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Focus on Ukraine, September 15-21, 2008

September 22, 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 15

Representatives of the Ukrainian intelligentsia Volodymyr Yavorivskiy, Levko Lukyanenko and Bohdan Horyn stated at a press conference that the Volodymyr Lytvyn Bloc may join the OUPSD and YTB coalition.
YTB member Yavorivskiy said that Yulia Tymoshenko also supports this variant of a coalition, though she has yet to receive a response from OUPSD.

Today Ukraine is paying respect to the memorial to journalist Georgiy Gongadze. Since 2000 the journalist headed the Internet publication Ukrainska Pravda, which sharply criticized the policies of then president Leonid Kuchma.
Eight years ago on the night before September 16 Gongadze was taken beyond the city limits of Kyiv to the Tarashcha Forest and murdered there. Today only the culprits of this crime are behind bars. The police have yet to find those who ordered the murder. Three years ago Gongadze was posthumously give the name Hero of Ukraine.

September 16

VR Speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced the dissolution of the parliamentary coalition. He informed that the statement about recalling the previous statement issued by the OUPSD faction concerning the suspension of the coalition’s activity did not make it to his office.
As a reminder, the deadline the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc set to OUPSD to recall its statement on the dissolution of the coalition expired last week. Over 10 days none of the partners in the coalition made amicable steps by offering one another a compromise.
Now the deputies of the parliament have 30 days to form a new coalition. If this does not happen, the president will have the right to dissolve the Verkhovna Rada and declare early parliamentary elections.

The democratic coalition of the YTB and OUPSD lasted for nine and a half months. Over this period of time the deputies adopted only several dozen of the 200 draft laws planned.
Specifically, the deputies did not give up their privileges as they promised prior to the last elections. The draft law on deputy immunity was adopted only in the first reading (it is currently waiting to be reviewed by the Constitutional Court).
Together with this legislative bill, the Law on the Imperative Mandate is waiting to be reviewed. The deputies failed to strip two national committees on communications and energy of their status of central executive bodies. The same applies to the Law on Internal Armies of Ukraine.
The deputies did manage to amend the Law on the Cabinet of Ministers on September 2, but not how the coalition had planned, which was precisely the motivation for the OUPSD faction to withdraw from it. The deputies approved the preliminary version of the law, which considerably expanded the powers of the government.
On this day the YTB and the Party of Regions voted in its amendments to the Law on Local Administrations. Only the basis of the Law on Local Self-government, which envisages the expansion of the powers of local deputies, was adopted.
Of all the pre-election promises the YTB made, the early elections of the Kyiv mayor that Yulia Tymoshenko had insisted on were held.
The Law on the Purchase of Goods, Labor and Services at the Expense of the State, which abolished the Tender Chamber, was also approved and adopted.

Head of the OUPSD faction Vyacheslav Kyrylenko announced from the parliamentary dais that he is prepared to declare his faction’s move to the opposition.
Kyrylenko informed that over 10 days the OUPSD did not receive a single proposal to form a new coalition.
OUPSD deputy Oles Doniy told journalists that the People’s Self-defense group of deputies has proposed the OUPSD faction to enter into talks on forming a new coalition made up of the YTB, OUPSD and the Lytvyn Bloc.
He said that such a proposal was drafted as a result of a meeting of the People’s Self-defense group.

The government submitted the draft law of the Budget 2009 to the Verkhovna Rada for consideration. Ukraine plans to increase foreign loans in 2009 by 104.5% and domestic loans – by 76.9%.

The Constitutional Court resolved that limitation of deputy immunity complies in full with the Constitution of Ukraine.
It has also been proposed to leave the clause that the people’s deputies do not bear legal liability for the results of voting or views expressed in the parliament and inside its bodies in the new edition of the Constitution, with the exception of liability for insults made or defamation of character (slander).
As a reminder, the Verkhovna Rada submitted this draft law that YTB and OUPSD deputies voted in favor of to the Constitutional Court in March of this year.

Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Mirek Topolanek announced that his country will support the Euro-integration of Ukraine during voting in the European Union in 2009.
Premier Yulia Tymoshenko also expressed her hopes that the Czech Republic will support Ukraine’s aspirations.

