Is Tymoshenko Running for Kyiv City Council Deputy?

What is Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko thinking? In an April 1 press conference, Tymoshenko indicated her intent to take part in Kyiv City Council sessions after the upcoming early elections.

“Should the Kyiv Council session consider significant issues,” Tymoshenko said, “I will for sure attend, because, as of today, the capital indicates the worst results of corrupted work. On the other hand, I would like to show that a wide-scale cleansing of corruption for the whole country will begin from Kyiv.”

Tymoshenko claims that a Kyiv City Council Deputy mandate will not hinder her work as Ukrainian Prime Minister. Yeah, right! She has so much work to do as Prime Minister and has the opposition carefully monitoring her every move. She has struggled to get legislation passed without distractions from another position. I just don’t see how she can be successful in both positions at the same time.

If she really becomes a city council deputy, the work of one or both of these positions is going to suffer. President Viktor Yushchenko is probably very interested in this situation. If Tymoshenko fails to get her work done as Prime Minister, it could make Yushchenko the favorite to become the democratic candidate for next year’s presidential election.

I think this would be a huge mistake by Tymoshenko, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens.