You're reading: Tymoshenko tenure had some highs, many lows

The week brought an end to more than two years of Ukrainian government, Yulia Tymoshenko style. As prime minister during the past two years and in a nearly nine-month stint after the Orange Revolution in 2005, Tymoshenko made a huge mark on Ukraine’s politics, economy and foreign policy.

She nearly became president, a job that would have given the charismatic populist five solid years on the job as Ukraine’s top political leader. But she lost the Feb. 7 presidential election runoff to Victor Yanukovych by 3.5 percentage points.

“In the end, it was the economic crisis that beat Tymoshenko, not Yanukovych,” said Volodymyr Fesenko, of the Penta Center for Applied Political Studies.

Few expect the energetic 49-year old to disappear from Ukraine’s political arena. She is certain to lead a strong opposition and could very well come back as prime minister someday.

If she does return to power, expect a remake. This chameleon-like politician has transformed herself dramatically.

As prime minister amid chaotic rivalries with opponents and economic challenges, experts said Tymoshenko struggled to achieve many of her promises, but was remembered mostly by her critics for pursuing populist policies.

The 2005 “re-privatization” of Ukraine’s largest steel mill Kryvorizhstal (today ArcelorMittal Kryvy Rih) was by far Tymoshenko’s most “smashing” achievement during her first tenure (January 2005 – September 2005). The televised auction showed the steel mill being sold for $4.8 billion, five times more than what Ukraine’s richest man Rinat Akhmetov and former President Leonid Kuchma’s son-in-law Victor Pinchuk had originally paid for it in a tender widely believed to have been rigged in their favor.

However, she is criticized for scaring out many foreign investors when she announced in 2005 that a list had been compiled by prosecutors of more than 100 enterprises that were slated for possible “re-privatization.” This warning appealed to many voters who wanted social and economic justice after a decade of the nation’s shady privatizations. Such talk spooked foreign investors and creditors, and their concerns carried the day.

Tymoshenko’s second tenure (January 2008 – March 2010) can be divided into the pre- and post-financial crisis periods.

The highlight of the pre-crisis period was a populist program she spearheaded to return savings of account holders from a failed state bank. But much of what she accomplished was eclipsed by the global financial crisis that slammed Ukraine like an economic tsunami, plunging the country into a deep recession.

Still, delivering on her promises to root out corrupt schemes, Tymoshenko removed the murky RosUkrEnergo as the country’s needless gas import intermediary. In reaching a compromise with Russia, which has shut off gas to Ukraine in 2006 and 2009, Tymoshenko agreed to higher, market-priced gas, rather than the subsidies enjoyed previously.

With public finances withering away, a shaky bank sector on the verge of collapse and political enemies determined to sabotage her, Tymoshenko demonstrated decisiveness in helping to keep Ukraine financially afloat. She swiftly secured a $16.4 billion line of credit from the International Monetary Fund. Social instability and massive protests never emerged during the crisis, and some credit her leadership. She made sure Ukraine’s foreign debt obligations were met, including billion-dollar gas payments to Russia.

In the end, the pains of a recession that saw gross domestic product dive by 15 percent in 2009, coupled with relentless sabotage former President Victor Yushchenko and current President Victor Yanukovych, she got voted out.

Still, her strong showing while leading the nation through economic crisis indicates a reservoir of continuing popular support for her. Time will tell what other surprises Tymoshenko has in store for Ukraine.


Kyiv Post staff writer Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected]