On Thursday Prime Minister Victor Yanukovych said that he would not accept a victory by his opponent in the December 26 rerun of Ukraine’s contested presidential race and that his supporters were likely to take to the streets en masse to block such an outcome, The Washington Post reported last Friday.
Yanukovych warned in an interview that he might be unable to control supporters, who are already mobilizing to launch a campaign of street demonstrations in the capital to protest a win by the opposition candidate, Victor Yushchenko.
“Even if Mr. Yushchenko wins, he will never be president of Ukraine,” Yanukovych said in a 45-minute interview at his campaign headquarters in Kyiv. “The people who voted for me will never recognize him. They are already talking about it now.” His comments suggest that his supporters intend to plunge Ukraine into a new political crisis by adopting some of the tactics employed during the ‘Orange Revolution.’
“Freedom of speech in Ukraine has been largely diminished,” Mr. Yanukovych also said. “I’m not always shown. My quotes, my interviews are just cut. Small pieces of my speeches are taken out and shown and the entire sense of what I was trying to say is lost. This has been happening ever since the organizers of the ‘Orange Revolution’ united with the authorities against me.” Asked why Mr. Yushchenko had been kept off state-run television channels earlier, he said, “You know, it was neither team nor I that was doing this.”
Just like in his Thursday interview with New Channel, Mr.Yanukovych in fact admitted that the Kremlin’s support was ineffective. “Mr. Putin did not come to visit me personally; it was not a strategy of my electoral campaign,” he said, denying allegations that he had benefited from Russian financial support and the work of Russian political consultants. From a political point of view, it didn’t raise me up. Rather, it worked against me,” writes The Washington Post.
In the same New Channel interview, Mr. Yanukovych also revealed that President Kuchma had suggested that he resign as head of the government. “The president suggested that I hand in my resignation. I didn’t because the Verkhovna Rada passed the vote [of no-confidence in the cabinet] in contravention of the Constitution.” The premier added that he was now in opposition to President Kuchma. “This is a matter of principle. I am sure that the struggle against me was launched both by my opponents and the current president,” Mr. Yanukovych said. Asked who he is in opposition to now, Mr. Yanukovych said, “I am in opposition to the current president as well as to the leaders and organizers of the ‘Orange Revolution’ with Viktor Yushchenko at the head.” He added that the organizers of the “Orange Revolution” “have joined forces with the president of Ukraine,” Interfax-Ukraine reports, citing the interview.
