The Tymoshenko Cabinet: A Hydra in Your Pocket

Serhiy Leshchenko of Ukrayinska Pravda has written a short guide to the wheeling and dealing in the Tymoshenko cabinet.

For a better idea of Ukraine’s cost of government, try asking this question: How many deputies/undersecretaries do Ukrainian cabinet ministers have?

Here’s your answer:

Heorhiy Filipchuk, Minister of Health Care: 10
Yuriy Melnyk, Minister of Agriculture: 10
Yuriy Lutsenko, Minister of Internal Affairs: 9
Mykola Onishchuk, Minister of Justice: 8
Lyudmyla Denysova, Minister of Labor: 8
Yuriy Pavlenko, Minister of Youth Affairs: 8
Vasyl Vovkun, Minister of Culture, 7
Serhiy Buryak, Head of the State Tax Administration: 10
Viktor Ivchenko, Head of the State Innovation and Investment Agency: 6
Serhiy Lytvyn, Head of the State Border Guard Administration: 6
Oleh Dubyna, Chairman of Naftogaz: 8
Oleksandr Medvedko, Prosecutor General: 8
Valeriy Heletey, Head of the State Security Directorate: 7

"The Tymoshenko School of Management. Where every minister counts."

Sources: http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2009/4/15/93272.htm

A Peep Into Yanuk’s Birthday Celebrations

On July 9, 2008, Viktor Yanukovych celebrated his 58th anniversary.

MP Borys Kolesnikov, PRU: Well, Viktor Fiodorovich...Viktor Fiodorovich [patronymic transliterated from Russian] once loved to go hunting and fishing, that’s speaking of hobbies. Everyone…everyone will act depending on their imagination and financial capabilities, I think.

MP Anatoliy Tolstoukhov, PRU: And it’s not hunting gear that will prevail, but, say, landscapes, paintings.

MP Hanna Herman, PRU: I presented Viktor Fedorovych [patronymic transliterated from Ukrainian] with a portrait of his mother. We searched for a long time and finally found an old photograph. I magnified it and fit it into a frame, and today I put it on the leader’s table.

MP Leonid Hrach, CPU: Well, there’s no gift that a poor person could present to a rich one.

MP Oleh Lyashko, BYuT: Well, obviously some of the leaders will greet him, but you do realize that, in reality, it’s all a game. They greet each other in public, they smile, but in reality they everyone looks for ways to nail each other.

Valeriy Heletey, chief of the Ukrainian Secret Service (UDO): All the people who are under protection…we always come to terms and we always greet people on their birthdays. We always wish that they would feel secure and comfortable.

Kyiv Mayor Leonid Chernovetsky: I don’t…I don’t have any such things. I have nothing. I can even show you my pockets.

Mr. Hrach, Mr. Chernovetsky, you guys are incredible!

Tabloid has a picture report of the event.

Video uploaded from: http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/89421.html

Piskun Gets His One-Way Ticket to the Moon

Svaytoslav Piskun, Ukraine’s perennial prosecutor general, lost his job today. His third term in office lasted but a few weeks until it was terminated by the President, ostensibly on the grounds of violating a regulation that prohibits Cabinet members from holding multiple offices. (Piskun has not relinquished his MP mandate.)

Still, a more objective cause of dismissal would be political disloyalty. Contrary to what had been expected, the comeback arrangement didn’t work out. Once appointed, Piskun did little to distance himself from the Party of Rogues, thus becoming a huge disappointment for Yushchenko.

The eviction procedure, not yet finalized, featured a scuffle between the Yushchenko-controlled State Security Service and the Yanukovych-controlled Berkut riot police.

Key recent appointments:

• Ivan Plyushch, former Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, became Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council
• Oleksander Turchynov, Tymo’s right-hand man, assumed the post of Deputy Secretary of the NSDC
• Valeriy Heletey, head of law enforcement liaison at the Secretariat of the President, took charge of the State Security Service