Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

Taras Kuzio wants presidential candidate Victor Yanukovych to answer 10 questions. Taras Kuzio of the University of Toronto has 10 questions for presidential candidate Victor Yanukovych:

1. Individuals with criminal backgrounds cannot become military and police officers. Why then should commander-in-chiefs be permitted to become presidents?

2. You supported Russian as a state language in 2004. 2. Why do you still support this unpopular and divisive policy?

3. The Party of Regions is financed by the richest man in Eurasia and Europe, oligarch Renat Ahkmetov. Why and how did Akhmetov accumulate his corrupt wealth?

4. The Mizhirya Residence belonged to the Ukrainian people and state. How can Ukrainian voters believe you when you say you will fight corruption? President

5. Leonid Kuchma marginalized Russian nationalist-separatists in the Crimea. Why did the For Yanukovych! bloc in the Crimea parliament include such extremist groups?

6. Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko did not recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Why did your party support this policy in the Ukrainian and Crimean parliaments and will you recognize them if you are elected?

7. The Party of Regions has a cooperation agreement with Yedyna Rossiya but not with the European Parliament. Why is your party not interested in European integration?

8. Ukraine has not received the last tranche of the International Monetary Fund standby agreement because of your support for social-populist election policies.
Why does your party want to bankrupt Ukraine?

9. President Leonid Kuchma and Prime Minister Victor Yanukovych supported a NATO membership action plan for Ukraine in 2002 and 2004. Why haven’t you done so since 2005?

10. President Leonid Kuchma supported joint military exercises with NATO under the Partnership for Peace from 1994-2004. Why have your political forces disrupted these exercises since 2005?