President Leonid Kuchma told a meeting of regional officials and business people in Kharkiv oblast that fresh blood had to be injected, introducing the new head of the oblast state administration, 42-year- old Yevhen Kushnariov. The former governor, Oleh Diomin, also of the People’s Democratic Party (NDP), was dismissed due to what was formally described as transfer to another post. The new appointment, traditionally coinciding with a weekend, took few if any by surprise. Diomin’s ouster had been on the grapevine for at least a year. However, a host of questions remained open, especially whether such a change was really necessary in Kharkiv oblast, one of Ukraine’s major administrative and industrial regions. There were plenty of rumors, including media reports. Some claimed it was part of the early election campaign and that there were “inner tensions at the top of NDP” where Mr. Kushnariov had held a post until his removal; others mentioned various undercurrents and intrigue allegedly implicating Speaker Ivan Pliushch, also an NDP member. What is actually behind the cadre reshuffle in Kharkiv remains unclear even to battle-hardened analysts with their reliable sources rubbing elbows with those in and around high offices. All agree, however, that Mr. Kushnariov’s appointment means he is back in big-time political circulation after being Head of the Presidential Administration, that Mr. Diomin is once again being offered an ambassadorship, which he previously rejected, and that the post of Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration is a springboard, although his appointment as First Deputy Head could be considered a demotion. At any rate, Oleh Diomin will from now on be far less independent in his decision making. Rumor also has it that there could be a need to secure an “administrative resource” in Kharkiv oblast. But the very next question would be why. What for? Incidentally, the Chairman of Verkhovna Rada has offered no comment thus far.
Considering the situation, there is one aspect that seems overlooked by all parties concerned: from now on Mr. Diomin will be in charge of the administrative reform. Also, no one can thus far recall a single really sharp confrontation between Mr. Diomin and Ukraine’s top political leadership. Thus contemplating his early removal would be premature.
Some experts believe that an attempt is being made to restore NDP’s former leading role as a counterweight to the other political parties vying to nestle close to the powers that be. They could have a point.
In the late 1980s, Yevhen Kushnariov, originally an obscure Kharkiv City Party Committee functionary, made his name after viciously attacking the Soviet Communist Party’s guidelines, stressing that Soviet society had to be restructured (i.e., perestroika). His very progressive views were carried by the central and republic print media; his dissenting speeches were disseminated using the old samizdat techniques. Yevhen Kushnariov was among the organizers of a free- thinking party club and during the first democratic elections to the city council he won and became its Chairman. During the abortive coup in August 1991, he resolutely denounced the putsch organizers.
Mr. Kushnariov is known as an outspoken exponent of market reforms and local self-government; he is markedly opposed to politicizing the economy; he is among the organizers of political associations, such as New Ukraine and the NDP (and still among its leaders). As Head of the Presidential Administration, he was praised by President Leonid Kuchma who, during his appointment ceremony, declared that he highly valued Kushnariov not as a politician but as an administrator.
However, people living in Kharkiv and nearby know something else about him. Once, visiting his native city, after Kyiv’s asphalt streets and highways, he let it slip that Kharkiv was provincial. Residents of Ukraine’s first Communist capital long remembered this remark and bore a grudge. Now the newly appointed governor will have to (a) retract this statement and (b) work hard to raise the oblast to the capital’s level.
His predecessor, Oleh Diomin, was respected by Kharkiv residents because he directed the local state administration to stimulate local heavy industry which was then in decline. Perhaps it was his principled stand at the time, which in a way caused the fiasco of what became known as the much-advertised US government’s Kharkiv Initiative. According to Dr. Edward Simpson, his former US consultant, the American side envisioned Kharkiv as a large venue of small business and the governor could not imagine the city as a megalopolis made up of so many small shops. The Malyshev Works, Kharkiv Tractor Plant, Aircraft Plant, and others exist and have to survive.
Yevhen Kushnariov is known to have prophesied market relationships, without belittling the role of small business (malicious tongues have it that Mr. Kushnariov has a personal interest in the business sector). He could be in a position to harmonize the now nearly extinct Kharkiv Initiative today, the more so that ex-Governor Oleh Diomin’s recent trip to the United States only produced more cracks in the bridges.
In fact, the new governor has received a large legacy in terms of fresh pressing problems. The energy bridge project, meaning a linkage of the Russian and Ukrainian power grids (precisely those in three Ukrainian oblasts), is stuck halfway, although its accomplishment would allow Ukraine not only reliable electricity supplies, but also guaranteed sales for the electrical machinery and instrument making enterprises in Kharkiv, Sumy, and Poltava. Changes are eagerly awaited at the regional larger enterprises, especially those catering to the agrarian sector, considering that the latter is not thoroughly reformed. For the past couple of years, Kharkiv oblast has registered a conspicuous decline in the quality of life, but its residents are no worse off than those in neighboring administrative regions. However, Kharkiv natives are used to being ahead of everyone else; here people are accustomed to a higher living standard, and it is an adage that the quality of those in high office is determined by prices on the market.
