You're reading: Yanukovych dodges details on Russia deal

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych did not hide his joy when he boasted “definitely lucrative” deals that he reached with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but failed to explain the details. He confirmed a freeze in relations with the European Union in favor of a tilt back towards Moscow. He called the EuroMaidan demonstrations against him a “low blow.”

These were some of the highlights of Yanukovych’s Dec. 19 interview with several journalists, broadcast live on TV.

The interview came as anti-government, pro-European protests entered their fifth week. One of their top demands is resignation of the president and his government, but none of the assembled journalists asked the president about whether he would be willing to step down early. Nor did they ask him about endemic corruption allegedly linked to him.

The presidential press service chose representatives of 1+1, ICTV, First National, Inter, Ukraina and Channel 5 television stations as well as print journalists representing mostly pro-government Fakty, Segodnya and Komsomolskaya Pravda newspapers.

In Moscow on Dec. 17, Yanukovych signed numerous deals with Putin, including one that secures an indefinite one-third price discount on Russian natural gas imports and a $15 billion loan for the economically ailing Ukraine.

But, while Yanukovych insisted that he did not offer in return to join Putin’s pet project – a Eurasian customs union – the president refused to say what he promised the Russian leader as compensation. “This loan was definitely very lucrative because Russia didn’t make any conditions for us,” Yanukovych said. “Certainly such kinds of decisions are not taken without political will.”

He reaffirmed that a landmark political and trade deal with the EU is on hold indefinitely.

“Speaking about free trade deal, it will take some time… Directly speaking we haven’t found answers yet how to minimize the negative effects,” he said, reminding the journalists of his unmet request for a multibillion-dollar assistance package from the EU.  The EU, however, indicated on Dec. 18 that Ukraine could have received $26 billion in financial aid and loans from the bloc of 28 nations.

Yanukovych said that he was seeking observer status for Ukraine in the Putin-led Eurasian Union, the successor of the customs union, that is shaping up as a regrouping of former Soviet republics such as Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.

He used the example of rail traffic to underscore the historical and tightly integrated nature of the economies of the former Soviet Union.

“There are the issues in which we cannot separate… We cannot refuse from the wide rail track that exists in the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries. Can we change it into the European rail? No. In the nearest future, I don’t know 100-200-300 years, it’s impossible to do,” he said.

When Yanukovych was speaking to the journalists in a big, pompous hall in the Presidential Administration, thousands of people remained at Kyiv’s main Independence Square, as they have for almost a month already, demanding that he integrate more closely with the EU instead of Russia.

Yanukovych said that the political crisis hasn’t been resolved yet and accused the opposition of inflating the significance and size of the protests. “The attempt to seize power by bypassing the Constitution is not for the first time in the country,” he said in an obvious reference to the 2004 Orange Revolution which he believes robbed him of the presidency that year. Instead, the Ukrainian Supreme Court ruled that the election was marred by fraud and ordered a revote that year won by Viktor Yushchenko, Yanukovych’s predecessor.

Yanukovych said he met with head of the National Security and Defense Council Andriy Klyuyev, accused by the opposition of being the person behind bloody breakup of the EuroMaidan rally on Nov. 30, an incident that outraged and sparked more protests. “He told me how it all happened,” Yanukovych said, adding that Klyuyev’s intent was “to stabilize the situation.”

The nation’s prosecution general is investigating four top officials suspended from their jobs, including deputy secretary of the national security council Vladimir Sivkovych,  head of the Kyiv city administration Oleksandr Popov, Kyiv police chief Valery Koryak and his deputy, Petro Fedchuk, for abuse of authority involving the police raid that injured dozens. Prosecutors say they have concluded that Klyuyev had nothing to do with the event.

A number of Western officials, including U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, visited the pro-European rally over the last month to express support and warn Yanukovych against more violence.

Yanukovych slammed these efforts. “We never come to the countries where the internal conflicts take place, to Maidans, we do not set up the tents, we do not argue against the authorities,” he said angrily.

Yanukovych also claimed that opposition leaders challenging his authority should have the patience to wait for 2015, when the next scheduled presidential elections take place.

Vitali Klitschko, world heavyweight boxing champion and leader of UDAR party, whose current rating is the highest among opposition politicians and equal to the Yanukovych’s, on Dec. 17 challenged the president to step in the ring with him for a personal duel.

But Yanukovych, when asked about his re-election plans, was in good spirits. “If my rating is, figuratively speaking, low and I have no prospects, I will not be disturbing the country’s development and move forward,” he said, smiling.

Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko can be reached at [email protected]