The Herald (Glasgow)
April 16, 2005
Goddess of Revolution who makes Russians see red
PROFILE : YULIA TYMOSHENKO;
She is the prime minister of Ukraine, accused of corruption and with
a question mark over her nationality. But even that is overshadowed
by the latest controversy. Now she faces charges of bribing Russian
defence officials – fuelling the friction between the two vying
neighbours
by: ABIGAIL WILD
RUBBING SHOULDERS WITH CONTROVERSY: Ukraine’s prime minister Yulia
Tymoshenko feels her party has awakened the hopes of people.
RELATIONS with Russia were never going to be straightforward, but
Yulia Tymoshenko’s appointment as Ukrainian prime minister hardly got
things off to a great start. This week the facade of harmony,
awkwardly presented by the leaders of both countries, finally showed
cracks when Tymoshenko cancelled her scheduled visit to Moscow.
A spokesman for Tymoshenko said the trip was being delayed “because
Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko gave an order recommending the
Ukrainian prime minister . . . avoid foreign travel for now”. No
Ukrainian ministers, it was reported, were allowed to make visits
abroad until the end of the spring farming season. Sergey Lavrov, the
Russian foreign minister, insisted there were no objections to her
visit from their side of the fence, and that Vladimir Putin, Russian
president, had made it clear that his government was “eagerly
awaiting her in Moscow”.
The cancellation, however, came after Russian prosecutor-general
Vladimir Ustinov reiterated that the prime minister was wanted on
charges of bribing Russian defence officials. She is still a “wanted
criminal”, he said, and a warrant for her arrest remains in force. It
doesn’t appear to have soothed matters that Ustinov also said she
would not be arrested because of her immunity as a senior government
official. To everyone else, it looks like the first big clash between
Kiev and Moscow since Yushchenko became president.
Tymoshenko – a tower of strength to Yushchenko during last year’s
Orange Revolution – has always been a potential stumbling block in
the bid to establish a functional relationship with Putin, without
which the Ukraine premier has less chance of winning the approval of
the pro-Russian eastern regions that voted against him.
Tymoshenko – once known to Ukrainians as the Gas Princess – has in
her favour a charisma and charm that makes her an expert at working
up a crowd, and earned her new nickname Goddess of Revolution. The
trouble is, those who hate her really do hate her, and the approval
of pro-western Ukrainian nationalists and her pro-Russian opposition
appear to be mutually exclusive.
Given her background and the supposed scheme to tarnish her
reputation, her popularity at first seems quite a feat. Born in 1960
in Dnipropetrovsk, she studied economics and cybernetics at
university, and began her career at a mechanical engineering plant.
She eventually ran a lucrative private gas business. The immaculate
Heidi-meets-Queen Amidala hairstyle may make her look like a peasant,
but during the 1990s she was one of the richest women in her country.
Her enemies would have it that she was as corrupt as the oligarchs –
the business elite – she now poses a threat to. When she first
entered politics a decade ago, her party – Hromada – had very little
respect, and was viewed as a bunch of greedy business people out for
nothing more than an increase in their own profits.
She remains haunted by the accusation that she wanted the officials
to inf late the price of supply contracts with the Russian military
by dollars-80m (pounds-42.5m) , but her claim that it’s all part of
some conspiracy against her is easy for Ukrainians to believe. Her
predecessor, Leonid Kuchma, waw loathed by the end of his term.
Tymoshenko’s growing fanclub could only have been reassured when she
called him a “red-haired cockroach” and suggested to supporters of
Viktor Yanukovych in last year’s troubled elections that they should
hang themselves on their blue and white scarves.
Moscow, having backed rival candidate Yanukovych, was unsurprisingly
mute at the news of her nomination as prime minister and Putin never
made explicit public comment. The press was more realistic about the
effect it might have on the tension between the two countries, and
several editorials were strongly antiTymoshenko.
Vedomosti, the Russian business daily, called it a “slap in the face
for Moscow and, personally, for him whose name is best not spoken in
vain”. The Russian Communist Party paper, Pravda, called Yushchenko
and his supporters “a group of lying, twofaced and corrupt politicos
who have forced their way into government . . . and ordinary people
will have to pay the price for it.”
Elsewhere, Die Tageszeitung, the German newspaper said: “The
pugnacious Yulia is like a red rag to the Kremlin and the Kremlin
cannot but interpret her nomination as yet another humiliation.”
Tymoshenko, typically, had her own grandiose, provocative statements
to make. “We have passed through a long election path, ” she said.
“We have awakened the hopes of people that the government can work
and provide results . . . I want to thank the president, the
parliament and the people for honouring me with the task. People are
waiting for a new government that will be honest and will resolve all
the problems they have lived with for 14 years.”
Just a handful of Russian commentators are willing to concede that
some may be taking her revolutionary posturing for anti-Russian
sentiment. Some supporters, keen to extinguish that perception, say
her maiden name is not Grigyan, that she is not half-Armenian on her
father’s side, but that she is ethnically Russian, and her maiden
name is Telegina. Tymoshenko herself makes much of the fact she is
from Dnipropetrovsk, in the predominantly Russian-speaking east of
the country.
Despite the controversy, Tymoshenko has the same unequivocal support
among her peers that she has enjoyed for some time. The president –
who once called her his “political partner, political friend” – gave
her his personal backing and her appointment was supported by 373
votes in the 450-seat parliament, when she only needed 226 to win.
She is thought to be well liked by Anatoly Chubais, head of Russia’s
state-controlled electricity monopoly – a veteran politician who like
Tymoshenko is either demonised or idolised, and little in between.
She was regarded as an efficient anti-corruption force as a member of
Yushchenko’s government of 1999-2001, and was credited with
redirecting dollars-2bn to the state budget.
She has approached her new role with the same people-pleasing
determination. “My government will not take bribes. My government
will not steal, ” she said, as the new cabinet was voted in. She
talks of finally separating the “Siamese twins” of business and
politics, keeping a close eye on potentially corrupt privatisations,
ensuring nobody has unfair tax privileges, preparing Ukraine for EU
membership, and improving state monopolies. Her programme, Towards
the People, aims to raise living standards and build up trust in the
government.
In doing so, she has ruffled feathers among the rich and highpowered
– the very people she used to rub shoulders with. It is clear that
Tymoshenko sees no ambiguity in her career path. She declared, upon
being made prime minister: “My past and my future testify that I love
my country and want to serve its interests.”