Pavlo Lazarenko - Prime Minister

Prime Minister

Lazarenko was appointed Prime Minister of Ukraine by President Kuchma on 28 May 1996. The appointment was never considered by the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) because at that time the right to unilaterally appoint the Prime Minister was vested with the President under a provisional constitutional agreement.

Early in his career as PM, Lazarenko survived an attempt on his life when a bomb exploded near his blocked car en route from Kiev to Boryspil airport.

While in charge of the Cabinet, Lazarenko reportedly exercised control over many lucrative business projects and charged 50 percent of profits for his patronage. At that time, he maintained a close business relationship with Yulia Tymoshenko, then the CEO of Yedyni Energosystemy Ukrayiny (United Energy Systems of Ukraine), a monopoly that imported Russian natural gas.

Lazarenko was involved in a prolonged and bitter struggle for economic domination with the emerging "Donetsk clan" (an industrial group based in Donetsk). Some Ukrainian media indirectly accused Shcherban, the leader of the Liberal Party of Ukraine, of the 1996 assassination attempt on Lazarenko. Conversely, others speculated that Shcherban's murder was a tit-for-tat order by the Prime Minister.

He may have also plotted against Oleksandr Volkov, a close associate of President Kuchma. Reportedly, Volkov became aware of the planned assassination and made a phone call to Lazarenko threatening adequate revenge.

By mid-1997, Lazarenko had fallen out of favor with Kuchma, who suspected him of making plans to run for presidency in 1999. Kuchma later regretted Lazarenko's appointment as "my gravest mistake".

Lazarenko, who had no previous record of serious illness, was unexpectedly hospitalized in late June 1997. He most likely spent the two weeks of the leave for his supposed sickness in vain attempts to mend fences with Kuchma. Technically, under the Ukrainian labor code law, a hospitalized individual may not be fired. However, when his dismissal became imminent, Lazarenko resigned on 2 July 1997, on his own initiative. Thus far, he remains the only Ukrainian Prime Minister who formally resigned at his will.