Ukraine cuts pension for former president

KIEV, Ukraine – Ukraine’s Cabinet on Saturday stripped former President Leonid Kuchma of a plush retirement package that featured a monthly pension, two cars, a government home and much more.

New Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko had ordered the government to come up with a new, slimmed-down package for former officials.

Kuchma’s privileges were canceled based on a decision by the Ministry of Justice that the previous government “exceeded its responsibilities,” the Cabinet said in a statement.

On Jan. 19, five days before President Viktor Yushchenko was sworn in, acting Prime Minister Mykola Azarov signed an order giving Kuchma a monthly salary of $1,560 and allowing him and his wife, Lyudmyla, to keep their government-owned home in Ukraine’s most exclusive enclave. The package also gave Kuchma two aides, an adviser, two cars, four drivers and a countryside residence.

Anger against Kuchma runs deep in this former Soviet republic of 48 million. Many Ukrainians accuse him of having run the state like a personal fiefdom, enriching those close to him while the rest of the nation was choked by poverty and corruption.

Yushchenko, sacked by Kuchma in acrimony as prime minister in 2000, has cranked up the pressure on the previous government, ordering all sales of state property to be re-examined along with alleged “insider” deals under the previous regime.

The average monthly salary in Ukraine is about $120, and many villages are mired in poverty – surviving without hot water and with only sporadic electricity.