As President’s closest allies also known as “the family” are passionately extending their influence in Ukraine, Moscow quietly appoints loyal officials to key Ukrainian posts, steadily tightening the ring around Yanukovych, runs a KW article that comments on the recent reshuffles in the top echelons of the government.
Klyuev’s appointment as Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (RNBO) is a detriment to his career, if not an end. Pundits will say that Klyuev will have time to concentrate on the PoR preparations to the parliamentary elections. However, being deprived of almost all levers of influence and pushed aside from the main financing flows for the campaign, he will play a purely decorative role of a campaign manager (and by far not the chief).
Yanukovych has stated as he announced reshuffles that “Klyuev will coordinate work of law enforcers and special services according to assigned tasks”. However, Klyuev was in charge of a similar set of issues two years ago: during his term in the office of vice premier, his closest ally Volodymyr Syvkovych supervised law enforcement agencies but got sacked in October 2010.
In the meantime, Raisa Bohatyryova, who got the job of new Vice Premier and Health Minister Bohatyryova will have to be responsible not only for unpopular healthcare reform, but also for the whole humanitarian branch, which is supervised by another outright Russian lobbyist Dmytro Tabachnyk, who is very zealously about any encroachments on “his territory”. Bohatyryova will thus govern only the medical branch inless president does not decide to dismiss him after so many “severe reprimands and warnings”.
Russian lobby can soon become the only group of influence, holding hostage both the “family” and the president, the article concludes.
