Yuriy Lutsenko, Ukraine’s former interior minister, announced on March 18 that he was considering a return to politics, saying that he would begin speaking to local officials on March 19 about running for mayor of Kyiv.
Speaking to
journalists at the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center inside Kyiv’s Hotel Ukraine, Lutsenko
said he is currently acting as an advisor to the new government in Kyiv.
“I am not
making attempts to influence those in power; sometimes they listen to me,
sometimes they do not,” he said.
In December
2010, former Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka charged Lutsenko with abuse of
power during his time as interior minister. Lutsenko, who was imprisoned from December 2010 until April 2013, said at
his March 18 press conference that even in incarceration he had “never stopped
participating in politics.”
Since being
pardoned by former President Viktor Yanukovych in April 2013, Lutsenko has been
a central player in Ukrainian politics. Shortly after being pardoned, he
founded the Third Republic initiative, a non-parliamentary political movement. He
said that following the Verkhovna Rada’s passage of a law on the rehabilitation
of political prisoners, he is “a citizen of Ukraine without any [criminal]
record,” making him eligible to run for public office.
Lutsenko
was very active in the EuroMaidan Revolution, frequently speaking to crowds of
protesters and vociferously criticizing the Yanukovych regime.
In addition
to portending a run for mayor of Kyiv, Lutsenko said that he planned on
establishing “a (political) party based on the principles of the Maidan.”
He said he
had no interest in returning to his previous position as interior minister,
saying that he would rather “like to assist (Arsen) Avakov,” the current interior
minister.
Lutsenko,
whom some have considered to be a leading candidate in the presidential
elections, scheduled for May 25, indicated that others would be more suited for
the position. He listed parliamentary deputy and billionaire businessman Petro
Poroshenko, former heavyweight boxing champion and leader of the Ukrainian
Democratic Alliance for Reform party Vitali Klitschko, leader of the Svoboda
party Oleh Tiahnybok and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko as potential
presidential candidates.
Kyiv Post staff writer Isaac Webb can be reached
at [email protected] or on Twitter @isaacdwebb
