KIEV, February 25. /ITAR-TASS/. Vitali Klitschko, leader of the UDAR (Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform) party, confirmed on Tuesday his intention to run for Ukrainian president in elections scheduled for May 25.

“I will run for the post of Ukrainian president,” Klitschko said. “We need to change the rules of the game completely. They should be fair,” he went on saying.

However, January 13, the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine upheld a norm, which banned Klitschko from running for president.

October 24, the Ukrainian parliament submitted an amendment to the Ukrainian Tax Code, which says that people, who have residence permits in foreign countries, are not considered to be residents of Ukraine.

Vitali Klitschko, who has a permanent residence permit in Germany, can easily fall within the ambit of this amendment.

Klitschko has recently said that he has given up his permanent residence permit in Germany. “True, I used to have the right to reside in Europe. However, I no longer have it. I have been a citizen of Ukraine ever since it proclaimed independence, and I am still its citizen. I do not have a residence permit in Germany,” Klitschko explained.

Later on, information spread that Klitschko was a US resident. Another rumor had it that he had been awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. A district administrative court in Poltava, Ukraine, has even obliged the leader of the UDAR party to specify whether he has really received an order from Germany.