PM Tymoshenko's Party putting Kuchma people into key positions

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS: By Ihor Zaozernyy
Ukrayinska Pravda web site, Kiev, in Ukrainian 29 Jul 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Tue, Aug 09, 2005
via AUR

Senior functionaries of Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko's
Fatherland party are putting businessmen linked to the former regime of
Leonid Kuchma into key party positions in the regions and ousting
long-standing members, a Ukrainian web site has said. It said that these
functionaries are even setting prices for seats in regional councils,
including Kiev city council.

This is either a well thought out policy ahead of the 2006 parliamentary
election approved by Tymoshenko herself or the functionaries keep
Tymoshenko uninformed, as she is too busy to deal with party affairs,
it concluded.

The following is the text of the article by Ihor Zaozernyy, entitled "Who
wants to buy a place in Fatherland? Get in line!", posted on the Ukrayinska
Pravda web site on 29 July; subheadings have been inserted editorially:

Figuratively speaking, if [Crimean power broker Leonid] Hrach's people have
flown into Crimea, those "Kruks", as in Vyacheslav Kruk, have made camp in
Odessa. The son of the elder (MP) Kruk and the owner of several sugar
refineries, a reinforced concrete constructions plant, a construction
company and the Into Sana medical company.

There is nothing surprising in this; if the father is an MP or the
president, then as a rule the son is a successful businessman and
vice-versa. The youngest Kruk was the former deputy of Odessa mayor
[Ruslan] Bodelan.

And there is nothing surprising in this either; that Kruk is a businessman
and Bodelan is being searched for. What is surprising is something else -
that the younger Kruk has been "pulled in" to be the head of the Odessa city
party organization of Fatherland [the party headed by Prime Minister Yuliya
Tymoshenko]. The very same Vyacheslav Kruk whom Odessa residents
themselves did not even accept as a regular party member. But he was
pushed in brutally and cynically.

And while breaking all democratic norms. By the way, the Fatherland
organization in Odessa region headed by Anatoliy Tsybulchyk was against
Kruk. What is Mr Kruk to do?

                                 THE KINGMAKERS ARE IN KIEV
That's right. He goes to Kiev to the executive political council, which from
the beginning was planned to be a purely technical-executive body, but which
has today, under the leadership of Yaroslav Fedorchuk, taken upon itself all
the party's issues on personnel and organization.

The secretariat has been able to protect Ms Tymoshenko from information
from the regions and in this way has gained complete control over them. The
secretariat also carries out severe purges in the hinterlands before every
election. They get rid of those who are insubordinate or perhaps too
informed. After the election they again kick out those who are "too smart",
while taking the opportunity to sweep up financial abuse.

The arguments (were there only arguments?) used by Vyacheslav Kruk to his
advantage remain a secret behind seven seals. Kruk flew in to Odessa with a
party card in his hand. Besides that, he had a letter of recommendation with
the stamp of the political council for the position of...[ellipsis as
published] acting head of the Odessa city party organization.

At that time, the city party organization, which numbered about 2,000 real
members, was headed by Zhanna Bolyanska. And, of course, such a turn of
events did not provoke any special enthusiasm on the part of those people
who had refused to accept Kruk into their ranks.

Along with Kruk, representatives of the same executive secretariat, Messrs
Radovets and Bondarenko, arrived in Odessa as troopers. The goal was a
worthy one - to help in organizing the party conference on the local level.
The "help" came in the form of using spurious methods to gather false
information which could then be used to cast doubt on the legitimacy of
district conferences which had nominated delegates.

Nevertheless, Odessans held their city conference and confirmed the
authority of leader Zhanna Bolyanska. Then the bureau of the regional party
organization declared the conference legitimate. The Kiev troopers did not
daydream, the leaders of the regional conference were immediately called
on the "carpet" to Kiev.

