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Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych is on guard won by Leonid Kuchma

Last week, a presidential campaign started in Ukraine. The elections will take place on October 31, but today their main intrigue is clear. Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko will divide the legacy of Leonid Kuchma. And both presidential candidates have someone to share in case of victory.

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Leonid Kuchma, whose presidential mandate expires in the fall, called the name of his successor back in April last year. It turned out to be the current Prime Minister and leader of the pro-presidential Party of Regions Viktor Yanukovych. Why did the choice of the presidential environment fall precisely on this person - until recently, few people known and, moreover, twice convicted Donetsk governor? To answer this question, it is necessary to understand the system of power and the economic model that has developed under Leonid Kuchma. During his ten -year reign in Ukraine, with the exception of individual Western regions, the previous party and economic nomenclature or its nominees remained in power. And control over the economic sphere was established by a small group of people who gained access to the main wealth of the country as a result of privatization of the 90s. Today, all their efforts are abandoned to maintain the existing state of affairs, ensuring the coming to power of the candidate, whom the president indicated.
The most noticeable names in the list of supporters of Viktor Yanukovych are President’s son -in -law Viktor Pinchuk and Donetsk industrialist Rinat Akhmetov. These two people are considered the richest in Ukraine: the state of each is about $ 2 billion. Viktor Pinchuk owns the Interpipe multidisciplinary corporation, which includes a number of the largest metallurgical and pipeline enterprises, and a powerful media imperial, which stands on pro -presidential positions. Rinat Akhmetov heads System Capital Management, engaged in metallurgy, owns the Shakhtar football club and, like Pinchuk, has its own media holding with several nationwide television channels and print media.
However, the largest representatives of the two leading Ukrainian industrial and financial clans-Dnepropetrovsk (Victor Pinchuk) and Donetsk (Rinat Akhmetov)-the support group of the presidential candidate is not limited. Among those who are based on Viktor Yanukovych, were the head of the National Bank of Ukraine Sergey Tigipko, who recently headed his election headquarters; co -owner of the largest Privatbank in the country Igor Kolomoisky; Head of the Industrial Union of Donbass Sergey Taruta; Head of NACA "Naftogaz Ukraine" Yuri Boyko; Minister of Transport and Director of the Transport Company Ukrzaliznytsia George Kirpa; The Minister of TEK, who creates a state coal company, including all state mines, Sergey Tulub and others. In addition to them, the Ukrainian Sberbank will surely work to the victory of Viktor Yanukovych, in which one of the leaders of the pro-presidential-democratic party, Igor Pluzhnikov, is a member of the Bank's supervisory board. His party colleague, the famous Kiev businessman Grigory Surkis, whose interests extend from sports - he owns the Dynamo football club (Kyiv) to the energy, will also not be able to put his shoulder to the potential president.
With all the listed officials and businessmen Viktor Yanukovych, either personal friendship or good business relations connects. There is no doubt that in case of victory in the elections, he will definitely not offend them. Ukrainian experts pay attention to the fact that today's economic views of the Prime Minister and presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych directly reflect his past experience in managing the Donetsk region during the period of "predatory capitalism". “He is a supporter of administrative regulation of the economy, and mainly a large business loyal to him from his policy,” said Sergey Garmash, director of the Center for Social Prospects of Donbass.
It is not surprising that the campaign of Viktor Yanukovych today is invested by those who would like to preserve the previous rules of the game in the relationship between business and the authorities, which developed under President Kuchma. After all, the coming to power in Ukraine of another favorite of the election race of Viktor Yushchenko will most likely result in the fight against "nomenclature capitalism" under the slogans of the struggle for the justice and dictatorship of the law.

