Yanukovych reinstates Kuchma’s privileges cancelled soon after the Orange Revolution

On 19 April the Cabinet of Ministers reinstated the Cabinet of Ministers Instruction “On provisions, service and security for L.D. Kuchma”.

According to this extraordinarily timed document, the government has reinstated the benefits for the former President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma, revoking the Instruction from 28 February 2005 which had in turn cancelled Instruction No. 15 from 19 January 2005.

The 19 January Instruction was issued by the outgoing Cabinet of Ministers, headed by Mykola Azarov. It gave Kuchma state maintenance and also life use of a state dacha with service and security guards.

According to unofficial information, the Instruction provided Kuchma, at the State’s expense, with one adviser and two aides. He was to have two cars and four drivers, one cook, two maids and two waiters.

This information is not available on the Verkhovna Rada site since the text of the Instruction is labelled “For official use only”, i.e. concealed from public scrutiny.

 On 5 February 2005 the then Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko asked for an analysis to be made of the legal grounds for this State maintenance for Leonid Kuchma. On 12 February she stated that according to the Ministry of Justice, the government had overstepped its powers in providing these benefits to the former President and on 26 February the Cabinet of Ministers issued the relevant Instruction revoking them.

Based on information from www.unian.net