It is not true that one cannot step in the same river twice. At the very least, in politics it is a common practice. Fifty-year-old Anatoliy Kinakh is an apt illustration thereof. It is for the second time in his life that the native of a Moldovan village called Bratushany has become the First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine. He could (or would) even run for the premiership again, though…

Though nobody took Anatoly Kinakh’s prime ministerial ambitions seriously, the leader of the Ukrainian union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (and the party of the same name) seemed to disagree. On 5 January he claimed: “I am positive I have enough will, stamina and professionalism to be the prime minister. I have no doubt whatsoever on this score”. He also dropped a hint that the future president’s allies had kicked up “a fuss over portfolios.” (At the time the Central Election Commission was still counting votes). He used the interview as an opportunity to second Viktor Yushchenko’s opinion that the prime minister should not represent big business.

Yuliya Tymoshenko should be happy with her right hand in the Cabinet: not only can she be sure Kinakh will not form intrigues against her, but she may be hoping to limit her first deputy’s purview as well. By all accounts, she sees him as a reliable chaperone and a conscientious coordinator. It is questionable, though, whether Kinakh will be content with the role assigned to him.

The President insisted on Kinakh’s appointment, although we are still in the dark as to Viktor’s Yushchenko’s plans for the man. Under Kuchma, first vice prime ministers operated as his watchdogs, rather than as Cabinet coordinators. Let us hope the new President will not need any. At the same time, Kinakh cannot be considered Yushchenko’s man. He is no-one’s man, which is both his strength and his weakness.

In 1990, during the first democratic elections in Ukraine, the head of production-dispatching department of the OCEAN Plant in Mykolayiv won against all odds, and in 1992 MP Kinakh was surprisingly chosen to represent President Kravchuk in Mykolayiv oblast. Leonid Kravchuk thought him to be the most industrious and the least ambitious of all the gubernatorial candidates. In 1994, Kinakh was elected head of Mykolayiv Oblast Council, and another year later he was appointed Vice Prime Minister in charge of industrial policy. Having resigned from the government in 1996, Kinakh stayed in Leonid Kuchma’s team as a non-staff industrial policy adviser and a leader of the Ukrainian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (which Kuchma once headed). In the same year, Kinakh joined the People’s Democratic Party formed by the president, with a view to taking part in the 1998 parliamentary elections. In Parliament, Kinakh chaired the Committee for Industrial Policy, using the position as a springboard to the Cabinet of Ministers to which he was appointed in 1999 as the First Vice Prime Minister.

In 2001, Kinakh got another chance: the SDPU(o) leader Viktor Medvedchuk lobbied for his premiership, hoping to gain control over the government through him. Yet, according to political idealists, Kinakh turned out to be a more resolute and independent man than expected; or, according to political cynics, did not cope well with the complex and wide-ranging tasks set by Medvedchuk. Anyway, many agree he was not the worst Prime Minister Ukraine has ever had. Kinakh believed he had come to the Cabinet to stay. For the premier’s chair he declined to become number two on the pro-Kuchma “For a United Ukraine!” Bloc in the 2002 parliamentary election. He also hoped Kuchma would pick him as a successor, even after the President dismissed him in November 2002.

In 2003, Kinakh was seriously considered as a candidate for the Secretary of the National Council for Security and Defence, but never received an actual offer. Since then he started drifting towards the opposition. His personal conflict with Viktor Yanukovych was the last straw. After the ex-premier stated last summer that a person with a criminal record had no right to be the national leader, it became evident that Kinakh was burning his bridges. His nomination for the presidency was geared towards promoting the Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Ukraine in the run-up to the 2006 parliamentary elections. The “orange revolution” gave him yet another chance to return to the central government.