Kuchma's Post-Election Absence Stirs Confusion

KIEV -- Ukrainian president-elect Leonid Kuchma, a day after his surprise victory at the polls, disappeared from the public eye Tuesday to visit his mother's grave, leaving flustered aides to field questions of how and when he is to take office.


"No one knows what comes next or even how to begin," said Kuchma campaign staffer Vladimir Lastikov who was sitting at a desk seemingly waiting for something to happen. "No one thought there would be a new president."


Instead of thanking voters for their support or planning his transition to power, Kuchma traveled to his family's hometown village of Chaikino to lay flowers at his mother's grave, according to advisor Vladimir Malinkovich.


"You can explain the visit as a peculiarity of the Slavic soul," he said. "He must consult with himself, his people and his mother before taking office."


In the final round of Ukrainian presidential voting Sunday, underdog Kuchma won 52.1 percent or 14 million votes versus 45 percent and 12.1 million voters for incumbent Leonid Kravchuk, according to preliminary returns.


As Kuchma pondered his soul alone on Tuesday, his top advisors tried to figure out what to do next in the first transition of presidential power in Ukraine's 2 1/2 year history as an independent nation.


Some aides said they were not even sure when Kuchma, a former prime minister under Kravchuk, would formally take office. Election officials said, however, that Kuchma formally takes power on July 19 after the election commission finalizes the results. Who swears in the president and other vital details remain unclear.


Kravchuk, the silver-haired former Communist party boss, on Tuesday held a farewell meeting with his staff in which he thanked them for their work -- a sign that he intends to leave office.


Although recent polls and many experts had predicted Kravchuk's re-election, it appears that they had underestimated voters' dissatisfaction with the economy which gives them an average wage of about $20 a month.


"Life has become worse over the past two years," said Vecheslav Koval, national campaign director for Rukh, a centrist nationalist party. "People voted for change."


Other commentators say Kravchuk's campaign focus on foreign policy and domestic political stability cost him votes at a time when many are worried mostly about feeding their families.


"Kravchuk did not run a completely honest campaign," said Vladimir Kizima, chief ideologist at Ukraine's Socialist Party. "He suggested that if he wasn't elected there would be war and a complete collapse of the economy, and that raised doubts among the voters."


The Kuchma team hailed the results as a triumph over the old Communist Party machine which remains strong in Ukraine even today, long after the demise of the party itself.


"The government machine has been broken," said Malinkovich. "It's an event you can compare with August 1991, which was a break with the old Soviet government."


Kuchma, who promises closer relations with Russia, won strong support in Ukraine's Russian-speaking east, but also picked up urban and rural votes from some central areas in the country of 52 million people, tipping the final balance in his favor.


The nationalist Western part of Ukraine -- which was incorporated into the Soviet Union's Ukrainian republic only after World War II -- voted mostly for Kravchuk, whom they saw as the best guarantor of Ukrainian national interests.


Despite the geographic divide of the vote, Kuchma aides as well as outside observers say he is likely to seek to broaden his support.


"Kuchma is going to move pretty quickly to shore up the country," predicted Myron Wasylyk, executive secretary of the Ukrainian parliament's Council of Advisors. "He cannot be the leader of a divided country and he understands that."


One way to unify the country is to bring a variety of political figures into his government, Wasylyk said. Rukh, for example, the influential party which had opposed Kuchma, is willing to work with the new president, Koval said.


Yet Kuchma's campaign promise to establish closer economic ties with Russia is likely to anger nationalists in the West who favor a Western, not Eastern, orientation.


"Things could become rather complex if he wants too close a unity with Russia," said Kizima of the Socialist Party. "This could cause nationalist worries."


Kuchma's advisor Malinkovich said the president elect does plan to quickly strengthen economic ties with Moscow, but, as Kuchma repeated on the campaign trial, this does not mean a reunification with Russia.


"We should be equal partners, not under Moscow's control," he said.


What exactly Kuchma, the former director of the world's largest nuclear-missile factory, will do to heal Ukraine's most pressing problem -- its ailing economy -- remains uncertain. He has spoken of a controlled transition to the free market, but, for now, he plans to keep large industry in government hands.


Under this economic scheme, Kuchma hopes to make the government factories profitable and then use the profits for social good, Malinkovich said.


The president was expected to spell out more of his future plans during a press conference Wednesday afternoon, campaign officials said.