It's an honor to welcome to LARRY KING LIVE the president of the Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko. We thank him very much for coming. We welcome him to New York for this big U.N. anniversary.
But first about your reaction to what this country has been going through with Hurricane Katrina.
VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE (through translator): First of all, I think the whole world was watching what was going on in the United States of America during Katrina hurricane and I think you received a lot of sympathy from different countries of the world including Ukraine. And we made a decision to send aircraft -- heavy cargo aircrafts to help in the rescue operations. Of course we would like to avoid these kind of things and because anyway it means pain and it doesn't truly matter whether we're speaking about separate families or we're speaking about people living in the other parts of the world, but it means losses.
KING: There are some who suggest, Mr. President, that because the government's, the American government's initial reaction was so slow, this has somehow caused people around the world to think less of us. Caused you to think less of us?
YUSHCHENKO (through translator): I think every nation can think less of its government and is not that always that a good job has in the continuation, also a good job. That is why those kind of comments were not addressed directly to the American government. There were some reasons for that, but I think the United States of America just perfectly demonstrated how it was able at the patriotic level to respond to such challenges as like terrorist attacks, Katrina Hurricane, and I think people all over the world are more sympathetic with the American nation. They are very much fascinated how America considers this problem, how the nation is being -- is putting the efforts together.
Of course the authorities cannot work perfectly all the time and in general I believe that the nation positively responded to this challenge with dignity.
KING: The whole world knows what happened to you, what they did to you. How are you feeling?
YUSHCHENKO: Well I'm feel right now much better then I felt 12 months ago. Even now when you have some kind of a scale when were in the intensive care and you were not sure going to return to this world, but all the rest which became different after that, so I regard this a success. I'm very happy that God didn't take anything from me, neither my mind neither my force, actually. I'm in intensive care -- it shows, to some extent I'm recovering. It's not that easy, it is very difficult, naturally.
But I know that most of the people who had this kind of experience that I had, most of them just past this world -- left this world. But this is my own kind of measurement and it at least gives me the impression how much I thank both to God and to my family.
You know, when I was in hospital, in all churches of Ukraine people prayed for my recovery. And you know, I just can't imagine how much I should pay to those people, how long I should stay on my knees in order to pay the tribute to all their voices and efforts. Well, of course during that period of 11 months there were some tragic things, there were some unique things, but there were some also very happy things. I'm alive, I'm the president of the country, I won the elections and the nation stays with me. This is a happiness.
KING: Was it a strange kind of poison? What was it that they did to you?
YUSHCHENKO: As the experts say, that was a modernized dioxin -- dioxin which is very easy to be dissolved in water and that is why it can penetrate deeply in you body. And that was its peculiar feature.
And the second thing, actually, it happened so that I didn't drink everything that I was allowed to drink -- oh I didn't eat all that was prepared for me -- what was cooked for me and -- because there were people around me who were telling me not to (UNINTELLIGIBLE). But those where just the circumstances. But probably the day of administration of this poison something went wrong, something didn't work, probably in terms of the amount of poison. Well it was very high, but for my body it wasn't enough to be completely poisoned with lethal results.
KING: Thank god.
Now, when we come back I want to ask you about what's going on in your government and your meetings with our secretary of state. We'll be right back with the president of Ukreaine, Viktor Yushchenko. Don't go away.
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KING: We're back with President Viktor Yushchenko, the president of the Ukraine who met recently with our secretary of state, Condi Rice. How did that meeting go? The undersecretary of state Nicholas Burns said that Ukraine is headed in the right direction despite recent upheaval. How do you react to all of that? YUSHCHENKO: This is true. We have a strategic goal, we have a clearcut road map being sure of what we are going to do in the international arena, what we are going to do in our bilateral relations with United States of America. United States of America is our strategic partner. And that is why my answer to this question will be very brief. Let's take four or five following months. We want to achieve those things that we failed to achieve over the last four years: First of all to get the status of the county with the market economy then sign a bilateral protocol with the United States of America on mutual access of goods and services.
Then lifting Jackson-Vannik amendment and you know that American Congress sent to the Senate the relevant petition and we hope that very soon this issue will be resolved in December. We would like to get the membership in the WTO and the second term (ph) at the beginning of the next year, we plan to open the negotiations with the European Union on establishing a free trade area between Ukraine and the EU. But we need partners in order to be this quick (ph). And in this case, bilateral components, Ukraine-US relations is an integral part of this logic and for administration of Ukraine.
And if we speak about North Atlantic Alliance, starting from April we intensified our dialogue with this body and we believe that the pace of the dialogue and the level of understanding between EU-Ukraine, and Ukraine-NATO and Ukraine-United States of America over the last seven months has radically changed for the better.
KING: You would say you're optimistic?
YUSHCHENKO: Yes. Yes.
KING: All right, the recent dismissal -- you dismissed the prime minister and cabinet members. One of them Yulia Tymoshenko was one of the key partners in your revolution. What happened?
