Yushchenko compares Tymoshenko to a hobo

November12200901:12

Speaking to journalists of Komsomolska Pravda in Ukraine Nov. 11, Pres Yushchenko said Premier Tymoshenko’s campaign ads had cost more than the amount needed to fight the spread of the flue in the country.

Regarding the money needed to fight the flue, Yushchenko said the money spent [by Tymoshenko] on her 200,000-strong rally in Kyiv and ads “which can be seen on every lamppost and every tree in the forest” cost more than all the money needed to deal with the epidemic, Ukrayinska Pravda quotes him as saying.

“We are speaking about the open society and honest power… Where did the premier get millions to spend on her ads? She owns no private apartment, not a piece of land or a car. [She’s] a bomzh!” Yushchenko exclaimed angrily. [the acronym “bomzh” is a humiliating name and stands for a person without any fixed address – Transl.]

“How can one be a bomzh in Ukraine at the age of 50? It’s the matter of one’s integrity. Do not, please, take my words as an attack on Yulia Tymoshenko. But if at the age of 50 the premier has no property at all, what kind of an advice she could offer to the nation about how to build our future?” the incumbent questioned. [As a presidential candidate, Tymoshenko handed in her financial declaration showing her income in 2008 to consist merely of her pay – Transl.]

Yushchenko then advised Yulia Tymoshenko “to first build her own future.”