27 May 2014
With 94 percent of votes tallied, the Central Election Commission confirmed on May 26 that Petro Poroshenko is the new president of Ukraine. He revealed his first priorities at a May 26 press conference, where he stated that he is satisfied with the performance of the interim Ukrainian government so far, promising to keep Arseniy Yatsenyuk as prime minister. He said he will sell most of his assets, except the 5 Kanal television network. Poroshenko also said the government’s counterterrorist operation should occur in a shorter time frame and more effectively. “The counterterrorist operation can’t and won’t take two or three months,” he said. “It should take hours.” He called for better equipped soldiers, with higher salaries and insurance packages.
Poroshenko also expressed hope that his approach to address the violence in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts will gain the support of the Russian government. Among his proposals are granting the Russian language official status in these oblasts, allowing local politicians to select their Presidential Administration representative and amnesty for fighters who didn’t fire their weapons. At the same time, he said he won’t negotiate with the separatist leaders.
The Russian government is ready for a dialogue with “the representative of Kyiv,” said Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, who didn’t refer to him as Ukraine’s newly elected president in his remarks at a May 26 Moscow press conference. Indeed Lavrov didn’t refer to the May 25 event as presidential elections, instead dubbing it a “vote” and “expression of the people’s will,” whose results the Kremlin will respect.
At the same time, Lavrov said it was a “colossal mistake” for Kyiv to renew the active phase of the armed operations in southeast Ukraine. “The chance that we have now to ensure mutually respectful, equal dialogue, taking into account the will being expressed, the results of which Russia is ready to respect, I repeat, should not be lost,” he said. “We hope that Petro Poroshenko, in the event of confirming his authority, will do everything to not allow extreme, radical sentiments to prevail.”
The Higher Eurasian Economic Council will meet on May 29 in Astana, Kazakhstan to sign an agreement that will launch the Eurasian Economic Union on Jan. 1, the Kremlin press service reported on May 26. “The three states are assuming the responsibility of guaranteeing the free transit of goods, services, capital and labor and implementing a coordinated policy in the key economic spheres of energy, industry, agriculture and transport.”
Zenon Zawada: Certainly, Poroshenko’s first major challenge as president will be resolving the armed conflict in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. We believe the Russian government will be willing to engage in a dialogue with Poroshenko, but its intentions aren’t a lasting peace. Therefore, the Kremlin will continue to call for peace while stirring conflict and Poroshenko can expect months of challenges from Moscow on the military front.
Despite the reduced terrorist activity in Ukraine, we believe the Kremlin remains committed to its long-term goal of including Ukraine’s southeast regions, at minimum, in the Eurasian Economic Union, and will also use economic destabilization measures to achieve that goal. Therefore, Poroshenko’s other great challenge is to ensure economic stability in Ukraine, which won’t come easy. We expect more trade barriers and disputes to emerge in the coming months, such as the current gas dispute that is likely to result in a halt in transit to Europe next week.