Yulia Tymoshenko decided not to run for president

In Strasbourg yesterday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko spoke at a session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). She stated that her country would not join NATO if the Ukrainian people voted against it in a referendum, and assured the Russian delegation that in Ukraine the rights of Russian-speaking people were not infringed, just as they “do not eat newborns with sour cream.” She also told Kommersant special correspondent MIKHAIL ZYGAR that she is not going to become the president of Ukraine.

Man and woman

Yesterday morning new faces began to appear in the palace of the Council of Europe. That part of the Russian delegation that could not miss the United Russia congress flew to Strasbourg. At about ten in the morning, State Duma deputy Svetlana Khorkina climbed the PACE stairs, supported by the elbow by fellow United Russia member Sergei Markov.

An hour later, another couple climbed the same stairs - Yulia Tymoshenko along with PACE President Luis Maria de Puig. They talked privately for about ten minutes, and then went out to the reporters.

Having learned about the arrival of Yulia Tymoshenko, some members of the Russian delegation left the hall, where at that moment the problem of illegal abortions was being discussed. First, Sergei Markov made a small circle around the foyer. He was followed by LDPR deputy Leonid Slutsky. The last person to come out to listen to Yulia Tymoshenko was the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Gennady Zyuganov.

“We have prepared for her arrival,” Mr. Zyuganov shared with a Kommersant correspondent. “Melnikov and I signed up to ask her questions.” The first question: on what basis did she sign the document on Ukraine’s accession to NATO, if 70% of Ukrainian citizens are against it? What will this bring to Ukraine? Just converting the military infrastructure to NATO standards will cost Ukraine $20 billion. Where will they get this money if tomorrow they will have to pay for oil and gas at world prices? They still can’t pay!

However, after listening to Yulia Tymoshenko’s brief opening speech, in which she stated that the issue of Ukraine’s accession to NATO would be decided only by a referendum, Gennady Zyuganov began to smile. Ukrainian journalists immediately surrounded him, and he admitted that he liked Yulia Tymoshenko.

- There is a joke in Ukraine that in our politics there is only one man - Yulia Tymoshenko. Do you agree with this? - the journalists asked.

- Yes, she makes that impression. She can! - admitted the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.

Competitors and fans

Yulia Tymoshenko, meanwhile, proceeded to the meeting room and began to read out her keynote speech in Ukrainian. She began with memories of the Orange Revolution.

— It was not directed against anyone. She was for it. For democracy, for fair elections, for fair courts, for freedom of the media. It would be naive to assume that everything old is in the past and we immediately begin to live in a new world. Breaking old traditions turned out to be difficult.

Yulia Tymoshenko also thanked two former delegates of the assembly, Renata Wohlwend and Hanne Sverinsen, who headed the PACE observer mission to Ukraine in 2004 and “stood on the barricades together with the ‘orange revolutionaries’” for their assistance to the “orange revolution.”

Then the prime minister moved on to the main thing - her confrontation with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.

— Currently in Ukraine there is a confusion of powers between the president and the government. This is a legacy of the past. And this means that the time has come to change the constitution so that it meets the principles of the Council of Europe. We need to delimit the functions of power, make Ukraine a traditional parliamentary republic, as is typical for European states. This model has an advantage over all other monopolized systems of power.

The true addressees of this speech were, of course, not PACE delegates, not Chairman de Puig, and not State Duma deputies Zyuganov or Khorkina. The speech, delivered in Strasbourg, was intended for Mrs. Tymoshenko's partners in the "orange" coalition. For example, Viktor Yushchenko, who not only does not believe that his country should become a parliamentary republic, but, on the contrary, created a special national constitutional council, which announced yesterday that it will present its draft constitution on April 23. According to him, Ukraine should become a presidential republic.

Then, just in case, the prime minister explained that the current aggravation in Ukraine is connected with the approaching presidential elections. Yulia Tymoshenko told PACE delegates that her team has “an absolute desire to end corruption,” despite the fact that “the generator of corruption is the government itself, or rather, that part of the government that enjoys the fruits of its corrupt activities.” However, she did not directly accuse President Yushchenko’s entourage of corruption from the PACE rostrum.

“You can always have us at your disposal and count on our help,” PACE Chairman Luis Maria de Puig answered her.

