President Leonid Kuchma and other members of the outgoing Ukrainian elite, including the heads of the rebellious eastern regions, may be prosecuted by the new government, the president-elect, Viktor Yushchenko, told the Guardian.

“The president has to answer under the law like any other citizen,” he said yesterday, with reference to Mr Kuchma, in his first interview with the western media since he won the Boxing Day’s runoff.

“Any citizen, any businessman, any politician whose actions do not correspond to national law must be punished, whether… they are the president’s son-in-law or his char lady in his office.”

The son-in-law he meant is Viktor Pinchuk, who has been accused by his critics of using his relationship to Mr Kuchma to buy state assets cheaply.

He added: “The respect for the law is one of the main methods of creating respect for human rights. Those who do not observe national law will never find understanding from this government.”

He said he could not exclude the possibility of criminal charges against local leaders in the industrial east.

Voters there backed the prime minister, Viktor Yanukovich, in the election and their leaders threatened to seek greater autonomy during the 16-day crisis that followed Mr Yanukovich’s vistory in the disallowed runoff.

But he added: “This will not happen in the context of political persecution.” ~The Guardian

Now Mr. Yushchenko has discovered the value of the rule of law! It only took a month of illegal mob activity to get him into power, but it’s good to know that President Yushchenko will be enforcing the laws for which he had such contempt as a candidate. In spite of his hackneyed claims that he would seek to ‘heal the wounds’ of the election controversy, his first public pronouncement on a substantive internal matter is to declare a witch hunt against his enemies–this is not political persecution, you understand. No, this will be Yushchenko’s definition of justice.

His other pronouncements detailed in the article indicate that he will be putting his people in all the key posts in the east to further centralise the government and he will have a true laissez-faire approach towards all his oligarchic chums.