Yushchenko rattled over son’s lavish life

July 31st, 2005 at 14:04 Björn Hallberg

Where is your orange revolution now?

Ukranian President Viktor Yushchenko has hit back at critics who have asked awkward questions about his son’s lavish lifestyle.

Ukrainska Pravda, an online newspaper that backed Mr Yushchenko in the Orange Revolution, reported that his son Andriy, 19, drives a $131,000 BMWM6, the only one of its kind in Kiev, and owns a $53,000 platinum Vertu mobile phone.

The international relations student was also said to frequent Kiev’s top clubs, accompanied by one of two private bodyguards, and to drink pink champagne at $1380 a bottle.

Mr Yushchenko told a news conference his son had a consultancy job that allowed him to hire the luxury car and the bodyguards, and that the mobile phone was a gift from a friend.

Asked where his son worked, Mr Yushchenko snapped: “Act like a polite journalist and not like a hired killer.” The outburst shocked many of the journalists, who were among Mr Yushchenko’s staunchest supporters during the protests that helped sweep him to power last year.

So in essence …

“He came to power with the slogans that everybody would be equal in the eyes of the law and that he and his relatives would declare all their money. We only ask of him what he himself promised.

“Everybody must understand that if the President’s son has a good salary and is only 19, this salary is a bribe.”

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