The Prime Minister entered the hall to listen to questions from delegates. The first to attack her was State Duma deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Ivan Melnikov, who read out a question about NATO invented by Gennady Zyuganov. Yulia Tymoshenko confidently replied that the letter signed by her, the president and the speaker of parliament does not mean at all that Ukraine will join NATO.

“This is just an intensification of our cooperation.” A real politician will never break his people over his knee. Everything will be decided only in a referendum, and politicians will not oppose the will of the people. True, first we need to conduct an explanatory campaign. And those in Ukraine who oppose NATO often don’t even know what it means.

Delegates from Switzerland, Italy, Great Britain, Azerbaijan and Lithuania asked her rather calm questions (the last two were in Russian). She answered just as calmly in Ukrainian. Then it was the turn of the head of the Russian delegation, Konstantin Kosachev. He stated that the rights of national minorities, primarily Russian-speaking ones, are being violated in Ukraine, Russian schools and even cinemas are being closed due to the recent decision on mandatory dubbing of films.

— And in Ukraine they eat newborns with sour cream! — Yulia Tymoshenko answered sarcastically in Ukrainian. The entire Russian delegation listened to the translation through headphones. “There is no need to stir up such passions!” After the Soviet dictatorship, it was Ukrainians who became a national minority in their country. It will still take us a long time to regain our identity! And here's another thing: I, like the rest of my family, belong to exactly the minority you are worried about. I was born in Dnepropetrovsk. Throughout my childhood I spoke only Russian. I learned Ukrainian only when I became a member of Viktor Yushchenko’s government. In 2000! And my family still speaks only Russian. And quite happy. And no one infringes on them. When I tell my mother: “Well, learn Ukrainian already!” - she replies: “Yes, I’m too old to teach.” But at heart she is Ukrainian and shares the values of the country in which she lives. So don't exaggerate problems that don't exist.

After this emotional speech, all critical arguments against Yulia Tymoshenko seem to have ended. None of the delegates asked about the split in the Ukrainian government and the confrontation between Yulia Tymoshenko and Viktor Yushchenko.

Presidents and powers

After finishing her speech, Yulia Tymoshenko went to meet with Secretary General of the Council of Europe Terry Davis. Along with the entire Ukrainian delegation, Hanne Sverinsen, the same former head of the PACE mission in Ukraine during the Orange Revolution, was waiting for her in the corridor. She told Kommersant that she had recently been working as Yulia Tymoshenko’s full-time assistant on European integration issues, and even showed her pass to the Cabinet of Ministers building.

— Do you think that Yulia Tymoshenko is the most convinced democrat of all the former participants in the Orange Revolution? — asked the Kommersant correspondent.

— Well, among politicians there is no black and white. Everything is in halftones. I can say that all of Yulia Tymoshenko’s intentions are extremely good. She strives to change her country, to make it more democratic. But I am, of course, very concerned that there is no longer unity among the “orange” democrats. I am very worried.

— Do Tymoshenko and Yushchenko now have more complicated relations than both of them with Yanukovych?

- Hard to say. “I’m afraid so,” answered Hanne Sverinsen with sincere pain.

When all of Yulia Tymoshenko's negotiations in Strasbourg ended, the Kommersant correspondent still managed to ask her the most important question: does her intention to turn Ukraine into a parliamentary republic mean that Yulia Tymoshenko is no longer interested in becoming president.

“You are absolutely right, our team has the most real chances of winning the presidential elections,” she answered. “That is why we want to take advantage of such a unique time and do everything to ensure that democracy is enshrined in Ukraine at the constitutional level.” I believe that the parliamentary form of government is a very strong form of government if it is built correctly and constitutionally.

Yulia Tymoshenko also spoke quite clearly about what would remain for Viktor Yushchenko under such a form of government:

“This does not mean that there will be no position of president in the country, and this does not mean that the president will not be popularly elected. It’s just that his powers will be determined precisely by the format of a parliamentary republic.

“For example, like in Finland or Germany,” Hanne Sverinsen added to Kommersant. “To a greater extent, ceremonial powers.”

Yulia Tymoshenko left the Council of Europe, but the Russian delegation remained. Svetlana Khorkina, for example, had yet to speak at the evening meeting on the topic of teenage suicide. When asked by Kommersant whether she heard the speech of the Prime Minister of Ukraine and whether she liked it, Deputy Khorkina, without looking up from her iPhone, replied: “Impressive. I liked it.”

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 65 dated 04/17/2008, page 9

Found a spit in Strasbourg