The government of Viktor Yanukovych, which the country inherited from the anti-crisis majority, is intensifying its efforts to maintain a good face during a bad game. On the eve of the election campaign that has already started, phrases are being heard that the current Cabinet of Ministers nearly saved the state from socio-economic collapse. Government officials, as if on command, have started a monotonous record about their own strange successes, seasoning their bravura speeches with convincing figures about the growth of gross domestic product, salaries, pensions, and low inflation.

But the data of the State Statistics Committee indicate otherwise. According to official figures, the growth rate of real incomes of the population has halved: from 19.8% in May last year to 10.5% in May of this year. Over the same period, the growth rate of real wages also noticeably decreased: from 23.9% to 11.9%. In addition, June of the current year was marked by the highest inflation rate in the last seven years. Thus, already this year prices have risen by 18%, while wages and incomes of the population have risen by only 9–10%. The GDP growth of 7% declared by the government turned out to be significantly smaller than the inflationary jump. Moreover, the main contribution to GDP growth is made by metallurgy, which produces goods for shipment abroad. Therefore, a significant part of the gross product is an artificial growth of indicators.

Ordinary Ukrainians felt the inflated government figures not in their pockets, as Cabinet officials promised, but on their own skin, buying food and essential goods. The reasons for this are obvious. This year, reforms in the agro-industrial complex that had been started by the "orange" governments since 2005 were completely halted. The price of bread has risen. The rise in price of sugar is next in line. Artificially cheap imports of meat passing through controlled special economic zones led to a sharp reduction in livestock numbers in Ukrainian animal husbandry. The resumption of the activity of the SEZs led to the state budget losing more than 600 million hryvnias due to dubious tax preferences and non-payment of customs duties on imports. The Cabinet's unjustified ban on grain exports led to multimillion losses for farmers and problems with Ukraine's accession to the World Trade Organization. The privatization program has been fulfilled by only 10%, as a result of which the state budget received hundreds of millions of hryvnias less. The program for preparing the country for the heating season has practically been disrupted.

The activity of the government of "professionals" has led to the fact that since the beginning of the year no funds have been allocated for the most important state social programs. For the first time in the last few years, wage arrears have sharply increased. In 2006–2007 alone, Yanukovych's government increased external borrowing by 100 billion hryvnias, which will have to be repaid not only by the next Cabinet leaders but also by our descendants. In this connection, the leader of the "Our Ukraine – People's Self-Defense" bloc, Yuriy Lutsenko, stated: "This is a government of national betrayal, because in the short time of its existence it increased the external debt by 100 billion hryvnias. It is only unknown where they went. But we and our children will have to repay them." Yuriy Lutsenko openly calls the current government "a government of lies, irresponsibility, and mutual cover-up."

But, it seems, "Vasko listens and eats." Yanukovych's government has come forward with an initiative to establish even higher pensions for numerous ministerial officials. In addition, in just eight months of the current Cabinet's activity, its staffs were immoderately inflated. The number of deputy ministers alone increased by 43 people! In this regard, the leader of the "Our Ukraine" party, Vyacheslav Kyrylenko, stated: "At a time when millions of labor pensioners are awaiting an increase in pensions and demand that the authorities put an end to pension egalitarianism, Yanukovych's government is busy improving the lives of high-ranking officials and proposes to increase the pensions of former ministers almost to the level of a ministerial salary. Fortunately, after the elections there will be a new majority and a new government that will prevent the implementation of these cynical plans. On the contrary, we will eliminate all privileges and special pensions for deputies and ministers, and increase pensions for labor pensioners by 35%."

Yanukovych's government, which has entered the election campaign, is now telling the people another round of fairy tales. About the fact that wages and pensions will grow by 25% by the end of the year, that it will return to people their devalued bank deposits, and so on. It is remembered that something similar happened in 2004 as well, when the same government employed the scenario of "handouts to the people" from the master's shoulder. How all of this ended then is still fresh in memory. The one-time injections quickly ran out, provoking a price inflation jump and creating a multibillion deficit hole in the budget. A similar plot threatens to repeat itself again. Of course, if people have forgotten the past and are not thinking about the future.