Ukraine Government Dismissed

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Crickey, this is news:

“Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said on Thursday he was sacking the government of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.”

That didn’t last long, did it? The background is clearly this.

Yesterday EU Observer was reporting MEPs as saying that the Orange Revolution needed a ‘shot in the arm‘, it looks like what it may have received was something nearer to a lethal dose.

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About Edward Hugh

Edward 'the bonobo is a Catalan economist of British extraction. After being born, brought-up and educated in the United Kingdom, Edward subsequently settled in Barcelona where he has now lived for over 15 years. As a consequence Edward considers himself to be "Catalan by adoption". He has also to some extent been "adopted by Catalonia", since throughout the current economic crisis he has been a constant voice on TV, radio and in the press arguing in favor of the need for some kind of internal devaluation if Spain wants to stay inside the Euro. By inclination he is a macro economist, but his obsession with trying to understand the economic impact of demographic changes has often taken him far from home, off and away from the more tranquil and placid pastures of the dismal science, into the bracken and thicket of demography, anthropology, biology, sociology and systems theory. All of which has lead him to ask himself whether Thomas Wolfe was not in fact right when he asserted that the fact of the matter is "you can never go home again".

5 thoughts on “Ukraine Government Dismissed”

  1. Hmmm… will be interesting to see what stand Tymoshenko takes, to say the least.

    She is giving a live TV interview tonight.
    Doubtlessly her incomparable and vaguely demagogic website (which used to have a poll on it, “Which position is Yu. T. most suited for: (a) President, (b) Prime Minister, (c) Head of Parliament, (d) Other”) will have the text, probably, eventually in English as well as Ukrainian.

    Bit of a mess, really, but not that surprising, and needs to be seen in the light of the forthcoming constitutional changes which strip the Pres of most of his powers…. think “Our Yuliya”, as they say, may be angling for the head of Parliament position after the elections in the spring.

    But damn damn damn. Not sure what to make of Yushchenko’s nominee for new PM, either. Am prejudiced in that he oversaw/managed privatization under Kuchma and Pavlo Lazarenko, the crooked PM of Ukraine to end all crooked PMs of Ukraine, in the mid 90s.

    Shot in the arm was needed for sure. Hopefully the Pres will show further decisiveness in the future too, before he loses his powers to someone with less scruples.

  2. Lots of people I talk with seem to believe this was not only a necessary move, but a good one. The administration was floundering. You could feel the frustration growing over the lack of legislative progress on business and social issues.

    I’m willing to bet that Tymoshenko will now angle for a strong position in the elections and then be PM in the spring again. Yushchenko also could not have cherry-picked but had to fire the whole bunch. I don’t think he will want to keep her out of the government for long. What’s the saying – ‘keep you friends close and your enemies closer’.

    Well, we’ll find out more tonight at 8. Can’t say it isn’t interesting.

  3. Saw Nasha Yuliya on TV when I was in Ukraine last month, and boy oh boy has she got Presence. Charisma. Star Power. I hadn’t been aware of just how much until I was there, but she is something else.

    Strongly suspect that anyone campaigning against her over the airwaves is Toast. Possibly even including Nasha Viktor.

  4. Doug – I’ll bet you saw her at her most flattering best on Channel 5 (the Orange Revolution Channel). Yup. She has that effect, which is why I don’t expect her to be on the sidelines for very long. But, critics (and there are a whole bunch of them) of her handling of the PM position up to yesterday point to the ‘all talk, no results’ of her tenure. Not entirely fair or true, but there appeared to be a genuine failure of coordination in the government. The in-fighting was getting out of control.

    I’m going off to watch her at my favourite bar. It will be entertaining.

  5. Doug,
    steady on old chap, you’re making a woman of the president.

    Should be Nash Viktor !

    I agree. On the charisma/populist/rabble-rousing appeal front Yu.T. is hard to beat.

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