Ukraine president lashes out at ousted PM
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-14 07:31

"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.

Sacked Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko speaks to reporters during a news conference in Kiev September 9, 2005. [AP/file]

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.

Yushchenko told the AP he was completely at peace with his decision to fire Tymoshenko's government.

"It's the fourth day that I'm coming to work with a calm spirit," he said.

For many Ukrainians, Tymoshenko symbolized their revolution, a charismatic orator with charm and appealing ethnic symbolism. She rallied hundreds of thousands who massed in Kiev to denounce fraud by the former government in the presidential election and force a new vote, which Yushchenko won.

"I think if we return to the values that we talked about on (Independence) Square, but not the adventurism that structures of power had begun to carry out, I will extend my hand to anyone," Yushchenko said in response to Tymoshenko's prediction that her party would win the parliamentary elections and return her to the prime minister's post.

She has said the president fired her because he feared her popularity.

Yushchenko acknowledged that his own popularity was slipping, and he blamed the high expectations of Ukrainians.

"It's because what the people expected is far from fulfilled," he said, adding that the new government had to be pragmatic and not populist.

Yushchenko asked lawmakers Tuesday to approve his choice to lead the government, acting Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov, a little-known technocrat.

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