President Viktor Yanukovych blasted Economy Minister Petro Poroshenko with thuggish threats ahead of the Oct. 28 parliamentary election, in which the minister is running independently of the pro-presidential Party of Regions.
At a public
meeting in Dnipropetrovsk on Sept. 11, Poroshenko, a multimillionaire oligarch who backed the
2004 Orange Revolution, complained to Yanukovych that “due to some pressure,” a
cabinet resolution introducing a new tax on car imports — sought to protect
domestic car producers from external competitors — has still not been made
public.
Poroshenko,
who owns a car assembly plant in Ukraine, went on and asked the president to
intervene and help out with the matter, which would impose a new utilization fee to counter new import duties recently imposed by Russia against Ukrainian cars. Poroshenko’s remarks apparently infuriated
Yanukovych who responded aggressively.
“A bad dancer always finds excuses. What are you talking
about and who are you talking to? I’ll rip off your heads very soon – right
after the elections – if you just talk and do not deliver,” Interfax-Ukraine
news agency quoted Yanukovych as saying.
Apparently
under pressure ahead of the upcoming election, where the president’s party risks
losing control over parliament, Yanukovych added: “I said this to the prime
minister and now I am telling it to you, (to) everyone who is sitting here in
the front row. One and a half months left (until the elections). If you want to
mess with politics, you will mess with politics.”
Video by Dnipropetrovsk-based 27 Channel
“Well,
thank you. We’ll operate without your help,” Poroshenko said later during the
same meeting, according to his press secretary’s response to a Kyiv Post query.
Yanukovych’s press service in a written response to the Kyiv Post said that during the meeting he “made clear to
the members of the
Cabinet that their participation
in the parliamentary campaign should be separated from their
professional responsibilities that require their focus on effective
implementation of the tasks facing the government
today.”
Yanukovych, who was twice imprisoned as a young adult, has been known to use salty and aggressive street language in the past.
On Nov. 11, 2010, referring to a group of mayors in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast city of Kalush, Yanukovych said: “I will pull off their heads if they don’t deal with the sewage system, water and gas supplies.”
Yanukovych also has reason to dislike Poroshenko.
Doing the
Orange Revolution that stripped Yanukovych of his first shot at president, Poroshenko, one of Ukraine’s top confectionery and
automotive tycoons, supported Viktor Yushchenko’s ultimately vicitorious candidacy. He also worked as
a foreign minister in the government of imprisoned ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Yanukovych’s top rival.
Following
months of persuasion by Yanukovych, Poroshenko agreed – some insiders say
unenthusiastically – to join the government this March. Currently, he
and his father are running for parliament as independent candidates in single-mandate constituencies, which experts say angered Yanukovych.
Political
analyst Oleksandr Paliy said Poroshenko was reprimanded not because of his
alleged failure to deliver as an economy minister but because of his political
ambitions.
“Poroshenko
is running for parliament and that is what Yanukovych is not happy about,” he
said.
Taras
Chornovil, a lawmaker who formerly served as an adviser to Yanukovych, shares
this view. He added that Yanukovych is afraid Poroshenko’s parliamentary
ambitions could potentially challenge the pro-presidential majority, comprising
the Party of Regions and the Communist Party.
“Initially
the plan was to force Poroshenko to join the government, to discredit him
(ahead of the elections),” said Chornovil. “It was done to prevent Poroshenko
from setting up some kind of centrist faction in the parliament that would take
over independent lawmakers who could otherwise potentially join the Party of
Regions.” He says that “such tough words from the president ahead of the
elections is, [ironically,] the best present for Poroshenko,” who does not want
to be seen as being pro-presidential.
Chornovil
said Poroshenko is clearly not coming back to the government after the fall election
and his days in the government are numbered. Poroshenko himself alluded to this
later on Sept. 11 during a meeting with the local business community.
During the same Dnipropetrovsk meeting Yanukovych also embarrassed First Deputy Prime Minister Valeriy Khoroshkovsky by making him stand up and respond to exam-like quiz questions of the size of the minimum pension and minimum subsistence wage. Surprisingly, he failed to give the correct answers.
Kyiv
Post staff writer Yuriy Onyshkiv can be reached at [email protected].
