Presidential election to trigger no mass protest actions-Yanukovich.

KIEV, February 6 (Itar-Tass) -- The results of Ukraine's presidential
election runoff due on February 7 will provide no reason for mass protest
actions, one of the two contenders for the presidency, Viktor Yanukovich,
said on the Inter television channel on Friday evening.

"I am pretty certain that the Ukrainian people will have their say in
these elections, and their message will be easy to understand and
convincing enough," Yanukovich, the leader of the Party of Regions said.
"Everything else will be very useless for the loser side - for Prime
Minister Yulia Timoshenko, who, I believe, has realized already that she
has no chances any more."
"In the first round the electorate vote for change. The past two weeks
proved not enough for Timoshenko to persuade the people they were wrong,"
Yanukovich said.
Asked if the Party of Regions was prepared to defend its victory in
courts of law, Yanukovich answered in the affirmative.
"We shall defend the choice of our voters. The truth is ours. We are
far stronger," he said.

.Yanukovich says corruption is Ukraine's arch foe.


KIEV, February 6 (Itar-Tass) -- Ukrainian presidential candidate,
leader of the Party of Regions Viktor Yanukovich, has declared that in
case of his victory in the February 7 presidential election runoff he will
declare war on corruption.
He was interviewed on the Inter television channel late Friday
evening, the last day of the election campaign.
"The struggle against corruption is an urgent need and a priority," he
said. "We have adopted a package of anti-corruption laws that will go
effective as of the second half of 2010," Yanukovich recalled.
For this purpose a special anti-corruption bureau is to be created to
start eliminating corruption painstakingly and systematically.
"It will be established in the first half of 2010," Yanukovich
promised. "This is a procedure all countries went through."
He promised that parliament would draft more anti-corruption laws in
the first half of this year.
"There has to be a system, and that system will ensure steady struggle
against corruption," he said.

.Ukraine must get back to idea of pipeline consortium - Yanukovich.

KIEV, February 6 (Itar-Tass) -- Ukraine must get back to the idea of
creating an international gas pipeline consortium, the leader of the
oppositional Party of Regions, Viktor Yanukovich, said in an interview on
the Inter TV channel during the last hours of the presidential election
campaign, when asked about his idea of a fair price of gas for Ukraine.
"We should get back to the plan for creating a gas pipeline
consortium. This will be more beneficial, than laying new gas pipelines,"
Yanukovich said. In his opinion, the Ukrainian pipelines are capable of
transiting to Europe up to 200 billion cubic meters of gas a year.
"We shall be able to regulate our price, if we begin to regulate
profits in this sector of the economy," he said. Yanukovich believes that
such a gas consortium will reconcile the interests of consumers in Europe,
gas providers from Russia and Central Asia, and also those of Ukraine as
the transit country.
Yanukovich recalled that before Ukraine was capable of re-exporting
several billion cubic meters of gas and in this way to establish a fair
price of gas for its industries.
"We cannot afford to be weak in the gas market," he said.
"Over the past five years the Nord Stream and South Stream pipelines
have begun to be laid, and both bypass Ukrainian territory," Yanukovich
recalled. In five years from today these two systems will be able to
transport 80 billion cubic meters of gas. In the meantime, the Ukrainian
pipeline system has lost about 25 billion cubic meters.
"During this very short period of time we also lost credibility with
our partners - Russia and Europe, because we let them down all too often,"
Yanukovich said.

.Ukraine may restore presidential form of rule - Timoshenko.

KIEV, February 6 (Itar-Tass) -- Ukrainian presidential candidate,
Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko, believes that the presidential form of
rule may work well in the country on the condition the head of state is
stripped of immunity and the independence of the judiciary is guaranteed.
Timoshenko appeared on Ukraine's three television channels on Friday
evening to use the last hours of the election campaign to share with the
electorate her attitude to the most topical issues on the country's
current agenda.
She believes that immediately after the election society must be asked
what type of rule is preferable to it - presidential or parliamentary.
"If we opt for the presidential model, with all of its attributes,
then the immunity of the president, members of parliament and government
ministers must be abolished. Also, the courts must be so independent and
so sufficient for making legal decisions that the people, including the
opposition, will surely find it easier to go to courts and to bring the
official responsible - the president, the prime minister, or a member of
the Cabinet to justice.
Timoshenko also wants to see the judges' proper responsibility for
gross and deliberate misjudgements.
"Then the presidential form of rule may work," she said.

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