It is not known what kind of conversation was had with the Kiev bosses. We
only know that the leader of Fatherland in Odessa region returned with views
diametrically opposed [to those he had previously]. Comrades in the party
say Mr Kochetov was also "broken". And one must say the legitimate head of
the city organization, Zhanna Bolyanska, was also broken somewhat. Unable
to withstand the pressure, she signed a letter resigning from the position.

But rank and file "Fatherlanders" did not give in and held the second stage
of the conference. At the first stage it was decided to not close the
conference, but to prepare for the second stage. Heorhiy Partskhaladze, a
well-know businessman in Odessa, was elected head of the city organization.

                             TENACIOUS VYACHESLAV KRUK
But Mr Kruk did not give up either. With the help of the executive
secretariat, a resolution by the regional bureau on the legitimacy of party
processes in the city was organized (those not broken in the capital were
squeezed out in Odessa).

There is more. The executive secretariat of the political council (that is,
Yaroslav Fedorchuk,) charged a working group with getting to the bottom of
things in Odessa. And who do you think was to lead this group? That's right,
Comrade Kruk. Together with Comrade Baymurativ, whom Odessans remember
for being the deputy of the renowned "accountant" Serhiy Kivalov [the head
of the Central Electoral Commission during the 2004 presidential election]
at the Odessa Academy of Law and the Sea Party.

Fatherlanders from Odessa, furious but not broken, charged to Kiev to meet
Yuliya Tymoshenko, but met the same leaders of the executive council. And
encountered civil democracy. They were heard out, treated to tea and then
told: "Ok, let's allow some representatives of the 'protesters' into the
working group and we'll 'take steps' ".

And they "took". Instantly. The businessmen Kruk and Radkivskyy (one of
Kruk's and Bodelan's partners in joint business matters and one of those who
[allegedly] spuriously privatized much of the Odessa shoreline), carried out
"mass recruiting" of the Fatherland party using employees at their own
companies and, as sharp tongues in Odessa say, they [the employees] were
told "Fatherland or death!" (that is, getting fired from work). People
filled out requests and wondered, is that really how things work in this
party, which is famed for advocating civil rights and freedoms?!

And next came the clowns and the circus. "Newly-baked" party troops were
brought into district conferences in ambulances. Do not worry, dear readers.
It is simply that one of Kruk's enterprises is a medical company. People
voted under the leadership of "musical directors", nice ones, but firm.
Something like how people are controlled at talk shows.

And what happened to those uppity party members? And great number of
them were thrown out for not showing up at conferences they did not know
about and for the consequent "loss of ties with the party". Those left
wanted to look at the party cards of the neophytes. The answer was standard,
either "they had not had time to fill it out" or "people were not yet in the
party, but were so enthralled by its ideas, that they were already with us".

                                             CHEATING TO WIN
The height of this act of democracy was the notorious carousel, when one
group of people was taken from conference to conference. Doesn't that sound
like the falsification of the presidential election [when the same persons
voted many times]? So, people from the Bodelan-Yanukovych team, shared
something with Fatherland, experience, if not money.

Now Kruk is head of the Odessa city party organization. There are people
ready to confirm that he said there would not be free seats in the party
list. A seat in the top five in the city party will cost 300,000 dollars,
seats a bit lower 150,000...[ellipsis as published]

Who needs enemies with good people like these?

For many the new election campaign is about to get under way. And for
some it already has. There are quite a lot of "uncles" from the former
pro-authority parties, who had fairly "warm and full" posts in their
organizations and got so close to the authorities that they cannot even
imagine themselves without them and want to get back in.

To do this, they need to force out those people who confirmed their right to
posts in deed and with severe colds and bronchitis from standing on
Independence Square [during the Orange Revolution]. You find yourself
asking who is behind all this?

                       YAROSLAV FEDORDCHUK TAKES CONTROL
From talking to people in Fatherland from Odessa, Dnipropetrovsk, Lviv and
Kiev, one clearly sees the figure of Yaroslav Fedorchuk - the deputy head of
the party and leader of the party's political council.

