Tough Talk Marks Ukraine’s New Leader : President: Known in the past as a ‘terminator’ and a ‘kamikaze,’ Kuchma calls himself a pragmatist.

KIEV, Ukraine —  When Leonid Kuchma was this nation’s prime minister, some called him the “terminator” for his tough talk on corruption and crime. Others nicknamed him “kamikaze” for the controversial economic reforms that forced his resignation after just 11 months.

Today, the peasant boy who grew up to head the world’s largest missile factory calls himself a pragmatist. His call for closer ties to Russia and “evolutionary” economic reforms propelled him Sunday past incumbent President Leonid Kravchuk to lead a France-sized nation of 52 million people.

“Ukraine is on the verge of economic catastrophe because of its suicidal course of isolation from Russia and the other former Soviet republics,” Kuchma, 55, repeated tirelessly in paid political spots on Russian television and independent Ukrainian stations.

While insisting that Ukraine will continue to expand its European and American ties, Kuchma has accused the West of wanting to turn his nation into “a primitive appendage of raw materials, resources and labor.”

His distrust of the West, nurtured in a 30-year career building Soviet missiles, appears to have deepened during his time as premier, when Ukraine was scolded and isolated by the West for vacillating on if and on what terms it would give up its Soviet-era nuclear arsenal.

Kuchma has pledged to demand that the West pay more for Ukraine’s scrapping of its 176 intercontinental ballistic missiles. But political observers say he is unlikely to risk Russian displeasure by reneging on a deal signed with President Clinton and Russia’s President Boris N. Yeltsin in January.

Kuchma resembles Ross Perot with his prominent ears, blunt talk and populist attacks on politics as usual. But he is no longer a political outsider.

He became prime minister in October, 1992, after then-Prime Minister Vitold Fokin was dumped over Ukraine’s disastrous economy. Kuchma won a reputation as a fearless “wolfhound”--Ukrainians call Kravchuk “the clever fox”--by growling at his own industrial backers in Parliament for voting themselves inflationary credits.

Kuchma also declared Ukraine’s first war on corruption and crime. He quickly persuaded Parliament to give him six months of special economic powers. But the honeymoon was short.

The first few months of his tenure saw some economic stabilization. But nationalists united with Kravchuk against Kuchma’s plan to forge an economic union with Russia; factory directors revolted when he tried to slash their subsidies. Kuchma’s special powers were not renewed, Kravchuk packed the Cabinet with his allies and Kuchma was pushed out of office after just 11 months, leaving behind an economy paralyzed by hyper-inflation and mounting debt.

That record dogged Kuchma throughout his presidential campaign. But his success in Sunday’s vote suggests he was successful in convincing voters that Ukraine’s economic woes are not his fault.

Kravchuk spent the campaign warning that Kuchma’s pro-Russian stance would lead to civil war between Kuchma’s eastern Ukrainian supporters, who favor closer ties with Russia, and the nationalists in western Ukraine. Kuchma countered the scare tactics by stressing his commitment to Ukraine’s political independence and demonstrating his new mastery of the Ukrainian tongue.

Nationalists worry about how much sovereignty Kuchma will exchange for closer links with Russia in hopes of reviving the Ukrainian economy. “What Kuchma says about Russia today doesn’t reflect what he’ll do as president,” opposition lawmaker Yuri Kostenko said. “No president of an independent state willingly gives up power to another state.”