Посольство Республіки Корея в Україні

Many Ukrainians are looking for a fresh face to lead the nation out of its political wilderness. So, too, as it turns out, is acting Verkhovna Rada Speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

 

“Frankly speaking, it’s clear that we need something fresh in Ukrainian politics, not just fresh, it has to be substantial, something really valuable,” Yatsenyuk said in an interview with the Kyiv Post and other journalists earlier this month.

But is Yatsenyuk the answer to the nation’s hopes? Is he the Ukrainian version of America’s Barack Obama? He demurs. “I’m not sure I’m a Ukrainian Obama due to one reason,” Yatsenyuk said. “I’m not a presidential hopeful.”

But Yatsenyuk, if not moving in the presidential direction, is clearly staking out a future with high political ambitions for himself and for his nation. And his year as speaker of a 450-member divided parliament has made him “ready for anything,” he said.

He wants to start a populist political party that is not “held hostage” to the financing of Ukraine’s omnipresent tycoons. His vision is of a party financed by “ordinary people, small- and medium-sized enterprises,” a party in which no one has a majority stake.

Yatsenyuk’s vision for the country is a vague prescription of economic and political “reforms.” He wants the nation to build on the legacy and realize the goals of its 2004 democratic Orange Revolution. The popular movement succeeded in overturning a rigged election, but also sought to cleanse Ukraine from its post-independence stains of a corrupt elite, dishonest elections and economic unfairness.

Many of the goals have gone unrealized during the presidency of Victor Yushchenko, the revolution’s hero, who is engaged in what many see as a childish feud with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, his former ally.

“They had all opportunities and chances to realize these goals, but those in the coalition did all they could to make it the coalition of lost chances and opportunities,” Yatsenyuk said.

Yatsenyuk is seen as a breath of fresh air in Ukrainian politics for many reasons.

At age 34, he is seen – rightly or wrongly – as a new breed of politician. He is viewed by supporters as Western in political orientation, but also understanding of the Soviet past. He has a reputation of being motivated by national interest and not personal greed. He is also seen as someone who achieved success on his own in the private sector, as opposed to an insider enriched by rigged privatizations of Soviet assets.

Yatsenyuk is not only well-versed in the nation’s cut-throat brand of politics, he has managed to rise to the post of parliament speaker. He formally resigned from the speaker’s post when the ruling coalition collapsed in September, but remains as acting speaker for now.

Of the way the political game is played in Ukraine, he said: It’s “all about squeezing hard, squeezing until there is nothing left to squeeze.”

He wants to lead the nation out of its perpetual conflicts with a new generation of “strong and decisive leaders who are focused not on their individual destinies but who are cooperative and able to negotiate and find a solution and not instigate disputes and controversies.”

His pragmatic style appears to appeal to Ukrainians who are increasingly frustrated with the squabbling older set of politicians. He has a 13 percent approval rating among new party or bloc leaders, according to a poll by the Ukrainian Sociology Service. While that might not seem high, it’s above the rating of the nation’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, who is spending part of his $31 billion fortune on image-whitening PR campaigns and charity events.

A survey conducted by the National Institute of Strategic Research in September showed that a party or bloc headed by Yatsenyuk would pass the 3 percent threshold into parliament. It’s not a bad start for a party that has not even yet been created.

So far, he has managed to climb the political ladder without any party affiliation, although he got into parliament in the pre-term 2007 election on the back of the pro-presidential Our Ukraine Peoples’ Self-Defense bloc.

But who exactly is Yastenyuk? And how did he come so far so fast? His prodigious ascent started in the southwestern city of Chernivtsi, where he was born and raised. He co-founded a law firm in 1992, during his second year in law school. He was only 18 and was savvy enough to hire the son of the regional governor.

In his official autobiography, Yatsenyuk wrote that, as president of Yurek Ltd., he represented clients in arbitrage courts and also participated in the privatization of state enterprises.

He counted regionally influential people among his clients. Among them were Vitaliy Bilous, who was twice convicted for extortion and was reputedly a member of a local crime group, and Valeriy Chynush, a Chernivtsi city council member who introduced him to other influential politicians.

He quickly earned a reputation as a top-flight lawyer. He is said to have impressed one of the lawyers of Aval Bank during a legal dispute by quoting verbatim a passage in a legal textbook that one of the opposing lawyers had written.

By 1998, when he was just 24, he was already working as a consultant for Aval’s Kyiv office. He became the bank’s deputy chairman before resigning in 2001 to embark on a political career.

Mid-decade, he served briefly as the nation’s foreign minister and economic minister. His resume also includes stints as economic minister in Crimea, deputy regional governor of Odesa, a board member and first deputy chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine and first deputy chairman of the president’s administration.

He appears to enjoy a warm relationship with Victor Pinchuk, Ukraine’s second-richest man, and reportedly one of his early political patrons. Yatsenyuk has spoken several times at Davos and Yalta forums sponsored the billionaire Pinchuk, who got spectacularly wealthy during the reign of Leonid Kuchma, the scandal-plagued ex-president and the father of Pinchuk’s wife.

He had notable achievements in his brief tours as minister of economy and foreign minister.

He is credited with persuading parliamentarians that Ukraine would benefit by joining the World Trade Organization, which it did earlier this year.

As foreign minister in 2007, he was described as a professional who sought compromises and didn’t rouse the ire of Russia or resentment from the West.

As speaker, Yatsenyuk displayed the same qualities. He was considered impartial and independent, as well as committed to public service. “Yatsenyuk demonstrated that he doesn’t struggle for personal gain or power, which is quite exceptional for a Ukrainian politician,” said Serhiy Taran, director of the International Democracy Institute.

He is definitely in his elements as a political operator, wrote analyst Volodymyr Fesenko, being able to fuse “extraordinary professional knowledge and know-how with a tough, sometimes cynical, business-like grasp while knowing how to engage in bureaucratic intrigue.”

But praise for him is not universal and Ukrainian politicians have a tendency of making enemies the higher they rise.

“He was a gift that showed promise. But … he kept swimming, and then stopped,” said Nestor Shufrich, a Party of Regions parliamentarian after Yatsenyuk resigned as speaker following the collapse of the ruling coalition.

He has become a hrynvia millionaire, with a declared net worth of $248,000, according to his 2007 income statement. Together with his wife and two daughters, he lives in a comfortable home north of Kyiv and owns two cars.

He wants more, but not more material wealth.

“I don’t want to have a comfortable life,” Yatsenyuk said. “I don’t want to be selfish. Business is more selfish. Business is oriented towards a certain flavor of society. It’s very limited.”