Home Page  >  Ukraine in Focus  >   

Focus on Ukraine, September 1-7, 2008

September 8, 2008
Ukraine in Focus
 
 

The Democratic Initiatives Foundation follows political events in Ukraine with the aim of monitoring the pre-election promises of the country’s leading political forces that won seats in the parliament as a result of the early elections to the Verkhovna Rada on September 30, 2007. The monitoring is conducted within the framework of the project “Where are our political leaders taking us?”

 
September 1
 

Assistant to the leader of the Party of Regions Hanna Herman informed that Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Rayisa Bohatyrieva was expelled from the party.The official reason for the secretary’s expulsion was her statement that the position of the party’s leader Viktor Yanukovych on declaring the independence of Abkhazia and Southern Ossetia is an individual rather than collective decision.
Meanwhile, Herman informed that the political council of the Party of Regions vouched its support of Yanukovych’s position on the need to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and Southern Ossetia. Political analysts said the latest moves by the PoR will lead to a breakup of this political force, which up until this time proudly touted its solidarity.

 

President Yushchenko appealed to the Verkhovna Rada to give a concise assessment of the latest events in Georgia. He said in a meeting with VR Speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk and leader of the Our Ukraine - People’s Self-defense (OU-PSD) Vyacheslav Kyrylenko that this issue should be at the top of the parliament’s agenda.

 

The OU-PSD faction submitted a resolution to the parliament on the territorial integrity of Georgia. The faction’s members hope that their colleagues in the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc will support their initiative.
The pro-presidential party foresees major problems in their partnership with the YTB should the latter fail to support this initiative.
Nonetheless, each political force has its own resolution regarding the events in Georgia. The Party of Regions has proposed forming an ad-hoc committee to clarify the status of Ukraine’s participation in the conflict and pass judgment on the Communist Party as an aggressor in Georgia.

 

Premier Yulia Tymoshenko stressed that the draft law that will regulate the process of impeachment is not targeted against Viktor Yushchenko and does not pose of threat to the president. As a reminder, prior to this the members of parliament Oleksandr Lavrynovych (PoR) and Andriy Portnov (YTB) registered a draft law by virtue of which the impeachment procedure is ratified, in particular those norms based on which the Constitutional Court will make its judgments concerning no confidence in the president.

 

September 2  

 

The 3rd session of the 6th convocation of the Verkhovna Rada opened. The main issues on the order of the day were defining the attitudes towards the situation in Georgia, electing the vice speaker (the Party of Regions nominated Oleksandr Lavrynovych for this seat and the YTB nominated Mykola Tomenko), facilitating the procedure of impeachment of the president and reviewing the draft law On the Cabinet of Ministers.
The OU-PSD faction is opposed to reviewing the last two issues. The faction’s leader Vyacheslav Kyrylenko accused the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc of its unwillingness to convene the coalition council to formulate a joint position on issues on the parliament’s order of the day. Members of the OU-PSD called the actions of the coalition partners a move against a parliamentary majority.

 

President Viktor Yushchenko was a no-show at the opening of the new session of the Verkhovna Rada, at which he was scheduled to offer his proposals regarding the situation in Georgia and measures for the effective work of the parliament. As the president’s press service informed, Yushchenko appealed to the VR to give a concise assessment of the events in Georgia and to the government coalition to execute the coalition agreement.

 

The Verkhovna Rada failed to come to a consensus on the situation in Georgia. Not a single one of the 10 draft laws submitted concerning the judgment of the actions on the part of Russia, part of which included the judgment of official Tbilisi and recognizing the independence of Southern Ossetia and Abkhazia managed to gain the 226 required votes of MPs.
 VR Chair Arseniy Yatsenyuk said the polarity in the assessment of the events in the Caucasus is testimony to the differences on the Ukrainian political spectrum.

 

340 of the 445 members of parliament voted in favor of electing Oleksandr Lavrynovych (PoR) and Mykola Tomenko (YTB) first vice speakers of the VR.
 Lavrynovych served as Minister of Justice under the government of Viktor Yanukovych and Tomenko serves as vice speaker of the parliament of the previous convocation.

 

VR Speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk accused the YTB of betraying the coalition and collusion with the Party of Regions and left the VR session hall in reaction to the plans of members of parliament to put up for voting draft laws that were not approved by the coalition that contradict clauses in the Constitution. Members of the Our Ukraine-People’s Self-defense left the parliamentary session hall following the speaker, describing the events in the parliament as an “anti-Yushchenko Sabbath” and appealed to its colleagues in the coalition to not vote in tandem for the Party of Regions.

