Ukraine President Lashes Out at Ousted PM

By Aussiegirl

Yushchenko today spoke openly of his criticism and reasons for firing Yulia Tymoshenko:

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President Viktor Yushchenko on Tuesday accused his former prime minister of abuse of office, saying he fired her as a "matter of honor" because she abandoned the ideals of last year's Orange Revolution that rallied Ukraine.

"It was not the ideals of Independence Square — it was backstage intrigues," Yushchenko told The Associated Press in an interview five days after he dismissed Yulia Tymoshenko and her Cabinet.

He leveled sharp allegations at his one-time comrade-in-arms, accusing the popular politician of trying to use her post to wipe out $1.5 billion in debts owed by a defunct energy company she once headed. But Yushchenko said he would welcome Tymoshenko back to the government if she were to return to the principles they had shared.

Tymoshenko, in a brief phone interview with the AP, called Yushchenko's allegations a shock, saying he was trying to revive the "old repression that (former President Leonid) Kuchma had used against me and my family."

Yushchenko fired Tymoshenko on Thursday, ending a partnership that was the driving force behind the defiant protests that captured world attention 10 months ago. The dismissal came after members of Yushchenko's team began publicly leveling accusations of corruption against one another.

The president accused his team of spending more time squabbling than fulfilling the promises of the Orange Revolution. Since Tymoshenko's dismissal, the war of words between the former allies has heated up as they look to March parliamentary elections. The winning party will choose the prime minister, who after constitutional changes take effect will have powers that rival the president.

His face still badly scarred from last year's dioxin poisoning, Yushchenko said he was proud that he'd summoned enough strength to pull through, keep campaigning, and win the heated presidential race.

"But then after all this was achieved ... to act in such a way as my friends did toward each other is something not worthy of Independence Square," he said, sitting in his office and sipping from an orange mug with his campaign slogan "Yes, Yushchenko!" on it.

"It was a case of my honor not to use Ukraine's budget ... privatization ... official power to solve private problems," Yushchenko said.

He alleged that in addition to trying to have Unified Energy System's debts to the state written off, Tymoshenko also tried to cancel its debts to Russia. The company, Ukraine's predominant gas dealer, was run by Tymoshenko, her husband and her father-in-law in the 1990s.

"The behavior that Yulia Volodymyrovna demonstrated in government, and the circle of her allies, were formed on a basis contrary to state interests," Yushchenko said, using Tymoshenko's patronymic, a formal form of address.

"Many activities which the prime minister participated in were carried out behind the scenes with the aim of solving her problems," he said.

Yushchenko reiterated his previous allegation that Tymoshenko had acted in favor of certain business interests, particularly in connection with the government's widely criticized re-privatization practice. Later Tuesday, Yushchenko said in a major reversal of Tymoshenko's policy that he was putting an end to re-privatizations, adding that "private property is untouchable."

Tymoshenko told the AP that courts had long ago ruled that all the debt and fines levied against her former energy company were illegal, and she accused Yushchenko of "picking up Kuchma's baton and wanting to get rid of me in the same way."

Yushchenko, who also accepted the resignation of his close ally, former Security Council chief Petro Poroshenko, has set up a commission to investigate allegations of corruption against high officials in his circle. Poroshenko has denied the allegations, and his ties with Yushchenko remain friendly. On Tuesday, he was waiting outside the president's office for a meeting.