Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has recently become confused in his "testimony" regarding the level of living standards in the country, the leader of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party (USDP), BYT-Batkivschyna faction deputy Natalia Korolevska, has said.
"The head of government has recently started to become confused in his ‘testimony’: on New Year’s Eve, he talked about a significant improvement in the lives of Ukrainian citizens, and now he has expressed a new version – there is no improvement," Korolevska wrote on her Facebook page, the party’s press office reported on Wednesday.
She said that the actions of the current government could not be predicted even in the next two or three days, not to mention the medium-and long-term prospects.
"Nobody will probably be surprised if the price of Russian gas at $416 is declared a personal victory by Premier Azarov," Korolevska said.
She said she was confident that the government, through its unpredictable actions, would not only fail to fulfill its promises to improve the living standards of Ukrainian citizens, but also further worsen the social and economic situation in the country.
"’Thanks’ to the recent ruling by the Constitutional Court, the Cabinet of Ministers has the right to determine the amount of social payments. We all know that in 2012, because of this decision, social assistance and benefits to Chornobyl cleanup workers and Afghan war veterans will not be raised. In general, millions of Ukrainians today have to survive with the minimum wage of UAH 1,073 and the minimum pension of UAH 822," Korolevska said.
On December 27, 2011, Azarov said that there was objective evidence of an increase in the public’s purchasing power in 2011. On January 3, 2012, he said that it was impossible to speak about a significant improvement in the lives of Ukrainian citizens, because "the government had to tackle extremely deep economic crisis."
