Yushchenko defends son's high life

[Judi Lynn]

July 28, 2005

Yushchenko defends son's high life
From Jeremy Page in Moscow

VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO, the President of Ukraine, has retaliated against 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 £57,000 BMW M6, the only one of its kind in Kiev, and owns a £23,000 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 £600 a bottle.

Mr Yushchenko told a news conference that his son had a consultancy job which allowed him to hire the car and the bodyguards and that the 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 to sweep him to power last year.
(snip/...)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1710962,00.html

[Karmakaze]

1. I anyone else as unsurprised as I am?

The whole election/poisoning and all the American interference always seemed like a con to me.

Now we find out that Yuschenko may not be as clean as he made out.

I wish I had a friend that handed out 23,000 pound mobile phones as gifts.

[Wetzelbill]

2. right here

It seemed like a globalizer's wet dream to fight and get a Pro-U.S. guy in office. Especially in an area of the world where the Caspian and other energy related resources are causing the Greedmongers over here to salivate.

[Javaman]

4. It's amazing what republican money can do...

If his son is living that way, we can only imagine what Daddy is getting.

What we are watching here is the making of another moron*

[annabanana]

3. "consultancy job"

from further down in the article:

“Everybody must understand that if the President’s son has a good salary and is only 19 this salary is a bribe.”
-Yelena Pritula, the Editor of Ukrainska Pravda

...um...think she has a point?