Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma made a number of important statements during the September 19 seminar for regional mass media in Kyiv. First of all, Kuchma considers it impossible for the Russian scenario of presidential transfer of power to be repeated in Ukraine, Interfax-Ukraine reports. Answering the question about his successor, he said, “Don’t confuse Russia with Ukraine and don’t confuse Boris Yeltsin with Leonid Kuchma... In Ukraine, like in any other democratic country there is no succession to the throne,” and no norms for its transfer. According to the head of the state, the subject of successor to the presidency is premature, for it is not even a year since the elections. Mr. Kuchma added that he has “not heard any statements from potential candidates concerning their desire to run for President.” According to the Chief Executive, this is in the main the “wish of the press.”
The President said at the seminar that he had asked Premier Yushchenko for Yuliya Tymoshenko not to go to Turkmenistan, and after she had gone there all the same, was against signing any documents. According to Kuchma, in a situation “when Russia is forced to buy [natural] gas in Turkmenistan,” lacking enough volume to satisfy its own needs, it is impermissible to make statements concerning the price for the gas which will be supplied to Ukraine or the volume of such gas deliveries.
The President also noted that in conjunction with “the dramatic aging of capital assets, environmental cataclysms in Ukraine could become more common, and reminded the audience that the Ukrainian government had invited experts from the US, Israel, and France to ascertain the cause of the accident in Mykolayiv oblast. Vice Premier Mykola Zhulynsky said at the same seminar that for the moment the government could not speak about the main cause of the environmental disaster in Mykolayiv oblast.
Perhaps it will be easier for foreign experts than for Ukrainian ones to find out the true causes.
