You're reading: Kuchma: Yanukovych-Tymoshenko contest a choice between ‘bad and very bad’

Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma didn’t think much of Viktor Yanukovych ahead of the Feb. 7 runoff presidential election, according to a U.S. State Department cable obtained by Russian Reporter through WikiLeaks.

The cable is written by U.S. Ambassador John Tefft and describes his meeting with Kuchma, who called the Feb. 7 contest between Yanukovych and ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko as a choice between “bad and very bad,” according to the document dated Feb. 2. Yanukovych went on to narrowly defeat Tymoshenko.

In the conversation, Kuchma lamented how Ukraine had deteriorated under the rule of his successor, President Viktor Yushchenko (2005-2010), who was frequently at odds with Tymoshenko.

“The country could hardly boast of its achievements,” Kuchma lamented, according to Tefft. “The president and prime minister have been so busy fighting that the government has yet to elaborate a program to deal with the economic crisis The economic situation is catastrophic, and technological progress will be impossible with the country barely able even to service its debts. Ukraine has lost its international position, Kuchma continued. It used to be a leader in the post-Soviet space; now, no one listens to what Ukraine says.”

Kuchma singled out former Verkhovna Rada speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk for praise, citing his “greater vision.” Yatsenyuk finished a distant fourth place in the January first round of the presidential election.

Kuchma also made passing reference to the nation’s entrenched corruption, which many believe he helped orchestrate as president. According to the cable, he reportedly told Tefft: “Ukraine would be better served if Rada [parliament] deputies were elected from single-member districts rather than by party lists. Currently, the parties represented in the Rada compete to see who has the most MPs with a criminal record, he quipped.”

Kuchma said it would be wrong to assume Yanukovych’s would give away too much to Russia, telling Tefft that “the big business interests who back Yanukovych will force him to protect Ukraine’s interests.”

The ex-president, who served from 1994-2005, also reportedly “downplayed the strategic importance of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, saying it could dispatch a ship to scare Georgia, but would be no match for the Turkish fleet,” according to the cable.

The entire document can be read on the Russian Reporter website here.