The second president, Leonid Kuchma, emphasized efficiency and professionalism in his selection of personnel. He discussed this in an interview with BBC, commenting on the inclusion of traitors Viktor Medvedchuk and Dmytro Tabachnyk in his team.
Kuchma revealed that when he took office as Prime Minister, Tabachnyk was already in the press service of the government secretariat.
“Later, he assisted me in what is now called ‘electoral technologies,’ as I was not a politician but a rocket and space designer,” he said.
According to Kuchma, at that time, Tabachnyk worked professionally and effectively, so after winning the presidential elections, he appointed him head of his administration. However, he gradually began to abuse his new position, and when the then-president received evidence of this in 1996, he dismissed him.
“I met Medvedchuk during his time as a deputy. In early 2000, he was one of the leaders of the ‘velvet revolution’ in the Verkhovna Rada, when representatives of the left-communist camp were permanently removed from its leadership. Moreover, Medvedchuk had a reputation as a leading lawyer,” Kuchma explained.
He noted that when the need for a new head of the Presidential Administration arose after the 2002 parliamentary elections, he chose Medvedchuk. Kuchma believed that a person from the deputy corps could be effective in establishing cooperation with the Council.
“I reiterate: in personnel selection, I focused on efficiency and professionalism. Tabachnyk and Medvedchuk met these criteria: they were effective bureaucrats and behaved and expressed themselves in my presence as statesmen – otherwise, I would not have kept them close,” Kuchma emphasized.
For him, the “anti-Ukrainian evolution” of Medvedchuk and Tabachnyk was unexpected and unpleasant. However, their subsequent direct “betrayal” was not a shock for Kuchma, as it was already anticipated and logical.
“I ceased any communication with both of them many years before the full-scale invasion. And now I have simply erased them from my memory and life,” he concluded.
