Yanukovych dismisses another top minister

President Viktor Yanukovych replaced the highest-ranking member of the cabinet he has so far yesterday, relieving Andriy Klyuev of his duties as first deputy prime minister and naming him head of the National Security and Defense Council. Raisa Bohatyrova, the previous head of the NSDC, was appointed a deputy prime minister and minister of health. The previous health minister, Oleksandr Anishchenko, was dismissed yesterday.

Brad Wells: Yesterday’s reshuffle, unlike the appointments of Defense Minister Dmytro Salamatin and Finance Minister Valeriy Khoroshkovsky in the last month, does not appear to shift power to associates close to Yanukovych. Rather, this looks more like a pre-election move to stir the pot and rebuild credibility in the eyes of the local populace. Klyuev, as head of the NSDC, which has largely been a figurehead government body since Yanukovych came to office, should have more freedom to help lead the Party of Regions election campaign for parliament. At the same time, this signals a further shift away from a European trajectory for Ukraine, as Klyuev spearheaded Ukraine’s now-frozen negotiations on an Association Agreement last year and was not explicitly replaced.