in a much more comfortable position than Pavel Lazarenko, but he can take advantage of the funds and political opportunities of the Dnepropetrovsk clan, which is by no means completely defeated. And through her work in the government, she has proven that she is capable of change and changing the rules of the game in business - which can be a very important quality for any leader thinking about the inevitable reform of the Ukrainian economy... So we will hear about Yulia Tymoshenko more than once .