The November 14 press conference of the Reforms and Order Party (PRP) under the motto of “Oligarchs versus the government, nine months of antagonism in the fight for reforms” was fated to intrigue the press. Such a definition of the Cabinet of Ministers’ work objectives has not been formulated by the Prime Minister himself. Viktor Yushchenko is well familiar with his duties, which have nothing in common with opposition to oligarchs. Before attending the press conference, the author questioned Oleksandr KARPOV, People’s Deputies majority coordinator, about his opinion of such an evaluation of the government’s nine months of work. His response was brief: one can comment on a specific statement, or a document signed by specific persons, parties, or factions. A serious politician will not comment on a press conference title meant to woo journalists.
It turned out that Mr. Karpov was right. Deputies Pynzenyk, Teriokhin, and Soboliev, representing Reforms and Order at the press conference, did not engage in any spokesperson’s intrigue, who, while introducing parliament members, noted that journalists from “biased publications” refused to interview deputies. The information, provided by the Reforms leader on the conclusions of the government’s nine months of work, was a tautology of the well-known figures and facts, according to which, in the government’s opinion, the country is experiencing economic growth. The report on the Yushchenko team’s accomplishments was accompanied by an adequate quantity of indices in various dimensions. Mr. Pynzenyk looked as confident and competent as he did in the early nineties, when skyrocketing hyperinflation was accompanied by his almost daily television coverage of market reforms, and people frequented the currency exchanges more often than their places of work.
Pynzenyk wanted to believe then, and so he does now. And although the miserable back wages and pensions paid this year in fact brought only moral satisfaction and the industrial growth was mainly registered by the Cabinet of Ministers’ statisticians, there is still the will to believe that is only the beginning of economic reforms Pynzenyk promised seven or eight years ago. Something else is disturbing: the persistent search for “enemies of reforms,” who are simply deprived of the right to exist. Who, if not them, can be blamed for all the failures if need be?
Unfortunately, when they finally touched upon the announced antagonism with oligarchs, facts and figures instantly vanished from our honorable deputies’ report. And all efforts to find out the names of the people taking advantage of the “shadow schemes existing in the energy sector and internal budget relationships” (Viktor Pynzenyk) proved futile. Alongside multibillion sums, which, according to Deputy Teriokhin, have been withdrawn from shadow circulation, no names of actual persons, economic, or political structures were disclosed. And the definition of “non-leftist forces in Parliament” encompasses far too many “potential oligarchs”. Mr. Pynzenyk’s suspicion falls upon the whole majority plus a group of deputies outside any factions.
Strangely enough, the recent statement by Vice Speaker Medvedchuk about the improbability of government resignation did not tally with the publication in a Russian newspaper about its probability. The two events have been called synchronized. Thus, resignation is undesirable in Ukraine, while a Russian newspaper claims the opposite. After vain searches for a relationship between the two events one was left only to guess that the PRP press conference announcement referred to Russian oligarchs. And that should have been mentioned first.
