Word: kuchma
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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...refusal to debate Tymoshenko in the run-up to the election was slammed as antidemocratic by civil-society groups. Hryhoriy Nemyria, Tymoshenko's Deputy Prime Minister, says Yanukovych's team is "Jurassic Park II," with many of the same advisers who worked with his political patron, former President Leonid Kuchma, and were allegedly involved in financial and vote-rigging scandals...
Little wonder. GDP shrank by 15% last year and factories laid off thousands of workers. Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index for 2009 placed Ukraine 146th out of 180 countries, on the same level as Zimbabwe. "Things were better under Leonid Kuchma," says Stepan Grechkivskiy, who owns a milk factory in western Ukraine, referring to Yushchenko's authoritarian predecessor. "There was order, but now there is chaos." (Read more about Ukraine...
That may be true, but Yanukovych, himself a two-time former Prime Minister, was accused by opponents of funneling budget funds and state assets to his backers while in power and he continues to surround himself with Kuchma-era cronies. Tymoshenko claims Yanukovych would be a puppet for the country's powerful oligarchs...