YUSHCHENKO: Well, they were partners, actually, in the revolution -- we stood together in Independence Square but despite, this we all represented different political forces. I brought her to power, I gave her a lot of authority. I gave a lot of authority to the prime minister, to the state secretary, to the secretary to the National Security and Defense Council. Then later on some kind of misunderstanding appeared among the members of the team and finally we got like zero level of trust between the members of the team. There were different reasons for that. Some of them believed that what another side was taking too much authority. Some of them regarded that the other side was working actually for public than for the benefit of the country. Some decided to use personal interest, and those personal interests prevailed over state interest. And that was in full contradiction with the ideas that were declared in the Independence Square, and that was not my policy. That was not my type of aspiration.
And when I noticed that this kind of conflict emerged, I dedicated a lot of time in order to make them stretch their hands to each other. Well, to make it shortly, it didn't happen. And that is why I didn't -- I didn't want the crisis of interpersonal relations to be transferred into political crisis or even worse crisis. And that is why with all my respect to them, I told them that the other people should come to the authority, should come to the power. You will remain my partners, you will remain my friends, but what you are doing does not correspond to my concept of the development of the country and to my obligations as the obligations of president.
KING: The cabinet has to agree with the president? Right? That's the way you're looking at it. But Ms. Tymoshenko has said that you fired her because she is so popular. Any truth to that?
YUSHCHENKO: No, it is not the truth. The president of Ukraine is the most popular, excuse me for not being too modest. But it's not -- it's not the case. I just believe that everybody has to do his or her own job. If it doesn't happen, if somebody from the team is trying to use the personal method, but not the team approach, it is potentially, I understand, a serious blow to the team what happened, I mean, but you understand I just faced one choice, either to have Ukraine that I was dreaming of or to deal with the problems of the prime minister, to deal with the problems state secretary or the problems of the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council. Or I shall deal with their problems of interpersonal communication and that was going on for seven months. I got sick and tired of that.
KING: I understand. What's the biggest problem that your country faces?
YUSHCHENKO: The country didn't feel the process of consolidation for a long time. It just happened so that probably over the last 70 years when Ukraine was spoken about, different things were said about Ukraine, like you got nothing to be united for, you are separated, to Eastern and to Western Ukraine. You have different religious confessions, so you don't have one confession. You have different outlooks as for the prospects of the Ukraine, you support European integration, some of you support oriental or Eastern integration. You have different history in different parts of the country and so and so forth.
At the end of the day, very often the nation didn't look integrated or united -- the nation wasn't identified properly. And during the elections I would say that was the problem number one. When there was competition, not between the ideals how to make Ukraine a better place to live, but there was a competition or kind of a demonstration -- and this is true that we speak different languages, some of us speak Russian, some speak Ukrainian, but we are not different because of that. We can speak any language you want, but we can be Ukrainians in our hearts and in our souls.
Well, for example, I was born in eastern part of Ukraine, but I dream about the European integration. It's not because I do not care about the East. Well, there are Ukrainian interests in the East. It would be a foolish thing to ignore that, but right now we're speaking about a strategic concept of the development of the country; that concept lies in the west of Ukraine. And I can tell you that, that was a kind of a challenge -- challenge that often exists or is visible at the political level. It's not visible the everyday life level. That's why I decided to dedicate my policy to that and whenever I make an interview, whenever I speak in front of a camera, I start my statement that we are all united; we are not divided by language, we are not divided different confessions, we are not divided by religion.
I mean, probably it may sound like common for every society, but America is -- Americans feel united despite the fact they have different confessions. You can go into another block of a city and hear a different language. But the nation looks like it's -- it is a united nation.
KING: What is your relationship with Mr. Putin?
YUSHCHENKO: Normal one. I can tell you frankly and easily. But I understand the bottom line of that. Well, Ukraine and Russian relations have never been very simple. Well, I'm speaking about common history, common traditions and quite a lot of mutual dependency. But if we speak about current status of relations, well, I feel pretty good that president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and his team realize that there is a difference in the level of integration of Ukraine economic area in the East.
In our policy, we will try to protect the national interest. I know that in Russia such a statement, especially made by the president of Ukraine, surprised many people. Some people just rejected that, but I used to tell, Dear friends, if we can see -- look into each other's eyes, let's work together and where we have common interests we will be the partners, we will never betray our partnership. And we will never hurt Russia. We will never work against Russia. Russia is our neighbor and our -- my policy is to teach the nation, to teach the business, and to teach the neighbors how to live respecting each other. It's not that simple. But, I'm pretty convinced that, that will happen.
KING: We'll be back with our remaining moments with the president of the Ukraine. A great pleasure to welcome him to the United States, Viktor Yushchenko. We'll be right back.
YUSHCHENKO: We highly appreciate the message sent by your country's leadership before the elections and during the Orange Revolution. It was clear and unambiguous. The U.S. condemned fraud and upheld Ukraine's right to freely elect their government.
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KING: We're back with the president of the Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko. We thank him very much for giving us this time, for airing tonight. He heads back to his country after a three-day visit to our country.
