Ten questions for President Victor Yushchenko
Dec 31, 2009 at 13:50 | Taras Kuzio- On the Maidan [Nezhalezhnosti (Independence Square) during the 2004 Orange Revolution], you repeatedly proclaimed your policy of “sending bandits to prison!” Mr. President, why aren’t they in prison?
- You gave state medals to [former Central Election Commission head Serhiy] Kivalov, [ex-Prosecutor General Mykhailo] Potebenko, [former Victor Yanukovych aide Borys] Kolesnikov, [billionaire Rinat] Akhmetov and many others whom you called “bandits” on the Maidan. After being elected president, why did you go on to betray the Maidan and its heroes?
- In one of your 14 draft decrees in 2004, you promised to return lost bank savings to Ukrainian citizens. Why did you then condemn in 2008 the Tymoshenko government as “populist” for implementing your own election program?
- In February 2005, you gave your word, as a matter of honor to the Council of Europe, that there would be a full investigation of the [Sept. 16, 2000] murder of [journalist] Georgiy Gongadze. Why have you thennever sought to find the organizers of the murder? Do you not think it is dishonorable to deliberately time the arrest of [former Interior Ministry general Oleksiy] Pukach to coincide with the presidential elections?
- You criticize Yulia Tymoshenko a lot but not Victor Yanukovych. Is it true that you have an agreement with Yanukovych that, in case he wins the election, you will get the post of prime minister?
- Your election campaign claims that you brought democracy to Ukraine. Why then do Ukrainian and Western surveys show that democracy is under threat from years of political instability, which has led to Ukrainians associating democracy with “chaos”?
- On the Maidan you promised to battle corruption. Why after five years in office does Transparency International show that corruption is worse today in Ukraine than under [ex-president Leonid] Kuchma? Why did you never follow the example of your close colleague Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who had the political will to battle corruption?
- In a Western democracy, a president with less than 20 percent is considered a “lame duck president” and the political system would be in crisis. What kind of president would you classify yourself, with less than five percent support? Do you believe you have a moral right to stand for a second term if Ukrainians have deserted you?
- Your Our Ukraine-[Yuriy] Yekhanurov government working under your authorization brought the corrupt RosUkrEnergo in as intermediary into Ukraine in the January 2006 gas contract. What would you say to Western experts who write that the energy corruption that resulted from RosUkrEnergo destroyed the Orange Revolution because it corrupted parliament and the presidency? Why did you not congratulate Tymoshenko for removing RosUkrEnergo from Ukraine this year but instead seek to replace her gas contract?
- Ukraine had a unique chance in 2006 of being invited to join a NATO membership action plan. After the 2006 elections, why did you believe that Ukraine’s national security was less important than preventing Tymoshenko from becoming prime minister? Are you proud that as a consequence of your unpatriotic actions then, that you prevented Ukraine from not only joining a membership action plan at the NATO summit in Riga in November 2006 but also then of Ukraine going on to join NATO in 2010? Was this a patriotic act on your part?