 

Under the supervision of the newly elected VR vice speakers Oleksandr Lavrynovych and Mykola Tomenko, parliamentary factions including the OU-PSD bloc approved a number of draft laws.
 Specifically, for the first time in the history of the Ukrainian parliament made possible the procedure for the president’s impeachment, having overruled the president’s veto on the Law On Ad-hoc Investigative Committees and making amendments to the Law On the Constitutional Court.
 As a reminder, former president Leonid Kuchma and President Viktor Yushchenko vetoed the Law On Ad-hoc Investigative Committees, without which the president cannot be impeached.
 All members of the Party of Regions, YTB and the Communist Party of Ukraine factions voted in favor of the draft laws and only a part of the members of the Lytyvn Bloc voted “for”.

 

Today the members of parliament ratified amendments to the Law On the Cabinet of Ministers and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
 According to the decision passed by the people’s deputies, from now on the head of the SBU will be confirmed by the parliament instead of the president.
 Not one single VR deputy voted in favor of naming Valentyn Nalyvaichenko the acting head of the SBU.  

 

Leader of the Party of Regions Viktor Yanukovych said he does not rule out the possibility of forming a parliamentary majority with the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, which is currently in coalition with the pro-presidential force OU-PSD.
 Yanukovych said that the current parliamentary coalition is practically non-viable. As a reminder, the factions of the YTB and the PoR have 303 votes, which is more than the 300 votes required number of votes to form a constitutional majority and allows for overruling a presidential veto.
 Members of the PoR describe today’s joint voting with the YTB as the formation of a provisional stabilizing majority.

 

Spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Vasyl Kyrylych informed at a briefing on September 2 that Ukraine plans to initiate talks on introducing a visa-free regime for citizens of Ukraine traveling to member countries of the European Union at the 12th Ukraine-EU summit scheduled to be held on September 9 in the French city of Evian.

 

Hearings of the case of Ukrainian-Romanian territorial conflicts got under way at the UN International Court in The Hague.
 Representative of the Foreign Ministry of Romania Bogdan Aurescu noted that the government of the Soviet Union illegally seized the Zmiyniy Ostriv (Serpant’s Island) in the Black Sea.
 The court in The Hague will hear Ukraine’s position until the start of next week and a final verdict can only be expected in the next year.
 As a reminder, Romania insists that the island is a rock and that another 12 nautical miles of the shelf should not be added to it, unlike the entire coastline of Ukraine. This is precisely the reason that Romania should have the right to reclaim this particular territory on which significant deposits of oil and gas were discovered.    

 

VR deputy Vladislav Kaskiv informed the press that the OU-PSD faction approved its decision to pull out of the coalition. 39 deputies of the faction voted “for”, 9 – “against” and 7 – “abstained”. Kaskiv said primarily representatives of the People’s Self-defense, the National Rukh party and Anatoliy Hrytsenko voted against the decision or abstained from voting.
 According to the coalition’s regulation, the decision takes effect on the 11th day after its approval, but can be recalled at any moment. As a reminder, the coalition agreement was signed by the leader of the YTB Yulia Tymoshenko and the leader of OU-PSD Vyacheslav Kyrylenko on November 29, 2007.

 
September 3
 

VR Speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk returned to his seat in the parliament. All factions but Our Ukraine returned to work in the parliamentary session hall.
 The leader of the Party of Regions warned the speaker: if the head of the VR does not sign the draft laws approved on Tuesday evening, he may be removed from his post.

 

Premier Yulia Tymoshenko announced at a meeting of the government that she remains a proponent of a democratic coalition in make-up of OU-PSD and YTB. She blamed President Viktor Yushchenko for the demise of the coalition.

 

Today 11 ministers that were appointed to the government by a quota of the pro-presidential OU-PSD bloc left a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers. As First Vice Minister Ivan Vasyunyk explained, the decision of the ministers is due to the fact that the YTB “unilaterally refused to execute the obligations of the coalition.”
 Internal Affairs Minister Yuriy Lutsenko is the only remaining minister of the pro-presidential bloc. Premier Yulia Tymoshenko feels this precedent will not have an impact on the work of the Cabinet of Ministers and on her activity as the premier.

 

People’s Self-defense (a part of OU-PSD) issued a statement in which it says the decision of its colleagues in the faction to abandon the coalition has overtones of “treason” and in the future must approve its actions with YTB.
 The leader of PSD and Minister of Internal Affairs Yuriy Lutsenko emphasized that such actions by OU-PSD members are dictated by the policy of the head of the Presidential Secretariat aimed at the curtailment of democratic processes in the country.
 Lutsenko feels the dismissal of Presidential Secretary Viktor Baloha is the main condition for salvaging the coalition. Lutsenko further noted that from the formal vantage point the coalition still has 10 days over which President Yushchenko and Premier Tymoshenko should sit down to the negotiating table.

