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The candidacies of the new ministers are subjected to a difficult discussion in the parliament, photo: Information Department of the Verkhovna Rada Office, photo: rada.gov.ua
The Verkhovna Rada on Thursday and Friday will vote for four candidates for ministerial posts in Denis Shmygal’s government. However, an ambiguous attitude among the deputies, even included in the mono-majority, was immediately revealed to them.
Part of the pro-presidential faction “Servant of the People” (SN) in general, for example, questioned the need to change the Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, expressing their support for the current head of the ministry. As a result, he remains in office and castling, conceived in the Office of the President, is questioned.
Details – in the article “Countries”.
President’s presentation
On Tuesday, December 15, immediately after the approval of the draft budget for 2021 as a whole, the SN faction met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Prime Minister at the Verkhovna Rada cinema, which is unofficially called Katrusin Kinozal.
The head of state announced the following staffing proposals for the cabinet: Yuriy Vitrenko – for First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy Sergei Shkarlet – for Minister of Education and Science Yulia Laputina – for Minister of Veterans Affairs Roman Opimakh – for the minister of environmental protection and natural resources, Roman Leshchenko – about the Minister of Agrarian Policy. The deputies listened to all the applicants, except for Opimakh, who did not come and did not get in touch (this is an important point, to which we will return).
And about. The heads of the Shkarlet Ministry of Education want to be appointed full minister due to new legislative requirements. Voting for Laputina and Opimakh is a castling with Ministers Sergei Bessarab and Roman Abramovsky, who drafted their resignations. With the appointment of Leshchenko, a new ministry is usually created.
Judging by the deputies’ conversation with the president, the least controversial candidate is Laputina (she has the rank of general, a native of the “Alpha” of the SBU, she participated in the ATO since spring 2014).
“The faction supports Laputina more broadly. Although the relevant committee proposed considering the first deputy minister for veterans affairs, Alexander Porkhun, for this position. But, as I see in terms of interest, Laputina has better opportunities,” said Yevgenia Kravchuk. , vice president of the SN faction, in a comment to Strana.
Bessaraba Rada has already fired in a meeting on Wednesday December 16.
Equivalent figures
But the proposal to launch Abramovsky on Opimakh failed. For now.
As a member of the SN faction, Alexander Kachura said, representatives of the environmental policy and environmental management committee and supporters of the individual majority, including People’s Deputy Dubinsky, opposed.
“They believe that this is an internal confrontation in the Cabinet, whose victim was the Minister of Ecology, who is fighting against the deforestation of the Ukrainian forests, the Carpathians,” MP Kachura said on Newsone television channel.
As mentioned above, the faction was unable to personally speak to the potential successor of the head of the State Geology and Mineral Resources Service Roman Opimakh. Although Vitrenko and Laputina did not appear either, but they spoke via video link. As “Strana” wrote, many regard Abramovsky as a person associated with the former co-owner of the Donbass Industrial Union Vitaly Gaiduk, who is friends with Zelensky’s first assistant Sergei Shefir.
The interlocutor between the SN deputies connects Opimakh with the interests of the co-owner of the Privat group, Igor Kolomoisky. However, in the gas market he is more likely to be associated with businessman Viktor Pinchuk, with whom he is connected through his family and work history. For example, Roman Opimakh was an assistant to the Batkivshchyna People’s Deputy Olga Belkova, who worked for the EastOne company in Pinchuk for years. However, Opimakh himself categorically denies the influence of the oligarchs in his career.
One way or another, but for now the question of Abramovsky’s resignation has been eliminated. What the minister himself said in a comment to “Strana”.
“We met with the Prime Minister and the President, we talked about the situation. I wrote a letter of resignation because there were complaints about the speed of the reforms. But I was able to explain something else like that. There are issues that depend not only on the ministry. We always try to discuss bills with the public, with those they will influence. Such discussions can often take several months, “said the minister.
Agrarian problems
Why exactly now they decided to recreate the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and appoint a minister there, among the “servants of the people” did not understand everything, which the deputy head of the Kravchuk faction admitted in a conversation with “Strana”. Although, according to her, the majority of the members of the faction are supposedly willing to vote for the candidacy of the head of State Geocadastre Roman Leshchenko.
In general, parliament has that explanation for the unexpected activity around the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Agrarian Policy. The deputy head of the Golos faction, Yaroslav Zheleznyak, hints on his Telegram channel that the reorganization in the “ecological” ministry and the return of the “agrarian” is a payment for voting for the budget and the arrival of the right people to the positions vacancies in the State Geosludge Service and the State Geocadastre.
“It sounds like a tasty resource. And in capable hands it is better than the position of many ministers. Even those who offered in exchange,” says Zheleznyak.
“Pavlyuks” vs. “Kolomoisky”
It’s also unclear whether Vitrenko will pass.
First of all, some deputies were upset that a candidate for such an important post did not attend the faction meeting with the participation of the president and the prime minister, but rather connected through a video link from the plane. For example, you could put off your affairs for the sake of the date. Second, not everyone liked his answers. Third, a scandal is developing around the payment of a grandiose multi-million dollar bonus to Yuri Vitrenko, who was previously frozen while still a top manager at Naftogaz. Vitrenko even went to court over this matter.
And then all of a sudden, right on the eve of the date, they paid him money. Naturally, these two events are interconnected and it is unlikely that payment would be possible without the approval of the Presidency. So the whole story seems like a deal (read more about Vitrenko payments here).
Naturally, this also does not add Vitrenko’s points in the eyes of the deputies.
“Vitrenko promised us yesterday for the faction that he would not receive this award. And today we learned that he will receive them before the appointment. That is, he was suing the state of Ukraine, and he will also receive that money and a position.” Will the prime minister and the minister take office? We have nothing to buy a vaccine, but we will pay Vitrenko money, “one of the people’s deputies told Strana.
At the faction meeting, Vitrenko received quite a few questions from the speaker Dmitry Razumkov.
“He did not ask any of the candidates so many questions. After that, the deputies began to argue that Razumkov did not support this candidate, and consequently the deputies also turned to him,” says a source from the SN faction. The deputy director of the faction, Yevgenia Kravchuk, admits: “They stayed with Mr. Vitrenko questions, some of our deputies do not want to support him.”
Strana’s interlocutors suspect that the group of Ilya Pavlyuk, an influential customs businessman, may refuse to vote for Vitrenko. She has a difficult relationship with the Kolomoisky influence group (and this appointment is in her interest), and is also an ally in the parliament of the owner of the SCM group, Rinat Akhmetov, who competes with Kolomoisky in the energy sector.
A government source says Prime Minister Denis Shmygal is unhappy with Vitrenko’s possible appointment. “Vitrenko is a man with great ambitions and a difficult character. If he becomes first deputy prime minister, then his strong conflict with the head of government is almost inevitable,” a cabinet source told Strana.
On the agenda for Thursday, December 17, there are already appointments of Leshchenko, Vitrenko and Shkarlet. Laputin will most likely vote on Friday.
“There are still votes for Laputina and Leshchenko. The rest do not find support,” says a source among the leaders of the factions.
As the deputy head of the Golos faction, Zheleznyak, writes on his Telegram channel, even Leshchenko’s candidacy also runs the risk of “flying by” if the bill No. 3656 on the reduction of VAT for farmers is not passed. at 14%.
They say that if they do not accept there will be a great offense on the part of the Doverie group (a satellite of the authorities, guided by the opinion of the agrarian oligarch Andrei Verevsky, who is called the main lobbyist for this bill – Ed.). And there aren’t many voices there, “predicts Zheleznyak.
