Ukraine’s unprofessional president and prime minister to kill the nation

Ukraine has four misfortunes. The unprofessional president and the government are the first two. Neither the head of state nor the prime minister are willing to step down – this is the third misfortune. The world crisis is pushing the country closer towards the economic collapse – this is the fourth and the biggest misfortune of the post-Soviet nation. To make matters even worse, the country’s administration takes all efforts to make Ukraine fall.

Photo: Ukraine’s unprofessional president and prime minister to kill the nation

Ukraine has recently witnessed a hideous political show. Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko accused President Viktor Yushchenko and his team of the financial crisis, their implication into corruption schemes in the financial field and of the attempt to embezzle 4.5 billion hryvnas (the Ukrainian currency). The following day Tymoshenko stated that she was passing into the opposition to the president and the National Bank. The world has never seen an oppositionist prime minister before.

“Not only does the [Ukrainian] president intends to make profit on Ukraine’s grief via his associates, but he wants to declare default of the nation, to make the national economy absolutely insolvent and continue his mediocre rule by declaring a state of emergency and canceling the elections, which, as the Constitution stipulates, shall not be held under a state of emergency. I want to stop this process,” Tymoshenko said Wednesday.

Viktor Yushchenko has struck back. He called Tymoshenko an adventuress and added that she wanted to obtain absolute power, that it why she had passed into the opposition to the nation. It would be a fair thing to say only if Yushchenko were true to his course. When Yushchenko appeared on Ukraine’s central TV channels on December 23 addressing the nation, he did not look like the man who could save the country from decline.

Yushchenko’s associate, Kiev mayor Leonid Chernovetsky released a series of shocking statements. He announced his intention to sell Kiev’s historical buildings at international auctions, to sell the car fleet of the city administration and to charge citizens not less than $100,000 per admission. He also added that he would become an eyesore to Yulia Tymoshenko.

In the meantime, Yushchenko held a press conference in Ukraine. The most popular question to the president was the following one: “Esteemed Mr. President, please tell us, ordinary mortals, how much we need to pay you so that you, Supreme Rada deputies, ministers and top officials could leave abroad for good?”

The Ukrainians have a full right to ask such a question. The hryvna has lost a half of its value in only a month, whereas trade unions have launched a series of massive actions of protest across the nation. It is worthy of note that the head of the Ukrainian government, Yulia Tymoshenko, looks only serious in public and hardly ever smiles now.

This rat race may not lead to any consequences if a nation develops steadily. However, if a national leader is absolutely inadequate and helpless, if he or she refuses to decline his powers, this nation must be rescued immediately.

Ukraine currently represents a combination of two aspects that can be fatal for the country: the absolutely inadequate president and the absolutely helpless government. Neither Yushchenko, nor Tymoshenko intend to quit their posts. Neither the president nor the prime minister are capable of doing any good for their country, but it does not even occur to them to make way for somebody else.

There are no adequate economists and experienced administrators in Tymoshenko’s team. Her government does not even know how to approach the problem of the financial crisis in the country. They do not know whether they should support the nation’s real sector of economy, or open the market for imports; nationalize the key industries or sell them to foreigners for nothing; send the hryvna plummeting or keep the currency rate afloat at all costs, etc.

It would be incorrect to say that Lady Yu is not doing anything at all. She rushes about, from corner to corner. She tries to sing this old song that somebody does not let her work. Ukraine is going downhill very fast and has another major problem to deal with – the gas debt to Russia, but this is a whole different story.

Aleksei Kovalev