03/21/2001 | Rost

KYIV, Mar. 20 (Ukrainian News) - President Leonid Kuchma has signed a decree dismissing the heads of the Zaporizhia and Lviv regional administrations, the presidential press service said on Tuesday.
According to presidential administration information and public relations head Ihor Storozhuk, Zaporizhia regional chairman Oleksy Kucherenko and Lviv regional chairman Stepan Senchuk were dismissed from their posts for allegedly combining their gubernatorial jobs with other jobs.

"One remains a member of parliament to date, I mean Kucherenko, while Senchuk heads the regional council," Storozhuk said.

Kucherenko, 40, was appointed chairman of the Zaporizhia regional administration in June 2000.

He served simultaneously as the first deputy head of the parliamentary committee for the fuel and energy industry, nuclear policy and nuclear safety. He is also a member of the Regional Rebirth parliamentary faction.

Senchuk, 46, was appointed chairman of the Lviv regional administration in January 1999.

Senchuk has also headed the Lviv regional council since April 1998.

The presidential press service did not disclose who will be appointed to replace the dismissed regional governors and when.

Volodymyr Malynkovych, a political scientist, told Ukrainian News that President Kuchma's decision to dismiss the two governors could be connected with his efforts to increase his influence in these regions against the background of the current political crisis in which he is embroiled.

"These governors have not demonstrated the type of loyalty that the president demanded," Malynkovych said.

Malynkovych noted that the Lviv region is one of the strongholds of the anti-Kuchma opposition.

Earlier in March, Kuchma told all government officials and state-employed workers that they should publicly pledge their support for presidential policies or resign from their posts if they sympathize with opposition calls that Kuchma resign.
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Dodam vid sebe: naskil'ky meni vidomo, Senchuk i tak buv "kuchmivs'kym" - mozhe, jak ne staravsja, nedostatnjo? Napryklad, dopustyv students'ki strajky, a sam - "u vidpustku"