Back to the poisoning -- no one has ever been charged with this?
YUSHCHENKO: Not yet. There are investigations still underway. Since this kind of poisoning does not happen like every year or every five years and there are quite a lot of problems in terms of knowing exactly what kind of poison was used, what kind of impact it has through the period of time -- because it's very -- it's very much important for forensic examination and that is why quite a lot of time was spent on finding these facts. But the investigation is underway. The investigation is carried out by the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine. Of course I would like to see more answers to the question, but not all questions can be answered right now.
But the circumstances around the poison are pretty simple. A late dinner -- normally I do not have any dinner and that was a very late dinner. And the timing, when it happened -- the timing was pretty clear. But of course there is a certain procedures, procedure for the investigation, for forensic examination, and it took a lot of time in order to realize what kind of poison was used, how it could be produced, how it could have been -- could have brought to Ukraine and how it was administered, actually, and so on and so forth.
KING: Do you have any thoughts of your own as to who might have done it?
YUSHCHENKO: Yes. I got some ideas. Because we are speaking about pretty small group of people who -- some of who could have been involved and like stayed next to me and the time period was a couple of hours. And we are speaking about a small group of people, but this is a case for the National Security Service of Ukraine and for the Prosecutors General's Office of Ukraine. Well, in terms of giving specific names I think it is up to the investigation office not up to my emotions.
KING: But are these people you occasionally run into?
YUSHCHENKO: Well some of them are not on the territory of Ukraine.
KING: But some are.
YUSHCHENKO: Well some are, that's true.
KING: All right, how have you dealt with what it did to your face -- emotionally?
YUSHCHENKO: Well first, it's very difficult because I got use to seeing such Yushchenko every day in the mirror every morning. The most painful thing for me was how my children perceived this, how my family perceived this. Because children, you know, they do not know any diplomatic language and sometimes they can tell you directly what they think. But I'm really grateful to them for accepting me the way I am. It's not -- I'm not in the best shape of course, and -- but the time will go by and I'm just pretty sure that I will completely recover from that. I will find a way from the cycle of this illiness, of this disease because some stages of the program of recovery -- the program of treatment and there are some specific terms when some inflammation process will be stopped and then I will be able to say that there is some kind of improvement on my face.
But it just -- I had to -- we just need to understand one thing that poisoning is not just a simple flu and it's not like you wake up tomorrow and you are absolutely different, because you will remain the same the day after tomorrow and so on and so forth. Probably then, in the future, you will get your initial look, but it takes time.
KING: So the doctors expect it to get better?
YUSHCHENKO: Naturally. Today 50 percent of the poison is removed from my body and such a pace -- nobody had such a pace. I think only three individuals in Europe who experienced this kind of poisoning, but the stages of that poison were different. First case, I think it happened about 10 years ago and that is why some kind of comparison is made, comparison of my case with his case, but in terms of my, like, indicators -- my indicators are very promising because I am the former Kossack -- my family is Kossack family I know that a removement process, or removing the poison from the body is in very good progress.
KING: A couple of other areas, there have been some questions about the lifestyle of your 19-year-old son. Critics complain -- I'm reading this from notes given me -- that he drives a very costly car, a BMW, he has a platinum-plated mobile phone, private bodyguards. You got angry at a reporter who questioned you about this. Is this the public's business?
YUSHCHENKO: Well, I think on the one side, this is the problem of the age. I will be frank with you, because you are also father of children. I am pretty much satisfied with my children; there are five of them. The oldest one is 21-years-old. That is the person who has good moral attitudes. He is the believer, actually. And I would say he is a mature person. His lifestyle is a common lifestyle for the people his age, and I do not think that there are any problems that I could feel pain. You know, but rather some things happen in this life, for example the same mobile phone. I do not pay any attention to these kind of things. I never ask any questions. I think all the phones cost $200 to $300 U.S. This is the impression that I have. I do not know what he has to do, or what he should do in order to pay $1000 U.S. for that?
Well, and it is not my way and I've got no attraction to that. But when it happens, during my campaigning, he was hit by the car, actually. He found another car to rent, and that car was brought into Ukraine and it was brought in by his friend. He's involved in these kind of things and that is his occupation. But it wasn't registered. And I told my son, please leave this car, give it back, repair your old car. And drive your own car. But it happened so that I left Kiev and I live near Kiev. And he didn't have any place to live, so he is rent -- to lease for the period of six months some premises to live until I complete the repair of my living space.
Well, but those are the details. In one case after another case, in such a way the image was created.
KING: The main thing: is he a good boy?
YUSHCHENKO: Yeah, he is a good boy. You know I feel pretty calm in my soul. I understand, of course, that sometimes I was over emotions, but I also believe that you need to get used to live in publicly.
KING: Ain't easy.
YUSHCHENKO: Otherwise it's not possible. Well, I think that was the lesson for everybody.
KING: Mr. President, I thank you very much -- an honor meeting you.
The president of the Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko.
