Ukraine’s Security Service Chief appointed new Finance Minister

PanARMENIAN.Net - Ukraine’s Security Service Chief Valery Khoroshkovsky will replace Finance Minister Fedir Yaroshenko, who resigned earlier, President Viktor Yanukovych said, according to Bloomberg.

Yanukovych appointed Khoroshkovsky, 43, as security service chief in March 2010. He served as economy minister in 2002-2004, when Yanukovych was prime minister, and has been president of Russian steel company EvrazHolding LLC and the head of Ukraine’s customs service, according to a biography posted on the security service’s website.

“Khoroshkovsky is not the worst candidate,” Alexander Valchyshen, head of research at Investment Capital Ukraine in Kiev, said by phone. “He has some experience as he was an economy minister as also he probably knows how to speak to investors as he was president of EvrazHolding.”

Yaroshenko’s exit probably reflects “broader stresses” in the economy, Tim Ash, head of emerging-market research at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in London, said. The government is battling “against declining popular support, a weakening budget and external financing position set against a break in relations with the IMF and problems in closing an agreement to deliver cheap gas from Russia.”