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Ukrainian Budget Vetoed
Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich reached a new level of volume in his criticism of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko at a meeting of the government yesterday in response to the latter's veto of the Ukrainian federal budget at the beginning of the week. The prime minister was clearly out of sorts throughout the cabinet meeting and did not smile, even when congratulating new Interior Minister Vasily Tsushko and Emergencies Minister Nestor Shufrin on their recent appointments.
Yanukovich instructed the ministers to develop a common position together and with the budget committee and make a decision. He instructed the working group on the budget to prepare a statement “so that the whole country understands what we are on the brink of.” That statement was handed out to the press before the cabinet meeting was over. There was no mention of the possibility of compromise in the ten-paragraph text devoted to criticism of the president and advocacy of the ruling coalition's position. At the end of the meeting, Yanukovich instructed Deputy Prime Minister Nikolay Azarov to continue working on the budget and to look for possible compromises. “I want to say openly that I practically don't see any,” he added.
Representatives of the president thought otherwise. They consider Yushchenko's demand of 10 billion more hryvnia ($1.98 billion) to raise the subsistence level of those who are not able-bodied was practical. Deputy chief of the presidential secretariat Arseny Yatsenyuk commented “Ten isn't needed there, it all depends on how it is counted. We have 26 billion in investment programs. Let's reconsider them. I'm sure we can think of something!”
Vadim Karasaev, director of the Institute of Global Strategies in Kiev commented for Kommersant that “of course the president is concerned that there is an incorrect indicators in the budget. But it is much more important for Yushchenko to show that that he does not intend to give in continually and to set a line on what Yanukovich may bargain over. The president understands that his veto won't be overturned. Yanukovich will simply not find the 300 votes necessary for it in the Rada… The president will win this quarrel in any case. If Yanukovich reconsiders the budget, that will mean that he caved in. If not, all responsibility for the resulting chaos and economic destabilization will be on the government. And Yushchenko remains in the role of defender of the dispossessed.”
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 14, 2006
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