(AP) – The new prime minister, Yuriy Yekhanurov, presided Oct. 1 over his first Cabinet meeting, promising that his government’s work would be less high-profile but just as transparent.
Yekhanurov, who replaced the charismatic and media-savvy Yulia Tymoshenko, signaled an end to the on-camera briefings that had marked his predecessor’s seven months in office.
“Transparency is not the appearance of ministers in front of the cameras,” he said, adding that Cabinet sessions would be held as before behind closed doors and then individual ministers would explain what decisions had been taken.
President Viktor Yushchenko fired Tymoshenko on Sept. 8 and later accused her of abuse of office. The president’s allies complained that Tymoshenko, one of the driving forces behind last year’s Orange Revolution, was too focused on her own public image.
Tymoshenko had regularly ended her twice-weekly Cabinet meetings with a press briefing that she conducted herself, answering questions on almost any topic.
After being fired, Tymoshenko said during a live talk-in on Ukraine’s Inter television that Yushchenko had complained that she spent too much time in front of the cameras, making herself look more like the country’s leader than him.
“He said that there are other countries, Russia and Belarus. He said, ‘Look at (Russian President Vladimir) Putin or (Belarusian President Alexander) Lukashenko: They have brilliant prime ministers; no one ever sees them on TV,” Tymoshenko said.
Yekhanurov, a longtime ally of Yushchenko and former governor of the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, is considered a low-key and competent manager with few political ambitions of his own. He has given only one formal press conference since coming to office, and that lasted just over 30 minutes and was held in Dnipropetrovsk, 480 kilometers (300 miles) southeast of the capital.
Yekhanurov insisted at the opening of the Oct. 1 session – which television cameras were allowed to shoot – that the media would be provided with regular information about the work of his government and that of individual ministers.
Yushchenko, who came to power after last year’s mass protests, pledged to guarantee media freedoms in this ex-Soviet republic, and opinion polls show that most Ukrainians do credit him with ushering in a new atmosphere of openness and accessibility.
Meanwhile, Yekhanurov told his Cabinet that scrutiny of the work conducted by Ukraine’s governors – all presidential appointees – would begin next week. Yekhanurov said by Oct. 11, decisions would be made on which governors “continue work and which say farewell,” Ukraine’s Interfax news agency reported.
Yekhanurov, who spent Sept. 30 in Moscow meeting with Putin and Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, also insisted that he didn’t anticipate any serious problems in Ukrainian and Russian relations over gas.
Ukraine is hugely dependent on Russia for supplies and in turn, Russia ships its gas via Ukraine into western Europe. Fears have been growing in Ukraine that Russia might end Ukraine’s hugely discounted fees and make it begin paying the prices charged to western European states.
