Taras Kuzio’s Blog

How Much Does the President Really Earn?

Transparency and public accountability of officials were important demands for Ukrainians who joined the orange revolution and voted for Viktor Yushchenko. One major reason why the authorities lost the 2004 elections was because the gulf between the elites and the narod had grown wider during Leonid Kuchma’s second term leading many observers, such as myself, to describe Ukraine as a ‘virtual state’.

The publication of tax and income declarations by senior officials is therefore a step forward. But, am I the only one who feels that these declarations are only for show and that Ukraine is still a virtual state? President Yushchenko’s income declaration was published on www.president.gov.ua this week and immediately raised doubts as to his declared earnings. In 2005, the president made 250,000 hryvni (approximately $50,000) but, this year the amount had grown five fold to 1, 141, 000. Last year might have been a bad year for the orange revolution but it was obviously a very good year for the President.

Of these total earnings, the Presidential salary is nearly half a million hryvni, or 41,000 per month ($8,000). This amount had also doubled from 2005. In contrast, the US president earns $400,000 per annum. Another amount, 150,000 ($30,000), is recorded as interest accrued, presumably from bank deposits and shares. The most virtual aspect of the declaration lies in the huge amount of half a million hryvni ($100,000) recorded as income derived from publications and honorariums. As Ukrayinska Pravda commented, this could be the $100,000 the President received in Philadelphia in September 2005.

President Yushchenko stayed in the US after the opening of the UN to obtain the Philadelphia Liberty medal when he should have been in Ukraine ensuring his candidate for Prime Minister (Yuriy Yekhanurov) was confirmed by parliament. In the first vote the candidate failed by 3 votes and in the second he only received enough votes because the President signed a memorandum with Viktor Yanukovych.

The price paid therefore for the Liberty medal was very high – a memorandum with his defeated rival that paved the path for Yanukovych and the Party of Regions return to power six months later. Remember that the memorandum included provisions for an amnesty for election fraud and the return of immunity for deputies elected to local councils.

The memorandum was the first of two occasions when the President became disillusioned with Viktor Yanukovych’s unwillingness to abide by agreements that he had signed. The second occasion came in August 2006 when a round-table initiated by the President led to the Universal. Presumably President Yushchenko had not heard the English saying of “once bitten, twice shy”.

Receiving $100,000 as honorariums for academic work is an unbelievable amount. As seen in Viktor Melnyk’s commentary http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2007/3/19/55968.htm, I am not the only one who therefore remains skeptical of the President receiving $100,000 in honorariums. This is something I am only too well aware of from my own personal experience in this field. As the most prolific book and academic article writer on Ukraine I know that academic articles and books never receive honorariums. Articles written for the media of 1,000 words only obtain a maximum of $300-400.

As to talks, presidents only receive payments for these after they have left office and become elder statesmen, such as Mikhail Gorbachev and Bill Clinton who have been on speaking tours. The president’s wife, Kataryna, who reportedly has expensive tastes, is also a high earner. Her income in 2006 was 462, 000 hryvni. How much of this is official salary as Ukraine’s First Lady is difficult to ascertain. Interestingly, three years earlier when Yushchenko’s only employment was as head of Our Ukraine and Kataryna was not yet First Lady she then earned about the same as today. The Leonid Kuchma era was not too bad for some people, was it?