Accusations by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and his secretariat against the Interior Ministry threaten the regular workings of the ministry, Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko has said at a press conference in Kyiv.
“The information wave aimed at discrediting the Interior Ministry… is becoming a threat to the normal activity of the Interior Ministry as a whole… [President] Viktor Yushchenko wants today, with his statements, to destabilize the Interior Ministry,” Lutsenko said.
At the same time, he said he would accept such criticism and reproaches personally, but he said he considers it improper to blame the whole system of the Interior Ministry.
Earlier, Iryna Vannykova, the press secretary of the Ukrainian president said at a briefing on October 13 that Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko had called for effective action from the Interior Ministry to fight the rise in crime.
“The Ukrainian President has repeatedly ordered strict and effective measures from the Interior Ministry in answer to the rise in crime, but Minister [Yuriy Lutsenko] has started to deny the obvious, instead of reaching the appropriate conclusions about the work [of his ministry],” Vannykova said,
