| Yesterday, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine created a temporary commission to investigate the circumstances of the “cassette scandal” and its impact on state security. The recordings of Nikolai Melnichenko, a former major in the presidential guard, released in December 2000, provoked an international scandal, as a result of which Leonid Kuchma almost resigned. Representatives of another, no less scandalous Rada commission - to check the illegal financing of President Viktor Yushchenko's election campaign by foreign oligarchs - went to London yesterday to meet with Boris Berezovsky. If the oligarch presents evidence of his financing of Yushchenko's campaign, he faces early termination of his powers. Communist leader Pyotr SYMONENKO, whose faction was the initiator of the creation of the commission, comments on the situation to Vremya Novostei.
-- The communists initiated the creation of a Rada commission to investigate information about illegal financing of Yushchenko's election campaign. What could be the consequences of the investigation?
-- Berezovsky previously announced an injection of at least $15 million into Yushchenko's election campaign. If direct evidence of this is received in London, then the Central Election Commission, as a permanent body, must immediately make a decision to annul the election results and Yushchenko’s presidential certificate. After all, Ukrainian laws categorically prohibit financing of election campaigns from abroad. There cannot be puppet presidents in the country.
— Did Berezovsky take the initiative himself or did members of the commission contact him?
- He himself contacted the chairman of the commission, communist Yuri Solomatin, confirming his readiness to provide information.
—What is Berezovsky’s interest?
-- Transnational clans are being formed. Berezovsky, along with ex-Prime Minister Tymoshenko and businessman Igor Kolomoisky, are interested in their political and financial support for Yushchenko's election campaign being transformed into dividends - large Ukrainian assets. Like, you got the chairs, now pay the money.
— Since the communists initiated the creation of a commission to verify facts related to Berezovsky, have you probably met with him before or now?
-- Never. I'll tell you more - he worked against me as a candidate for the presidency of Ukraine in 1999 (Symonenko took second place. - Ed. ). Ukrainian oligarch Alexander Volkov, the main organizer of ex-President Kuchma's election campaign, also attracted Berezovsky to it. This was a mockery of Ukrainian pre-election legislation. So, remembering 1999, I do not feel any friendly feelings towards Berezovsky.
— Moscow is looking at different political forces in Ukraine. How promising, in your opinion, is Yulia Tymoshenko as a politician?
- Russia should evaluate its deeds, not its words. Tymoshenko pursued a pro-American policy, being an ardent opponent of the Common Economic Space and the unification of the energy and gas systems of our countries. In 2002, in Western Ukraine, she fell on her knees before voters and promised to promote the ideas of nationalism to the east. Today, a geopolitical plan, conceived outside of Ukraine, to create an “orange” government and opposition is being implemented. By dismissing Tymoshenko from the post of prime minister, Yushchenko removed her from the blow on the eve of the 2006 parliamentary elections. Now she will not be responsible for government failures. As the leader of the anti-presidential opposition, Tymoshenko is being pushed to the east and south in order to enslave the population through the right-wing nationalist spirit. Tymoshenko traveled to Moscow to get all charges dropped. Her visit is intended so that the external factor - in this case the Russian one - will facilitate or at least not hinder the advancement of her supporters into representative bodies of power in 2006. But business interests in Tymoshenko’s politics prevail over nationalist ones.
- You expressed a version about a deliberate split into the “orange” government and the opposition. However, it is not very credible, given the political crisis that ended with Tymoshenko’s departure. And the “war of incriminating evidence” between her and the president is in full swing...
— The script of this geopolitical game was not written in Ukraine, so both politicians were played by a “third force.” And the fact that the dear ones scold is just for fun. President Yushchenko and ex-Prime Minister Tymoshenko will become family friends, and then merge in ecstasy after the end of the election campaign to the Rada in 2006. Temporary separation will only help them gather more votes. They themselves confirm that they are not enemies and will act on parallel courses. Having received a majority in the Rada, representatives of the Yushchenko and Tymoshenko parties will set a course for joining NATO, the WTO, expanding the arc of confrontation with Russia - the Baltic-Black Sea Commonwealth and GUAM. Negotiations on the CES will fail.
-- Will the Party of Regions, whose leader Viktor Yanukovych enjoyed the support of Moscow during the 2004 presidential election campaign, become a real opposition?
- Today not only the “orange” fog has cleared, but also the “blue and white soap bubbles” (the colors of the Yushchenko and Yanukovych election campaigns. - Ed. ) have burst. The President, together with Kuchma, is drawing Yanukovych into his allies so that he does not interfere with the advance of “orange” Tymoshenko to the south and east of Ukraine. The Party of Regions will never be an opposition. Yanukovych's supporters will support the oligarchic regime, as long as they live richly under it. The political repression that the “blue and white” people are shouting about is a coercive mechanism by which the losing oligarchs are forced to pay indemnities to the winning ones faster. After all, on the Maidan there was not a revolution, but a war of millionaires against billionaires. They will find a common language with each other.
--Can Russia consider socialists or, for example, the People's Party of Speaker Vladimir Litvin as its allies in Ukraine?
- These political forces are just a cover for “orange” tactics. They stand on their own, create a political environment, but do not pursue independent policies. I cannot say that Moscow is betting on someone. However, when determining the prospects for strategic cooperation, the main criterion should be an understanding of whether the foundations are being laid for deep integration, promoting the interests of the Slavic peoples, and solving the problems of the defense complex. We need to decide what the politicians want to get - temporary benefits in the form of the Odessa port plant and Krivorozhstal, or create a common economic space, a customs union and agree on access to foreign markets. We, as communists, take these interests very seriously. I say this from the heart and without false modesty. Interviewed by Svetlana STEPANENKO, Kyiv
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