You're reading: Kravchuk: Russian leadership has not liked any Ukrainian president

First Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk (1991-1994) has said he believes that Ukraine will never have any presidents who are supported by the Russian leadership.

“There will be no president in Ukraine who will be supported by
Russia, the Russian elite, even at the level of the Russian
authorities,” he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Friday.

He said Ukraine had already had four presidents. However, he said he
could not give a single example if the Russian side “liking any of the
four presidents.”

Kravchuk said the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, had been much more democratic than the current Russian leaders.

“Now, when I listen to the Russian leaders, when they evaluate the
activity of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, or during the talks
in Moscow with [Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola] Azarov, there is more
pressure than in the Soviet Union from Mikhail Gorbachev,” he said.

He said that Gorbachev had not exerted any pressure before the
holding on December 1, 1991 of a nationwide referendum during which
Ukrainians were asked to say whether they support the declaration of
Ukraine’s independence.

Kravchuk said that the holding of the referendum had “saved the
independence of Ukraine” and “saved Ukraine from possible different
insinuations.”

“I was and still am convinced that it [the referendum in 1991] was a real festival of democracy,” he said.