Kuchma explains why he hired traitors Tabachnyk and Medvedchuk to his team
Leonid Kuchma (Photo: Stringer/EPA)

The second president Leonid Kuchma emphasized efficiency and professionalism in his recruitment. He spoke about this in an interview with BBC commenting on the traitors in his team, Viktor Medvedchuk and Dmytro Tabachnyk.

Kuchma said that when he took office as prime minister, Tabachnyk was already in the press service of the government's secretariat.

"Then he helped me in what is now called 'electoral technology' because I was not a politician, but a rocket and space designer," he said

According to Kuchma, Tabachnyk was working professionally and efficiently at the time, so after he won the presidential election, he appointed him to head his administration. However, he gradually began to abuse his new position, and when the then-president received evidence of this in 1996, he fired him.

"I met Medvedchuk when he was a member of parliament. In early 2000, he was one of the leaders of the "velvet revolution" in the Verkhovna Rada, when representatives of the left-wing communist camp were permanently removed from its leadership. Medvedchuk also 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 member of parliament could be effective in establishing cooperation with the Rada.

"I'll repeat: I emphasized efficiency and professionalism in my recruitment. Tabachnyk and Medvedchuk met these criteria: they were efficient bureaucrats and behaved and spoke in my presence as statesmen – otherwise I would not have kept them around," Kuchma emphasized.

The "anti-Ukrainian evolution" of Medvedchuk and Tabachnyk was unexpected and unpleasant for him. But the subsequent direct "betrayal" did not come as a shock to Kuchma, as it was already expected and logical.

"I stopped all 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 summarized.