The Communist Party of Ukraine described the possible move of the pro-presidential bloc OUPSD to the opposition as absurd.
In addition to that, the party’s leader Petro Symonenko has once proposed initiating the process of impeachment of the president of Ukraine.

Assistant Prosecutor General Mykola Holomsha stated that the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine knows who was behind the murder of Georgiy Gongadze.
He pointed out that the issue of filing a criminal case against specific individuals will only be resolved after the authenticity of the tape recordings that Mykola Melnychenko submitted as a witness in the case and the authenticity of the voices and words on them are proven.

OUPSD is prepared to form a new coalition with the YTB, but on condition that the latter signs a draft statement of the Verkhovna Rada concerning the Russian-Georgian conflict.
In addition to that, YTB faction leader Vyacheslav Kyrylenko said that the YTB does not have to override the veto the president put on the laws that were adopted on September 2.
As a reminder, the president vetoed and returned to the parliament those laws that were adopted from September 2-5. The YTB calls this veto unconstitutional.

September 17

The YTB and the Party of Regions registered a draft law in the Verkhovna Rada on amendments to electoral legislation in accordance with which it is being proposed to hold elections to the parliament in two rounds. The winner of the second round wins the majority of seats in the parliament.
In the draft law it is being proposed that both parties and blocs reserve the right to run in the elections and that the 3% passage barrier be preserved.
It is proposed to hold the first round of the elections according to the system of proportional representation.
The draftees of the bill are YTB member Andriy Portnov and First Vice Speaker Oleksandr Lavrynovych.

VR Speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk tendered his resignation. He explained that he came to power solely with democratic values and intends to step down with dignity, seeing as the democratic coalition has ceased to exist.
Yatsenyuk informed that he will perform his duties as the speaker of the VR until the parliamentarians find a replacement. Deputies of the OUPSD faction are waiting for a similar decision on the part of Yulia Tymoshenko. In their opinion, she must step down from the post of premier that she was appointed to thanks to the democratic coalition.

Premier Yulia Tymoshenko announced that the government will not resign and will continue its work. She believes she should not step down from her post as she was not responsible for the demise of the democratic coalition. It is the president and those deputies that signed a statement on their withdrawal that are to blame.

President Viktor Yushchenko said in an interview for Associated Press that Russia intends to destabilize the situation in Ukraine by supporting Crimean separatists.
However, the president is convinced that this will not do as much harm to Ukraine as it will to Georgia.

Crimean deputies called upon the VR to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and Southern Ossetia. They approved the corresponding appeal at a session of the Crimean parliament.
Besides that, Crimea’s deputies approved Russia’s actions in the armed conflict in Georgia. 79 of the 90 parliamentarians of the autonomous republic voted in favor.

September 18

As ITAR-TASS reported, Assistant Secretary of State on Political Affairs William Burns announced at a hearing of the Senate of the U.S. Congress that Ukraine and Georgia are at this point in time not ready for accession to NATO.
At the same time, the diplomat stressed that the U.S. administration plans to secure the inclusion of former Soviet republics in the Membership Action Plan of the Alliance.
The high-ranking official added that certain European partners of the U.S., in particular, France and Germany, still object to the readiness of Kyiv and Tbilisi to join the MAP.
Recall that the issue of granting Ukraine and Georgia the MAP is planned to be reviewed in December at a meeting of the ministers of foreign affairs of NATO member countries.

Leader of the OUPSD faction Vyacheslav Kyrylenko gave an address in the parliament for immediate annulment of deputy immunity. He reminded that the Constitutional Court gave its verdict on this issue, which gives deputies the opportunity to fulfill their pre-election promises.

September 19

The YTB and the Party of Regions are demanding that Verkhovna Rada Speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk sign the legislative documents that the president vetoed a second time. Recall that these are documents about ad hoc investigative committees, the work of the VR and the State Security Service (SBU). Yatsenyuk considers these documents to be illegitimate and is therefore refusing to sign them.

President Viktor Yushchenko stated that he does not rule out the possibility of a coalition being formed between the YTB, the Party of Regions and the Communist Party of Ukraine. He noted that in the event these political forces come to an agreement, he will not interfere in the alliance that will be formed in the parliament.

 



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