 

In his address to the Ukrainian people President Yushchenko informed that the country is going through a political and constitutional revolution.
 The president emphasized that he will disband the parliament if the deputies fail to form a new coalition within the timeframe of one month stipulated in the Constitution.
 Yushchenko said there is a de facto new coalition in Ukraine between the YTB, the Party of Regions and the Communist Party of Ukraine. Besides that, the president promised to veto all draft laws adopted on Tuesday as he considers them to be unconstitutional.

 

In her address to the Ukrainian people Premier Yulia Tymoshenko informed that the YTB is in favor of a coalition between the YTB and OU-PSD and sees no coalition other than a democratic one.   
Tymoshenko called on OU-PSD to reject any ultimatums and return to the coalition within 10 days. Beside that, the YTB does not consider the voting in the Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday to be treason against the democratic forces.

 
September 4
 

VR Speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced today that an official document about the exit of the OU-PSD faction from the majority has reached the parliament.
 The speaker informed that in 10 days the parliamentary coalition can officially suspend its existence.

 

Today representatives of the YTB and the Party of Regions registered draft laws that could limit the powers of the president. In particular, they are amendments to the Law On the Prosecutor Genera’s Office that call for changes in the procedure of dismissing the prosecutor general.
 Earlier, the PGO could dismiss the president and after the approval of the law the president will do so upon the consent of the parliament.
 Deputies of the YTB and the Party of Regions (PoR) also submitted a bill on changes to the mechanism appointment of the heads of local state administration. Besides that, a deputy of the PoR submitted a bill on the dismissal of Minister of Foreign Affairs Volodymyr Ohryzko (as a reminder, in accordance with the Constitution the Verkhovna Rada appoints the minister of foreign affairs upon a submission of the president). YTB members refused to be a part of this initiative, but members of OU-PSD are confident that this will happen in the foreseeable future.

 

YTB member Serhiy Teryokhin sees raising the barrier to winning a seat in parliament to 10% as a positive move that will result in the formation of a bipartisan system. As a reminder, member of the PoR Vasyl Kyselyov insists on the need for introducing a dual party system. Last year he proposed the idea of raising the barrier to 11%.
 A bill submitted by YTB deputy Mykhailo Pozhyvanov proposing to raise the barrier from 3% to 7% was registered in the VR back in April. At the time the leadership of the party suggested that this was a personal initiative of the deputy.

 

Head of the SBU Valentyn Nalyvaichenko informed today that materials substantiating the state treason on the part of Premier Yulia Tymoshenko have been passed on to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine.
 As a reminder, two weeks ago Deputy Presidential Secretary Andriy Kyslynskiy accused Yulia Tymoshenko of collusion with high-ranking officials in the Russian government. Moscow will ostensibly show its support of Tymoshenko in the presidential elections in exchange for her concession on the issue of Ukraine’s accession to NATO and not express her judgments of Russia’s military actions in Georgia.

 
September 5
 

The Verkhovna Rada submitted a request to the president to dismiss Viktor Baloha as Presidential Secretary.
 A total of 323 deputies voted in support of the request submitted by PoR member Volodymyr Sivkovych and OU-PSD member Volodymyr Stretovych. In the request the deputies accused the head of the Presidential Secretariat of impeding the activity of people’s deputies and covering up land fraud.

 

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in Kyiv today on an official visit. During his meeting with Cheney Ukraine’s President Viktor Yushchenko discussed the Russian-Georgian conflict, Ukrainian politics and the energy sector. Yushchenko pointed out that the stationing of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Crimea may threaten the national security of Ukraine. The president said that the use of the fleet is pulling Ukraine into military conflicts.

 

Dick Cheney had a meeting with Premier Yulia Tymoshenko. The head of the Ukrainian government expressed her gratitude for the U.S. support of Ukraine in the development of democracy and recounted the results of her government’s activity.
 Vice President Cheney stated that the U.S. supports the Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine emphasized the importance of preserving political stability in Ukraine.

 

Ukraine’s President Viktor Yushchenko gave an interview to the British newspaper Financial Times in which he assured that the political crisis in Ukraine is the work of Moscow.
 As an argument Yushchenko stated the fact that his former companion-in-arms held certain talks with “foreign forces”. The president also said the disintegration of the coalition is not the result of purely Ukrainian actions. At the same time Yushchenko expressed his confidence that Ukraine will move towards the European Union and NATO regardless of the collapse of the pro-Western coalition.

 
     
       

 



Begin   Previous page   1   2   3   4   Next Page   End
^ Top