Leonid Kuchma is ready to be third
In the dialogue the prime minister and are happy
Today the official visit of Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma to Lithuania ends. He arrived in Vilnius at the height of the government crisis in Ukraine. But the president failed to escape from problems - journalists found him here too.

This morning, President Leonid Kuchma will address the participants of the UNESCO conference on dialogue between civilizations and held under the auspices of the presidents of Lithuania and Poland - Valdas Adamkus and Aleksander Kwasniewski, then open the exhibition "Kharkiv region today "in the Vilnius Sports Palace. And after a reception hosted by the President of Lithuania in the Vilnius art gallery, the President of Ukraine will fly to Kyiv.
Yesterday at the joint press conference of Presidents Adamkus and Kuchma, journalists were most interested in the situation in Ukraine. President Kuchma noted that “the stability of any state, including the political stability of power, is an indispensable condition for its development.” Therefore, the resignation of the government “will not benefit Ukraine.” According to the president, “today the situation largely depends on what kind of dialogue the prime minister and the government will conduct with the Verkhovna Rada,” and he himself is ready to “take part in the process of finding a compromise as a third party.” President Kuchma said that there will be no vote of no confidence in the government, and if there is one, it will only be on Thursday, April 26. By the way, this will be the 15th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, and it is unlikely that Kyiv parliamentarians will decide the fate of their government on such a sad day.
Assessing the work of the Cabinet of Ministers, Mr. Kuchma said that in 2000 Ukraine achieved significant success - mainly due to the export of raw materials and semi-finished products from the metallurgy and chemical industries (80% of GDP). The bad thing, according to the president, is that the economy still places emphasis on metallurgy, which is entirely dependent on Russian energy resources, and no one pays attention to high technology. In addition, the domestic market is not developing. In short, “as in any country, there are shortcomings, and one cannot turn a blind eye to them.”
President Kuchma also touched upon the prospects for Ukraine’s accession to the EU, noting that today his country “is not ready for this either economically or politically.” But nevertheless, Ukraine will strive for European standards both in the field of technology and democratic values - in matters of human rights and freedom of speech. Therefore, it is very gratifying, President Kuchma pointed out, that on Ukraine’s difficult path to Europe, its partners are Lithuania and Poland.

VLADIMIR Kommersant-VODO, Vilnius

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 73 dated April 24, 2001, p. 11

Authors:

Vladimir Vodo