Once the first secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine in Dolyna and the
top communist of Ivano-Frankivsk, he left a legacy in the Ivano-Frankivsk
Region of not only being a "great builder", but of suffocating the least
appearance of individual thought, "bourgeoisie nationalism", and "small
entrepreneurship psychology".

Using the situation in which the leaders of the party are busy with serious
work in the government, Fedorchuk has begun to use communist methods in
his personnel policies under the Stalinesque slogans "People decide
everything!". But the people are your own, obedient and manageable. The
disobedient are kicked out, the obedient warmed, "he who is not with us, is
against us" and so on.

[Famous nineteenth century Ukrainian poet] Taras Shevchenko has a verse:
"There are no enemies like good people...[ellipsis as published]" One gets
the impression that a "good person" like Fedorchuk could tear down and bury
Fatherland as it is. Odessa is a good example (but unfortunately, not the
last).

Fatherland deserved and suffered for victory. First of all thanks to the
charisma and character and courage of Yuliya Tymoshenko and thanks to
those people who went, are going and willing to go to the end with her. It
is those very people who are now so easily being kicked out of the party by
the executive secretariat.

Party numbers are constantly growing. But the problem is that you need a lot
of effort to keep ranks from filling with businessmen of dubious reputation,
people tainted by their ties with the criminal world, or those who are
indifferent as to which flag they support or which god they pray to.
Everything possible must be done so that the slogan "Fatherland is not for
sale!" rings true no matter what the first word means [the party or the
country].

                                               SIMILAR CASES
Sad to overflowing...[ellipsis as published] After the victory in the Orange
Revolution and the leader of Fatherland becoming prime minister, interest in
the party has grown manifold. In Kherson, Yuriy Odarchenko, a city council
deputy, businessman and director of a large enterprise, showed great
interest in Fatherland's regional organization.

Before this, Mr Odarchenko had not been invisible in the unseemly activities
of the previous regime. However, the ways by which he came to power in
Kherson are just exactly like the ways Kruk came to power in Odessa like two
drops of water. He also came to Kiev and received a mandate to "rule" in the
Kherson regional party organization.

Arnold Radovets, whom we've mentioned above, came to support Odarchenko,
and under pressure, the current head of the Kherson regional Fatherland
party organization, Mr Hunyako, wrote a letter of resignation.

They immediately held a council meeting at which Odarchenko was accepted
into the party. Mr Bohdaniv was also immediately accepted. Bohdaniv is a
figure more than well known in Kherson. But before he headed the USDPU city
organization. The newly-baked party members Odarchenko and Bohdaniv are
co-opted to the regional bureau and Odarchenko was immediately elected head
of the Kherson regional party organization.

And Bohdaniv, a tried and true United Social Democratic Party of Ukraine
[USDPU] man - now a "Fatherlander", becomes deputy head. After this, the
new functionaries initiate the closure of the council of businessmen in
Fatherland, which had given uncommon help to the Kherson regional party
organization.

This resulted in a mass exodus of people from the party, who in principle
did not agree with such methods of work. Radovets had executed the task of
the political council secretariat perfectly!

                                                HINT OF THE USDPU
So maybe [USDPU leader Viktor] Medvedchuk was right when he said one
could not rule out a bloc between the USDPU and Yuliya Tymoshenko's party
Fatherland. Maybe this plan is already under way? It's just too bad that
rank and file fighters in the party do not know anything about it.

The same situation is seen in Dnipropetrovsk. Hennadiy Hlyadchyshyn, a well
known businessman and owner of the Azhur elite stores, a gaming house and
shareholder in a number of industrial enterprises, became head of the
Dnipropetrovsk regional party organization and his "big friend", Yevhen
Vitiutin, who is the very recent past was an ardent member of the Party of
Regions [led by Viktor Yanukovych], got to head Fatherland in
Dniprodzerzhynsk city. So, everything's fine here, too.

