Quote highlights from Prime Minister Mykola Azarov’s interview with the Kyiv Post on Nov. 22.
“The year was not easy, but we have met every challenge and are ending it quite well.”
“People always want to say: everything just happens by itself, the government is just hindering. But somehow the previous government crashed the economy. Yet with this government – which seems to do nothing – the economy is growing. Paradox?”
“God, I am tired of all this! Of all these pessimists.”
“I know what we will do if the situation gets worse.”
“Our scenario comes down to ensuring the survival of Ukraine’s economy with foreign markets in any state.”
“We have built the kind of a system that allows us to save money on what we can save on. But we don’t economize on things we should not economize on, and that allows us to develop.”
“I like this ardor of the Kyiv Post newspaper.”
“Yes, we have corruption – and we’re fighting it.”
“Let’s not fling around the word like ‘fraud’.”
“I can give you multiple examples when countries which don’t cooperate with the IMF [International Monetary Fund] are developing their economies wonderfully.”
“It’s very important to not sink into despondent pessimism.”
“What do you want to hear from me? That the situation is very hard on the markets? Yes, it’s very hard.”
“Have you noticed the difference between our assessments and the International Monetary Fund? We say growth of GDP [in 2012] will be 4.7 percent, while they say – 4.3 percent. Is this little or a lot – 0.4 percent? Yes, it’s a reasonable amount. But the difference is not great enough to sink into panic.”
“Not only are we explaining [our strategy] – we’re taking decisions. Early this year we approved a program of investment into the economy. The government has created many stimuli for its development. There is a whole bulk of them.”
“And anyway, why do I need those indexes if I have objective indicators of work of the economy and its sectors?”
“If the economy is growing, it means that the government is working in the right direction.”
“We acted upon an [understanding] that the interests of our people have to be protected first of all.”
“I never contradict myself. I have not yet become a schizophrenic. Although it’s possible to become one with our press [media].”
“We have a reserve that will now allow us to live peacefully for 10 years and not limit the export [of grain].”
“I wish someone in the press would start to spin the subject of a shortage of flour. Go ahead and provoke a buying craze for flour – we would then sell a great volume of flour we have a surplus of. But nothing like that will happen because such a craze can be provoked when there is either a limited resource, or a shortage – the same way it happened with buckwheat last year.”
“I don’t know anything about wars [in the Party of the Regions]. Because the party is so big, people have opportunity to express various points of view – and that’s what they do.”
“I don’t actually read any sort of ravings. Nothing impedes my work. I take criticism calmly. No groups [of influence] are hampering my work.”
“On Facebook I work by myself once a week without fail. On the rest of things I give an order, what needs to be replied and who needs to reply – and it gets done.”
“[On Facebook] the number of correspondents who come up with their naïve but sensible suggestions is around three quarters. One quarter is just vents some sort of bile.”
You can read the full transcript of Mykola Azarov’s interview in Russian on www.kyivpost.ua.
