Many of his friend-rivals envy Borys Klimchuk's political longevity. Even after going into a voluntary-forced resignation from the post of Volyn leader, he did not leave the political orbit. And so today Klimchuk is increasingly mentioned… The Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Ukraine to Lithuania is a frequent guest in the editorial office of "Simya i Dim." However, never before has his dialogue with us been so frank…

EXPENSIVE PETROL FEEDS PENSIONERS

- Allow me to start with the unpleasant... You were recently robbed…

- I regret the expensive watch most of all. Not many people in Ukraine wore such. I have already filed a civil lawsuit against the Lithuanian government, and they will return everything to me down to the last penny, I have good lawyers. They guarded me poorly, violated the Vienna Convention. My residence is near a park, there was no policeman there. The Lithuanians told me that a policeman located 150 meters away would guard me and the house. Well, he guarded me all right… Now, after the robbery, they assigned a separate policeman…

- The Balts were the quickest to escape from the USSR to the EU. How did this affect the well-being of citizens?

- A liter of petrol costs a dollar. First of all, one needs to grasp the government's policy on petrol. Should it be a social product? Lower the taxes – and it will become cheaper. But in Lithuania, on the contrary, taxes on fuel are considerable – 27 percent of budget revenues come from the oil refinery and petrol trade. It is expensive, but it feeds pensioners and teachers. In Lithuania I noticed fierce competition among producers. But for people this is good. A kilogram of select pork at the market (there are many of them, and very many …Poles trade there) costs on average 25 hryvnias. Quality sausage is one and a half to two times cheaper than in Ukraine.

– Borys Petrovych, in Ukraine entrepreneurs groan under the payroll burden, which amounts to 38.16 percent without the income tax that people pay.

- They groan too. Businessmen all over the world groan. Although statistics assure that Lithuania has created some of the best conditions for doing business in the EU. The average salary last year was 404 dollars. The level of the shadow economy they estimate at roughly 10 percent. There is no cash register culture like in Slovenia in Lithuania. But they are everywhere – in taxis, shops, market stalls. In Vilnius they don't wash sidewalks with laundry powder, in the city center you will see peeling buildings. There are also unsown fields with weeds here, remnants of ruined farms. But Lithuania has already been in the EU and NATO for a year. By the way, in October-November we are inviting deputy heads of regional state administrations from all over Ukraine to Lithuania for two-week courses. We got the money for this from …the British government. We will teach officials European laws so they know what this EU actually is.

"ONE SHOULD CRAWL AWAY FROM POWER…"

- Borys Petrovych, there were rumors that after the orange events you would return to the Kyiv Maidan…

- What misfortune? I didn't bury anything there. And if I had buried something, Frantsuz would have found it already… He searched for a very long time, down to the last nail… He gave me such a fine "lustration" that I walk around Kyiv as the "most lustrated" of all former and day-before-yesterday's [officials]. A wise Jew told me back in 2002: "Do you hear, Borys, do you hear, you will still be bringing good bribes to this President." There was a theme about returning. But not now, not at the moment. And perhaps never… I often told journalists that one shouldn't cling to power. One should crawl away from power. I am doing that. Perhaps someday I'll play a little at the political game of big uncles, if I see that it gets my adrenaline going. If that happens, it will be closer to the elections. At present I don't see any party groups in their classic form. Perhaps my train has already left, perhaps it's already too late…

– How do you assess the new government?

- A government like any government. How can one assess it in general? I would ask journalists to spare the Volyn government regarding average wages. Objectively, the average wage in Volyn will not be higher than in Zaporizhzhia or Kyiv. But Volyn residents started growing 10 years ago and haven't slowed the pace. But if it, the government, even though young and youthful, transgresses the law, then there is no forgiveness here. I am somewhat troubled by the public discussions between the governor and the prosecutor. I am not sure that this topic should be public. Today both the head of the administration and the prosecutor represent the new, post-revolutionary government. I don't hinder anyone's life in Volyn, I don't audit anyone. Nowadays I meet with the regional leadership more often than with Mr. Frantsuz. I had no desire at all to meet with him... What could I have talked with him about? Once I told him: "Anatoliy, here you are shouting that you won't let anyone live in the region. But your task is to improve people's lives. The President appointed you to this post precisely for this, and not to prevent them from living. To prevent them from living, there is the prosecutor's office, the KRV [State Control and Revision Service]." I long ago forgave all my enemies, but I remember their names.

"I KEEP THE CERTIFICATES ABOUT THE CLOSURE OF CRIMINAL CASES IN A FRAME"

- I am black-and-white, like all people, I have a heap of my own problems. I quarrel with my wife sometimes. She sometimes lives in Vilnius for about three weeks, and when we reach a critical limit, I put her on a bus and send her to Kyiv to the grandchildren. And when the phone bills exceed two hundred dollars a month, I ask her to come back. The younger daughter is getting ready to marry. Her fiancé is a Lithuanian, has Russian-Ukrainian roots, but is a citizen of …Latvia. And in Lutsk lives my little granddaughter Darynka – she is two years old – and Artem, who is almost ten. Every time I come to Lutsk, I arrange a traditional banya. Just me and my grandson. My wife Svitlana may only bring tea, and even then after first knocking: "Allow me to enter, gentlemen Cossacks"…

- At one time you traveled to Lutsk for another purpose as well. Criminal cases were opened…

- Three cases are closed. Two were opened in Kyiv, one – in Lutsk. All three decisions on closure are in my frame under glass.

- And your portrait from the White House on the Kyiv Maidan – is that also under glass?

- (Laughs). I took both my portrait and my "friend's"… (Frantsuz's. - Author). Mine is kept at my mother's. Why should it lie around for someone to stick a fig at it. Where Frantsuz's portrait is, I won't say, but I will hint that I like the Japanese experience of personnel management. You surely know how Japanese workers vent their anger on their managers…

Recorded by Yuriy KONKEVYCH, Tamara PRYIMAK