Several months ago, the deputy head of Fatherland, Fedorchuk, brought MP
Anatoliy Seminoha by the hand to be acting head of the Kiev city party
organization. He was a new member accepted the day before by the political
council. Taking his candidacy to the bureau, he was later unanimously
elected to be acting head of the city party organization.

The new city leader, Seminoha began by unilaterally running the city party
organization. Tossing aside the founding documents, in a purely businesslike
manner he brought the city organization onto businesslike rails and proposed
introducing the positions of...[ellipsis as published] city district
organization managers.

Getting rebuffed for introducing positions outside the scope [of party
documents], Seminoha recommended his own people as deputy leaders in
all the city's districts, people who would manage financial (read election)
matters. These people have already been confirmed in some districts.

For example, former policeman Kalko was appointed "deputy-manager" in
the Desna district of the capital. He has a mass of rather deplorable deeds
following him. People began to write masses of letters quitting the party,
not wanting to have anything to do with all of this.

As one city organization activist related in secret, not long ago, Seminoha
stated that anyone who wanted to become a member of the Fatherland party
list in Kiev had to contribute 5,000 [unspecified currency] every month for
"party matters" and tenders for the quota of people worthy to make party
list would be held among the "contributors". How's that for a classic
party-business approach?!

                                               KIEV FOR SALE
And in the words of one informed party member, it became known that there
are strict tariffs, for example, for a deputy seat in a Kiev district
council. Getting a spot in a district council costs 70,000 dollars! We have
not yet been able to learn how much a city council seat costs. Maybe they
haven't figured it out yet. But there is no doubt that party businessman
Seminoha will calculate this position soon.

It looks like the Kiev city organization of Fatherland will soon become an
LLC, JSC or, more believable a the Fatherland Closed Joint-Stock Company.

Not long ago, a group of elderly people were handing out flyers to everyone
passing by protestors in front of the cabinet building. The content of the
flyer boiled down to this: the protestors were agent provocateurs and hired
by oligarchs who did not have anything to do with Fatherland. It said they
were using the money of Kuchma company to compromise the leading
political force and its "unbreakable leader".

In one television show, Yuliya Tymoshenko rejected her fellow party
members, saying "we know our people in Fatherland quite well".

Such statements by the leader stirred up the people who made the decision
to hold a new protest outside the Cabinet of Ministers building, but to
gather 1,000 people from all over Ukraine this time instead of 200. People
still believe that Tymoshenko will draw the right conclusions, hear their
statements and bring order to the leadership of the party.

Perhaps she gets her information on party matters exclusively from
Fedorchuk? That almost sounds like an excuse. One thing is clear - neither
Tymoshenko nor [political party comrade and Security Services of Ukraine
head Oleksandr] Turchynov have time for their party. And one cannot rule out
that she does not have anything against the party turning into a business
club in which the highest places are reserved for those who can pay for
them.

But then what makes this party any different from the USDPU?

Maybe it is advantageous for the prime minister to have a party of
businessmen. Then she can control them better through her influence on their
business opportunities. One also wonders what people who came to Kiev
before the new appointments were offered. What was it that they could not
refuse? Money? Connections in the regions? How moral is this for the party
of the revolutionary prime minister?

What is Tymoshenko goal for her fellow party members? Money, money
and more money?

Most Fatherlanders understand that after the party came into power after
being in the opposition, it was inevitable that its ranks would begin to be
filled with people from the old pro-Kuchma organizations. There is nothing
surprising in this.

But great disapproval and amazement comes from the fact that the new party
members immediately get the highest posts in cities and regions. It appears
that some kind of structure is at work in the top of Fatherland which is
trading seats, party cards and places on election lists.

Is the party in trouble? Money weighs a lot, of course, but it cannot solve
everything. A marred image of the party cannot be corrected by any amount
of capital from new "party bosses". The presidential campaign of Viktor
Yanukovych is the best example of this.

It is clear Tymoshenko has something to think about. There is still time to
fix mistakes.