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| PHÎÒÎ: UNIAN |
This pentagon is in essence a closed club of the Party of Regions, seeing as the role of all the partners in the coalition have practically been reduced to nil
In his attempt to satisfy the appetites of the main groups inside his party, President Viktor Yanukovych created a pretty contradictory configuration. The existence of a power structure oriented towards a minimum of five centers may lead to ongoing conflicts. The president has one serious edge, however, in this atmosphere of rivalry: all sides need him as an arbiter and a peacemaker.
Yanukovych group
The largest power group under Yanukovych’s wing is in truth a group of loners that have nothing in common other than loyalty to the new president for their posts. There is hardly anything else that unites representatives of this group. Ideally, these individuals would prefer to form their own spheres of influence, but far from a union within Yanukovych’s group.
Notwithstanding, there are several independent and localized centers of power inside the presidential group that can be singled out, namely the Luhansk group under Vice Premier Tykhonov, leader of the PoR faction Oleksandr Yefremov and Luhansk Oblast Governor Valeriy Holenko, Serhiy Kivalov’s group to which head of the Supreme Council of Justice Volodymyr Kolesnichenko belongs, the Kharkiv group of Dobkin-Kernes, and so on. However, all politicians having the prospect for self-determination in the future vitally need a strong alliance with certain groups of influence.
Lyovochkin – Firtash group
The Firtash group occupies a key position in the Ukrainian government system that controls entire branches of governance. Aside from the law enforcers (Minister of Interior Mohylev and SBU Director Valeriy Khoroshkovskiy), gas entrepreneurs subordinated to foreign policy under Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Hryshchenko and the totally foreign oriented gas industry under the Minister of Fuel and Energy Yuriy Boiko, Minister of Social Policy Vasyl Nadraha (officially a member of the Volodymyr Lytvyn Bloc) is responsible for social policy and propaganda components of power.
While Assistant Chief-of-Staff of the Presidential Administration Hanna Herman is the main rival of the Firtash group in terms of information policy, Lyovochkin is so far successfully restraining the appetites of his subordinate. Moreover, the Lyovochkin-Firtash group has a controlling interest in the PA.
The State Affairs Administration is also very convenient for the president. Its director Andriy Kravets has won Yanukovych’s benevolence for his assistance amidst the Mizhhirya row. Finally, the group gained control over the most profitable regions in the country – Crimea and the Kyiv oblast.
Akhmetov group
In essence, the main sponsor of Yanukovych’s victory in the presidential election – the Akhmetov group – is losing the battle to the Lyovochkin-Firtash group. The protege of President of System Capital Management Rinat Akhmetov in the Presidential Administration Assistant Chief-of-Staff Iryna Akymova and NSDC Secretary Raisa Bohatyryova are far from being a restraining factor.
The president found money to pay off the group and finance preparations for Euro 2012 headed by Vice Premier Borys Kolesnikov and Minister of Sports Affairs Ravil Safiullin, Minister of Industrial Policy Dmytro Kolesnikov and Governor of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Oleksandr Vilkul, who earlier worked for SCM enterprises in Kryviy Rih.
As for other spheres of influence that Akhmetov’s group was craving for (e.g. the Anti-Monopoly Committee and the State Property Fund), things did not work out and Akhmetov was satisfied with control over the Sate Committee of Entrepreneurship. As it turns out, Mykhailo Brodskiy has recently been orbiting around Kolesnikov’, the Energy Company of Ukraine and State Special Communications Service.
Klyuyev group
Another enemy of Firtash’s supporters, Vice Premier Andriy Kluyev, heads his own group that has close ties with Akhmetov, but at the same time is benevolent to Akhmetov’s opponents in the Mykola Azarov group. Vice Premier Volodymyr Syvkovych is a member of the Kluyev clan and by virtue of position he is supervising the activities of the law enforcers for gas entrepreneurs. The fuel and energy sector is also controlled by Kluyev’s group (besides oil and gas controlled by Firtash’s inner circle, namely, EnergoAtom, the National Energy Regulatory Commission (NERC) and the Coal Ministry. Moreover, Kluyev’s group is also interested in the aerospace industry (he promoted the return of Yuriy Oleksiyiv to the position of General Director of the National Space Agency) and communications (the group controls Ukrtelecom, the National Communications Regulatory Committee and the National Radio Frequencies Center.
Azarov group
In addition to Premier Mykola Azarov, there are three members of the government in this group – Vice Premier for Humanitarian Affairs Volodymyr Semynozhenko, Minister of Finance Fedir Yaroshenko and Minister of Healthcare Zynoviy Mytnyk. However, the Ministry of Finance and fiscal policy are Azarov’s main resources. Head of the STA Oleksandr Papaika and head of the Controlling and Auditing Administration Petro Andreyev are Azarov’s proteges. The premier also brought back Oleksiy Kostusiev as chairman of the Anti-Monopoly Committee.
Coalition groups
Lytvyn’s supporters are the largest in numbers among all allies of the PoR. However, only Minister of the Environment Viktor Boiko is directly related to the Lytvyn Bloc in the Cabinet (officially, Lytvyn’s quota is three ministers). The others – Transport Minister Kostyantyn Yefimenko and Minister for Social Policy Vasyl Nadraha – are in fact proteges of Lytvyn’s sponsor in the PoR Vasyl Khmelnytskiy and some proponents of Firtash.
Head of the Border Service and the speaker’s brother Mykola Lytvyn, head of Ukrzaliznytsya Mykhailo Kostyuk and Chairman of the State Committee for Land Resources Oleh Kulynych have managed to preserve their posts in the previous government. After Yanukovych was elected president, Yuriy Plaksyuk was appointed head of the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Committee, Mykola Shershun was appointed head of the State Forestry Committee and Borys Zaichuk, brother of the Head of the VR Administration, was appointed chairman of the Pension Fund.
Three members of the Communist Party were given posts in the government. Oleksandr Ryabchenko, supported by the CPU sponsor Kostyantyn Hryhoryshyn, was appointed chair of the State Property Fund of Ukraine. Ihor Kaletnik was appointed head of the State Customs Service and Vasyl Volha, a new ally and leader of the Union of the Left-Wing Forces Party and former socialist, was appointed the head of the State Financial Services Committee.
The other two left-wing politicians (one being from the SDPU united) joined the government thanks to the efforts of the party’s informal leader Viktor Medvedchuk, whose close associate ex-BYT member Andriy Portnov was appointed deputy head of the Presidential Administration for Judicial Affairs.
In conclusion, former president Viktor Yushchenko managed to keep some of his people in the government. Volodymyr Khomenko remained Governor of the Chernihiv oblast thanks to Ivan Plyushch. Volodymyr Stelmakh remains the Governor of the central bank and Mykola Malomuzh is the Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service. Some other officials preserved their posts at a lower level. The only ally of the governing bodies without any proteges is Vice Premier for Economic Affairs Serhiy Tihipko.
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