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Photo: UNIANVISTER YUSHESHKO SIMPLY SUSTICAL SUSTOMS

The leader of the opposition block "Our Ukraine" Viktor Yushchenko is the full antipode of Victor Yanukovych. "Yushchenko is a completely new type of politician for Ukraine, who has one hundred percent market thinking," said Mikhail Pogrebinsky, the famous Ukrainian political scientist, director of the Kyiv Center for Political Research and Conflictology. At the same time, Mikhail Pogrebinsky draws attention to another - important, in his opinion - the character trait of Yushchenko, calling him a politician of the Messianic type, a romantic, and idealist. Viktor Yushchenko earned such a reputation as prime minister. They say that, coming to the college of the ministry, he could quite seriously declare: "I want to hear from the ministry what dream it formulated for itself for the next year and how it is going to realize it."
In preparation for the elections, candidate Yushchenko is not going to leave the image of a romantic hero who contrasted profitably with the type of politician who has developed over the years of Leonid Kuchma. Last week, when the Central Election Commission of Ukraine accepted documents for the registration of five candidates for the presidency, it turned out that the chief opposition candidate Yushchenko was tight with money. He did not have $ 100 thousand, which, in accordance with the election law, he had to introduce to the CEC as a bail. To scrape the necessary amount, Viktor Yushchenko had to lay his Kyiv apartment and lend money from his colleagues on parliament. Even if Viktor Yushchenko is not so poor at all, it is not of fundamental importance. The main thing is that the candidate’s political gesture fully corresponds to the role of the anti -oligarch chosen by him.
Viktor Yushchenko has not yet published his election program, although it has already been written and submitted to the CEC. Most likely, he will exploit the topic of the struggle against the oligarchs among ordinary Ukrainians. The benefit among industrialists and bankers who can provide him with support, there are no real oligarchs - on the side of Yushchenko the characters of the second and third plan play. Among them is the head of the Orlan concern, which is engaged in the production of non -alcoholic and low -alcohol drinks, a member of the Yevgeny Chervonenko fraction of our Ukraine; Another activist of "Our Ukraine" is the director of the Obolon PivoKanet Alexander Slobodyan; David Zhvania and his multidisciplinary company Brinkford.
Perhaps Brinkford is the most powerful structure in Yushchenko’s asset, employed in energy, oil industry, agricultural sector, mining and metallurgical complex, machine tool and construction. It is believed that in the event of Yushchenko’s victory, representatives of business circles close to him will try to advance to the first roles due to assets of colleagues from the opposite camp, for example, challenging the results of privatization.

Unloved by Russia
So far, the chances of Viktor Yushchenko are very great. Over the past four years, he remains the most popular Ukrainian politician. The leader of the opposition "Our Ukraine" is supported by 26% of voters, the premiere of Viktor Yanukovych - 18%. Of course, the possibilities of the administrative resource are far from exhausted. In addition, the presence of other opposition candidates - the communist Peter Simonenko, the socialist Alexander Moroz, etc. - so far gives the authorities to crush Yushchenko’s protest electorate at the last moment. Today, dozens work on this task, if not hundreds of highly paid heads under the unspoken leadership of the head of the presidential administration, Viktor Medvedchuk. The principle that is guided in "our Ukraine" is extremely simple: which will be worse to do to Viktor Yushchenko, the better it will be for him. After all, who is beaten, oppressed or deceived, they regret it, and vote for it.
It is noteworthy that in the upcoming duel of the two Victors - Viktor Yanukovych and the leader of the opposition bloc "Our Ukraine" Viktor Yushchenko - Moscow will not play the role of an assistant or secondant, neither one nor the other, because, strictly speaking, neither one nor the other candidate is fully satisfied with Moscow.
At first, supporting Viktor Yanukovych, who seemed more pro -Russian, in Moscow they then saw that the interests of this native of Eastern Ukraine often diverge from the interests of Russia. When the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant (refineries) was put up for sale last year, the organizers of the tender did everything so that Russian applicants won the right to become the owner of the giant factory, but Viktor Pinchuk’s son-in-law of President Kuchma. Another deal followed by the whole world was the privatization of the giant missile station Krivorozhstal recently took place. As in the case of the refinery, the Russian applicants were again cut off, and Viktor Pinchuk again took possession of the enterprise.
As for Viktor Yushchenko, the Kremlin is alarming his reputation as a pro -Western policy. Therefore, in Moscow they preferred to take a wait -and -see position and after the elections to start establishing a relationship with the one to take.
Sergey Strokan, Andrey Chernikov

Magazine "Kommersant Power" No. 27 dated 07/12/2004, p. 42

Authors:

Sergey Strokan

Topics:

Metallurgy

If only there was no kuchma