Tymoshenko visits Lviv, talks to media and officials

June25200920:58

“Even if I support him now he has no chance whatever to win the election,” she noted. That is why, she explained, she will run for president herself. Her main goal as president will be to realize the ideals of the Orange revolution.

Speaking about the forthcoming presidential election, Tymoshenko admitted there will be a true war. She said she is wary of efforts by unscrupulous politicians to drive a wedge between Eastern and Western Ukraine. She also said she fears an avalanche of court trials after the election contesting its results.

“The next presidential campaign will be hard and crucial. I do not rule out that a new team espousing different values might come to power, the premier added.

Commenting on the pressure by the Regions to sack Education Minister Vakarchuk [former rector of Lviv Franko University], Yulia Tymoshenko said she is strongly against his dismissal as the cabinet is quite pleased with his professional track record.

Speaking about the proposed constitutional reform, Tymoshenko said for her there is no difference where to work, in a parliamentary or presidential republic. Of absolute importance, she stressed, is to overcome the chaos in the government by imposing clear-cut checks and balances the lack of which poses a direct threat to national security, Tymoshenko said, addressing Lviv administration officials.

What is going on in politics ruins the country’s economy, the premier said, with every statement about the forthcoming Naftohaz bankruptcy or failure to meet Euro-2012 obligations [a dig at Yushchenko’s numerous similar declarations] lowering the rating of Ukraine in the world. There is only one enemy Ukraine has at the moment, the recession. “We must unite to deal with the crisis, retaining our strategic goals – European aspirations, national identity, culture and history,” Tymoshenko said.

The premier commented on the cabinet’s natural gas supplies policy, saying after her talks with Putin in January Russia won’t be able to dictate its gas prices and engage in arms twisting.

She admitted that gas prices will rise in 2010, but it is the price we have to pay for our freedom. Another cabinet’s priority is energy-saving programs, with electricity gradually taking the place of gas in the economy and households.

• 21:3225.06.09 elmer
• • Yushchenko has certainly failed to implement what he promised in the Orange Revolution. His support of Firtash, for example, is absolutely astonishingly bewildering - except when one takes into account how much money Petro Yushchenko got from Firtash through RosUkrEnergo.
    Akhmetov and the Vanco Prykerchenska fiasco is another example.
    Similarly, if Tymoshenko now wants to live up to the promises of the Orange Revolution, then why did she engage in secret talks with the Party of Regions about changing the constitution to eliminate presidential elections, to squelch the press, and to postpone parliamentary elections?
    And why is a savage thug killer like Lozynsky, formerly in the Party of Regions, now in BYuT?
    And in order to deal with the crisis - why was it "necessary" to amend the Constitution?
    She should simply propose an anti-crisis plan, put it out in public, and then see how many rats want to torpedo it - in public.