Yulia Tymoshenko takes Ukraine in her iron hands

Yulia Tymoshenko, the new Prime Minister of Ukraine, has launched her large-scale activities from the very first day of her stay in the office. It is obvious that everything that the lady is doing now is connected with the pre-election campaign, which is set to start in Ukraine in at the end of 2009.

Photo: Yulia Tymoshenko takes Ukraine in her iron hands

Yulia Tymoshenko, the “iron lady of Ukraine” is determined to become Ukraine’s next president. The biography of the prime minister and the first steps that she takes of the position which she takes for the second time show that the president’s office is her primary goal.

To begin with, Tymoshenko decided to clear the power of corruption. “We start the power-cleansing process. I will do everything not to let dirty shadow money become the key factor of the Ukrainian politics, so that it could no longer buy deputies like cattle on a marketplace, so that no other politician would be eager to easily earn tens of millions,” Tymoshenko stated during her televised address to the nation.

In just several days Tymoshenko has managed to shake the Ministry of Finance and replace more than a half of ministerial deputies there. Ukraine’s national oil and gas corporation – Naftogaz - will be the lady’s next goal. She has already specified her stance on the energy matter: there should be no mediators between Ukraine and Russia on the natural gas market.

“My position remains unchanged: there should be no mediators on the gas market. There is Nftogaz of Ukraine, which we will return to its normal financial state,” Tymoshenko said.

It is worthy of note that Ukraine’s Naftogaz is rumoured to be on the edge of bankruptcy.

Tymoshenko’s predecessor on the position of the Ukrainian prime minister, Viktor Yanukovich, who enjoys highest popularity ratings in the country, stated that his opposition party, the Party of Regions, will not let resignations be based on political motives. The party, Yanukovich added, will continue to cooperate with the power.

It is worthy of note that over 18,000 officials were fired from their positions in Ukraine in the beginning of 2005, when Viktor Yushchenko became elected president of the country. Viktor Yanukovich threatens to organize massive riots in the country not to let history repeat itself.

Yulia Tymoshenko decided to make her first visit as the new prime minister to the Donetsk region of Ukraine, where Yanukovich once took the position of the governor and where he still enjoys high popularity. In Donetsk, Tymoshenko met with families of miners who had been killed in Ukraine’s recent coal mine explosion. She promised to set up a new governmental committee to investigate Ukraine’s worst mine disaster in decades.

Tymoshenko has already managed to meet with Russia’s Ambassador to Ukraine, Viktor Chernomyrdin, and have phone conversations with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney.

At the same time, the iron lady has taken a variety of other issues under her personal control. One of them is connected with the investigation of Yuri Tashenko’s death (a private of the Ukrainian Armed Forces). The issue of army hazing is another trump card for Tymoshenko in her initiative to introduce the contractual basis in the Ukrainian army.

Strana

Transalted by Dmitry Sudakov
Pravda.ru

AP photo