President Petro Poroshenko appointed Oleksandr Turchynov, 50, as secretary of the National Security and Defense Council on Dec. 16.
“A systemic and cruel war is being waged
against our country, and there is no alternative to winning this war for
us,” Turchynov, former leader of country’s parliament and acting
president, said at a meeting with Poroshenko. “The National Security and
Defense Council must become a center of efficient decision making for the
protection of our state.”
The position has been vacant since Aug. 7, when Turchynov’s
predecessor and major EuroMaidan activist Andriy Parubiy resigned.
A long-time associate of Batkivshchyna party
leader Yulia Tymoshenko, Turchynov recently joined the People’s Front, a party led
by Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk that won the Oct. 26 parliamentary
elections this year.
Therefore, the appointment is aimed at “strengthening
the partnership between Poroshenko and the People’s Front,” political
analyst Volodymyr Fesenko said by phone.
He added that Turchynov had been the leading
contender for the job since August.
Incumbent Information Minister Yuriy Stets and
Security Service head Valentyn Nalyvaychenko have also been tapped as potential
candidates for the job in local media.
Prior to taking first roles in the nation’s political
life this year, Turchynov headed the Security Service in 2005 and served as a
deputy prime minister in 2007-2010 with Tymoshenko’s Cabinet.
Turchynov has been criticized for critical mistakes
during his interim presidency after the EuroMaidan Revolution overthrew the
corrupt regime of President Viktor Yanukovych in February.
Russia took control over Crimea without any
military resistance from the Ukrainian side, while fighting against the
pro-Kremlin separatists in the Donbas could also have been more active at the
initial stage of the war, some say.
A holder of a doctoral degree in economics for research on the shadow economy, Turchynov will get a chance to apply his
knowledge to fighting Ukraine’s abundant corruption, the nation’s second biggest threat
after Russian troops in the east.
Kyiv Post
staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be reached at [email protected].
