Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

With a population of 46 million, Ukraine has enough talented politicians with national interests at heart to make a two-term presidency unjustified.

dency unjustified.

Moreover, looking back at the history of Ukraine’s paralyzing politics, it becomes clear that the nation’s presidents, even those that showed glimmers of acting in the national interest, fell victim to paranoia and destructive rivalries with up-and-coming prime ministers plotting to take their spots.

First there was the standoff between Ukraine’s first president, Leonid Kravchuk, and his prime minister, Leonid Kuchma. Then, after Kuchma grabbed the presidency from Kravchuk in the 1994 election, he spent much of his time containing rivals, rather than developing the nation.

Kuchma clashed with his prime ministers, including Pavlo Lazarenko and Viktor Yushchenko. And after the Orange Revolution finally rid Ukraine of Kuchma and his cronies, the new team succumbed to the same president-premier spats as their predecessors.

Rather than capitalizing on massive post-revolution support to push through much-needed changes, Yushchenko seems far too concerned with getting re-elected as president than getting something done. His presidency descended into a series of standoffs with premiers viewed as challengers -- first Yulia Tymoshenko, then Viktor Yanukovych and now Tymoshenko again.

As a Kyiv Post article this week points out, Yushchenko’s chief of staff, Viktor Baloha, is blamed for fueling the rivalries to stage his own power grab. True or not, the Baloha case is one more example of how personal ambitions trump national interests.

A cultural transformation may be needed to give birth to a new, more responsible Ukrainian elite. But in the short term, there is a viable solution to removing much longstanding friction between presidents and prime ministers.

Ironically, the idea of limiting Ukraine’s presidency to a single term was recently floated by Viktor Pinchuk, made a billionaire during the cronyism presidency of father-in-law Kuchma. Nevertheless, Pinchuk’s idea is a good one.

Had any of Ukraine’s three presidents known they were only in for one term, they would hopefully have focused attention on improving this nation’s prosperity and democracy, rather than elections and eliminating rivals. Ukraine’s influential businessmen have exploited these rivalries for their own selfish ends.

One way to end this vicious cycle may be to constitutionally limit a presidency to a single term of no more than six years. Maybe then the next president will be less fixated on destructive rivalries and more on helping this nation reach its potential.