You're reading: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: Yatsenyuk says he has cut influence of oligarchs in Ukraine

Editor’s note: In a recent interview with the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, published on Feb. 24, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk talked about the Ukrainian government’s success in the de-oligarchisation process, the governing coalition’s future, his own political sacrifices and tough talks with President Petro Poroshenko. Here are the highlights of the interview.

Editor’s Note: In a recent interview with the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, published on Feb. 24, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk talked about the Ukrainian government’s success in the de-oligarchisation process, the governing coalition’s future, his own political sacrifices and tough talks with President Petro
Poroshenko. Here are the highlights of the interview.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung’s Eastern Europe Correspondent Konrad Schuller that the reforms the Ukrainian government has achieved would take some time to have an effect.

“We need a year or two for our economy start to grow and (then) the results of the reforms will become visible, said Yatsenyuk.

The Ukrainian prime minister claimed the Ukrainian government had managed to sideline the country’s oligarchs,
such as Dmytro Firtash, cutting their influence on state enterprises.

“We took petroleum concern Ukrnafta from them (the oligarchs). We raised taxes for them and didn’t let them buy state enterprises for a mere song,” said Yatsenyuk.

The prime minister insisted he “has paid a high price” for launching unpopular and painful reforms.

“I’ve never criticized the presidential party (the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko). For me, our unity is more important than my own political popularity,” said Yatsenyuk.

He added that Poroshenko is still his partner, saying they’ve made unpopular reform decisions together.

Yatsenyuk also mentioned tough talks he had had with the president.

“If I am not good enough anymore as a prime minister, you (Poroshenko) should form a new Cabinet,” Yatsenyuk said he had told Poroshenko.

However, any inability to form a new government would lead to early elections, Yatsenyuk said.

“Meantime there will be nobody in the state who could fulfill the contractual obligations in our credit contract with the
International Monetary Fund,” Yatsenyuk said.

He said the position of the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko Bloc was very important to him. As the majority of the pro-presidential party’s lawmakers supported the no-confidence vote against Yatsenyuk, he said he now wants to know whether they support the government’s further reform effort.

“If yes, than we can start searching for new partners for a coalition together. And we can find them, for example, among the 51
independent lawmakers in parliament,” Yatsenyuk said. “Furthermore, I would welcome Oleh Lyashko’s Radical Party back in the coalition,” he added.

Translated from a report in Ukrainian available here.