In a comprehensive broadcast interview, his first in over two years, former President Koruin Gruaman, who also served as Prime Minister between 2008 and 2011, defended himself against claims that his legacy cost the Progressive Centrists the presidency four years ago at the 2015 election. Responding to comments made by the Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Lebedev on Sunday, Gruaman refused to acknowledge that political attacks made against him by President Artamova during the campaign damaged the election hopes of his friend and closest political ally Marina Yanaka, who was serving as the party’s candidate in the election and had previously been Prime Minister herself from 2003 to 2007.
“Marina is her own woman and she makes her own choices. It was obvious they [the Union Party] were going to drag our party through the mud – that’s what elections are about. But you can’t run away from this kind of thing, you have to challenge it head on. That’s the problem. The party ran too far on the turf of the opposition” said Mr Gruaman in a strong rebuttal to the claims made in an article by Lebedev, who served as one of his key election strategists eight years ago when running in the presidential election against Gennadiy Artamova.
Biting back in what appeared to be direct criticism of Yanaka’s campaign, Gruaman took aim at the team closest to the Centrist candidate. “You had the people closest to her telling her to tack towards the President. They claimed she could win by running to the right – some of these were the same people who masterminded the failed 2013 campaign where my successor as Prime Minister only clung to office with the votes of conservatives who had all but left the party. I’d probably take less advice from those guys. But at the end of the day it was her own campaign. That’s the job.”
Denying suggestions that he had been asked to stay away from the campaign trail at the request of Yanaka’s team, the former President said that “people will always snipe from the sidelines about the battles of the past, but I’d much rather focus on the future.” Pressed on his relationship with Mr Lebedev since leaving government and asked to give a direct response to the Deputy Prime Minister’s comments, Gruaman barbed “this isn’t the time to talk about private disagreements. The Deputy Prime Minister knows my views and I’ve read his in the newspapers. This is an election year, of course comments are going to be made – I’ve got a thick skin.”
Speaking about his career at the top and reflecting on eight years since leaving office, Gruaman seemed more relaxed than he had done in previous television interviews saying, “If you let the past get to you then you’ll never move on. I’m not a politician anymore. I’m a citizen. I think it’s important for everyone to focus on what they can do now and how they can help make our country a better place to live. I think we often look for what divides us – that’s what politics does to us, but there’s far more to our communities than that.”
Since stepping down as leader of the Progressive Centrist party in 2011 after failing in his bid to reclaim the presidency, Gruaman has stayed out of the political spotlight, rarely commenting on political affairs and rejecting Ludvig Fedorov’s initial offer to stay in government as Envoy to Gallia. “Staying in government wouldn’t have worked. I was hugely grateful to him [Ludvig Fedorov] for the suggestion, but it wasn’t the right thing to do. I’d been leading the party, he needed to take things in his own direction” Mr Gruaman told Jov Chaykovsky, who at times looked nervous interviewing the former politician. “Did you not feel you were letting your country down by rejecting the offer to serve? Wasn’t it your duty?” said Mr Chaykovsky, who hosts The Big Interview every night in a prime-time slot on Polasciana’s biggest television channel. “Absolutely not.”
Given an early opportunity to comment on his successors in both offices of state, Mr Gruaman opted to remain tight-lipped but said he was “glad to see the party winning again” – a nod to the majority won at last year’s legislative elections by Prime Minister Asta Dahn, with whom he has had many political differences. “When I lost, you have to remember we hadn’t won a presidential election in eight years, and I had been forced to negotiate with the opposition parties to keep us in government, that wasn’t an easy thing to do. It was the right thing to do, but it wasn’t an easy thing to do. But the party winning again, that’s an important step.” Heading into this years presidential election, it is now 16 years since Gruaman won the 2003 race for his Centrist Party. Upon taking up the role at the Niveri Palace he revealed he had never expected to win the election. “I was young. 40 at the time and the youngest age you could be under the constitution that was put in place by the transition. I only just scraped over the line. But I think people liked that, I think they saw that election as a moment – not just a political reality, but one that said who we were, who we were going to be as a nation – a new nation. It’s hard to replicate that now, it feels a long way away from there.”
“You’re not so young now, after a lavish political career – at 56 what do you want to achieve?” asked a more confident Chaykovsky. “I’m certainly not as youthful as I was before that career, that’s fair to say. But I’m not old. I don’t feel old. The fire in me to make Polasciana a better home has never burned brighter. But the country itself is older, we’re all a bit wiser. But it’s harder – of course. I’m not in government, I’m no longer in the party hierarchy. I do think that the next few months are going to be important for the party though, for the government and for our country. We are going to have to make choices. Let’s see who comes forward.”
Asked whether he would ever put himself forward for public office again, he was emphatic: “No.” Whether he would be back on the campaign trail in the autumn for his party’s candidate? “If I’m asked.” If he planned to play a greater role in the national political debate? “Maybe it’s time for a conversation. Perhaps it’s not popular, but there are some things I think a lot of people could learn from our early years in government. Our country is nearly 20 years old. We should probably talk about some of the things we’ve learned.”
With rumours still swirling about President Artamova’s role in the Lukyanov administration, and in the face of calls for a full national inquiry into its handlings of diplomatic talks with Kadikistan, it was put to the former President that he still had questions to answer as to the role his government played at the time. “I’ve been very clear about what happened when I was there. Those records are not in doubt. But I hear people saying you know how this inquiry or whatever is being blocked by the party for fear of it looking into our affairs, and bringing up some nonsense about how my government had covered up bribery allegations. So let me say this once and for all – I have nothing to hide. The timing of all these allegations though. That’s one to think about.” Questioned on whether he believed the accusations were politically motivated, given that they had been surfacing for more than three years he said, “I’ve said this before – I’m not against the idea of an inquiry, but I am against breaching the rules of our constitution. We do not release confidential or diplomatic communications and I don’t think it’s a good idea to start now.”
“Is Ms Dahn doing a good job as Prime Minister?” – a final question put to Mr Gruaman that caught him off-guard, and where the response dropped his usual trademark diversion techniques. “I think she’s a talented politician. But this isn’t the time for talking – we’re seven months from the last election and we’re ten months out from a presidential election. I think it’s time we saw the government start doing something.”
Dahn is interviewed on The Big Interview on Wednesday.
