Vitaly Kovalchuk
For over two weeks, the media has been reporting on an internal conflict within the UDAR party between leader Vitali Klitschko and his deputy, Vitali Kovalchuk. The latter has begun frequently visiting the Presidential Administration to negotiate, and Klitschko suspected his protégé of underhanded dealings.
As a result, this time Kovalchuk will no longer be heading UDAR's central headquarters for the Verkhovna Rada elections, a position that has already been offered to another MP from the faction, Pavlo Ryabikin (he was the chairman of the joint Klitschko-Poroshenko campaign headquarters for the Kyiv elections, where UDAR won the mayoral post and 79 seats on the Kyiv City Council out of a possible 120 – Ed.).
Party sources say complaints against Kovalchuk arose back in 2012, when, as chairman of the party headquarters, he lobbied for the inclusion of certain individuals on the party's electoral list during the parliamentary elections. UDAR itself received 40% fewer votes than polling showed. At the time, Kovalchuk attributed this to the Party of Regions' exploitation of administrative resources.
But only now has a real conflict erupted between them, as Klitschko's deputy has already been openly negotiating with Solidarity representatives behind his party boss's back about a format for joint participation in the parliamentary elections. It's said that Kovalchuk pledged to persuade Klitschko to merge his candidates into the general list of the Poroshenko Bloc, hoping to secure the position of Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada or First Deputy Prime Minister in the new Cabinet of Ministers after the elections.
Apparently, when the current mayor of Kyiv learned of this, he was displeased with his fellow party member's "behind-the-scenes" dealings and removed Kovalchuk from the negotiation process and the opportunity to influence the composition of the electoral list.
Incidentally, a disappointing sign for Klitschko of Bankova's secret agreements with Kovalchuk came when, on September 2, the first day of the new Verkhovna Rada session, Kovalchuk, without consulting his faction, addressed journalists and announced that UDAR would run in the elections as part of Petro Poroshenko's bloc. Eyewitnesses report that after this, Klitschko was beside himself at a meeting of the party's political council and gave his associates a real dressing-down. They say that from that moment on, Klitschko and his party deputy completely stopped communicating.
Thus, Vitaly Kovalchuk, who always liked to repeat in interviews that not a single decision was made in the UDAR party without him, was left out of the picture. His extensive experience trading places on the electoral list and votes in parliament also went unused.
But the "grey cardinal" decided not to give in and began to turn regional party leaders against Vitali Klitschko, asking them to raise the issue of restoring Kovalchuk's status quo. By doing so, he wants to demonstrate to his boss that he controls the majority of regional party organizations and force Klitschko to make concessions.
Furthermore, as a senior presidential official noted, Kovalchuk continues to negotiate with Poroshenko's entourage about a possible transition to the president's political party. However, the problem is that Poroshenko has categorically opposed any steps that would go against the will of Klitschko and the UDAR party as a political partner.
So, for now, Kovalchuk's plans to transfer all of his "own" people from the UDAR party to a more promising political project remain just wishful thinking. And Vitaliy Anatolyevich has probably forgotten that without Klitschko's brand and approval ratings, he and his UDAR followers are a complete nobody.
UDAR itself unofficially notes that the situation is under control and there is no talk of a split within the party. However, they also add that Vitaly Kovalchuk's future within UDAR is not so rosy.
"If it weren't for the Rada elections, Kovalchuk would have been kicked out of the party right now. No one wants public confrontations before the elections. The party headquarters is run by Pavlo Ryabikin, whom Klitschko trusts and who has established contacts with Poroshenko's people. Kovalchuk is currently in no position to make any decisions and has lost trust through his intrigues. I think his expulsion from the party is a matter of time and the appropriateness of the moment. Klitschko values his reputation too much to allow anyone to trade it," one UDAR member of parliament eloquently commented on the situation.
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