The head of the Ukrainian presidential secretariat, Viktor Baloha, has said he is concerned about the "prime minister's attempt to distract public attention in every way possible from the outcome of the talks on natural gas supplies to Ukraine."
"It is an alarm bell for me that the Prime Minister [Yulia Tymoshenko] is taking every possible measure to distract public attention from the outcome of the talks on natural gas supplies to Ukraine. It is indicative that the government, following the premier's report, approved the results of these talks, although none of the documents were provided to the ministers. Meanwhile, experts talk about the unclear expediency of signing long-term agreements at $450 and keeping the transit fee at the level of 2008, with unclear schemes for its revision," the presidential press service quoted him as saying on Wednesday.
Baloha said he is also worried about another goal that Tymoshenko is seeking to achieve. He said that the realization of another political circus over the dismissal of the NBU governor would hardly be described as a stabilizing factor when crisis is engulfing in the country.
"The issue does not concern only [National Bank of Ukraine Head Volodymyr] Stelmakh and all of the political forces understand this quite well. Instead of taking urgent measures to change the situation, we are again seeking simple decisions. The need for the premier to take the NBU under her own control is obvious. Instead of taking the necessary and unpopular steps to balance the budget ahead of elections, the government wants to finance all of the budget expenditures through switching to some [other] mechanism," he said.
