Ukraine's Party Of Regions Threatens To Impeach President

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's pro-Russian Party of Regions said Monday it would impeach President Viktor Yushchenko if he did not register the candidacy of party leader Viktor Yanukovych for the post of the prime minister.

Vyacheslav Chernovol
President Yushchenko currently faces a dilemma between confirming his "orange" revolution rival Yanukovych as prime minister or dissolving parliament, following its failure to form a government.

"The talks with [pro-presidential] Our Ukraine party are still failing, and if Viktor Yushchenko does not confirm Yanukovych's candidacy for the post of prime minister, the Party of Regions will have reason to resort to the harshest measures, and launch an impeachment [procedure]," Vyacheslav Chernovol, a spokesman for the party, said.

He added that if another parliamentary election were held, the Party of Regions would win a majority in the Supreme Rada.

"We could win 300 seats at an election, and this whole story would come to an end," Chernovol said.

President Yushchenko received the right to dissolve parliament after the assembly missed a 60-day deadline for forming a new government on Tuesday. He has until August 2 to decide how to respond to Yanukovych's nomination.

Source: RIA Novosti

Betting on Democracy

WASHINGTON, DC -- A year ago the jewels of President Bush's democracy policy were the Cedar and Orange revolutions of Lebanon and Ukraine, which had ousted autocratic regimes backed by Russia and Syria and seemingly ushered in pro-Western democracies.

Reversals for fragile new governments mean hard choices for Bush
Last week their unforeseen and unpleasant consequences presented Bush with a critical pair of choices. He could abandon his faith in a new democratic order -- or double his bet on it.

The crisis that has the world's attention is Lebanon; though most people don't perceive it as a test of Bush's democracy agenda, that is how the administration sees it. Oddly, Hezbollah's astute leader, Hasan Nasrallah, also gets it: "The main obstacles in the path of the new Middle East are the resistance movements in Palestine and Lebanon, and, on the level of the regimes, mainly Syria and Iran," he said in a television interview last week, accurately summarizing Bush's view.

"What is required, then, is to eliminate these obstacles and to remove them from the path of the historic American plan for this region."

The parallel crisis in Ukraine -- yes, there is one -- is far from American television screens. The fight there is being waged in smoke-filled rooms, and is as obscure as Lebanon is dramatic.

But the essential problem for Bush is similar: The new democratic system he so strongly supported has been skillfully exploited by the revolution's erstwhile losers.

After months of Byzantine maneuvering, the thuggish politician Moscow tried to install as Ukraine's president though electoral fraud in 2004, Viktor Yanukovich, is on the point of taking office this week as prime minister -- with powers that equal or exceed those of President Viktor Yushchenko, the leader of the Orange Revolution.

From the viewpoint of traditional U.S. interests, Yanukovich is still a menace. He opposes Ukraine's integration into NATO, a step the Bush administration has been pushing, and he may well be willing to sacrifice his country's sovereignty to Vladimir Putin's Kremlin. He favors the Russian language over Ukrainian.

But, in contrast to 2004, Yanukovich won his votes fairly in March's parliamentary elections, drawing on the disaffected Russian-speakers of eastern Ukraine. So far he's done nothing to undermine the democratic system -- in fact, he's trying to persuade Yushchenko's party to join his government.

For Bush, the question is: Should the United States accept a democratic Ukrainian government that turns its back on the West, or encourage its allies to twist the political system to prevent that outcome?

Was the Orange Revolution about installing democracy or shifting Ukraine from Moscow's orbit to that of Washington and Brussels? Yushchenko is being urged by some pro-Western politicians to dissolve the parliament, a technically legal but democratically questionable maneuver.

By some scenarios, he would then postpone new elections -- which Yanukovich would probably win -- and rule the country on his own.

Last week the president demanded that Yanukovich accept a number of conditions, including continued steps toward integration with the West, in exchange for being designated as prime minister. That left open both the option of parliament's dissolution, and that of a national unity government.

The Bush administration has been working for months to keep Yanukovich out of power. A few weeks ago it urged Yushchenko not to seal a pact he was about to make with his pro-Russian rival. But by the end of last week, officials were saying that Bush had decided to accept any democratic outcome in Ukraine -- including a government that rejects the West -- as long as that government preserves free elections and free markets.

If he takes office, there's a risk that Yanukovich could once again try to turn Ukraine into an autocratic Russian satellite or that a country the size of France, with a population of nearly 50 million, will be stranded for years outside an integrating Europe.

Ukraine, like Lebanon, could be lost. But then, this year's reversals have already demonstrated that the color revolutions of 2004 and 2005 were the beginning, rather than the end, of the transformation Bush seeks.

Source: Washington Post

No Ukraine Agreement After 10-Hour Talks

KIEV, Ukraine -- Talks to end Ukraine's four-month political paralysis broke off over the weekend without any agreement between President Viktor Yushchenko and the pro-Russian parliamentary majority that has nominated Viktor Yanukovych as prime minister.

Yanukovich (L) and Yushchenko (R)
Yushchenko spent more than 10 hours in closed-door negotiations Friday night with Yanukovych, whose fraud-tarnished run for the presidency in 2004 sparked the Orange Revolution protests that helped sweep Yushchenko to power, and the country's new parliament speaker, Oleksandr Moroz.

The rivals were trying to negotiate a national unity agreement that Yushchenko hopes will lock Yanukovych into the president's pro-Western and reformist policy goals, and could open the door for Yushchenko's party to join a parliamentary coalition.

The agreement would commit Ukraine to work toward joining NATO, the European Union and the World Trade Organization, and would safeguard Ukrainian as the sole national language.

The accord would represent a significant compromise for Yanukovych.

The all-night negotiations ran into difficulties over disagreements about the state language, Yushchenko's pro-Western ambitions and whether Ukraine should cooperate in a "common economic space" with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, said Yushchenko's deputy chief of staff, Ivan Vasyunyk.

Source: The Moscow Times

Ukraine Parties Fail To Agree On NATO, Russia And The Status Of The Russian Language

KIEV, Ukraine -- At talks on overcoming the Ukrainian parliamentary crisis the country's political parties cannot agree on issues related to Ukraine's admission to NATO, on relations with Russia and the status of the Russian language, deputy chairman of the Party of Regions faction Yevgeny Kushnarev has said.

Yevgeny Kushnarev
"We don't object to the cooperation with NATO, but only the Ukrainian people in a referendum can solve the issue of the country's entry in NATO," Kushnarev said. According to him, attempts are being made to "make the party sign the formula of the agreement on Ukraine's admission to NATO."

"They are trying to force on us a formula under which the Russian language will further lead a miserable existence in our country," the parliamentarian said. According to Kushnarev, the Party of Regions is "for legal equality of the Ukrainian and Russian languages."

"And, finally, we are offered to go to Europe totally forgetting about the existence of Russia," the Party of Regions official pointed out. "However, we suggest that the text should contain mentioning of and clear-cut stance on good neighbourly relations with Russia and on continuation of talks on the Common Economic Space," Kushnarev said.

The Party of Regions accused the Our Ukraine faction in the Ukrainian parliament of blackmail that is used "as an instrument of pressure and intimidation by early elections."

"Our Ukraine has set the task to force on the possible wide-format coalition its ideology and lead the majority," it is said in a statement issued by the Party of Regions.

"We shall not tolerate blackmail and ultimatums. Any threats of the parliament dissolution are violation not only of the Constitution and the country’s legislation, but also a departure from the foundations of the world and European democracy," the statement says.

"Any unconstitutional actions will only aggravate the political crisis in the country," the party states. "The responsibility for this will fully rest with the Ukrainian president," it is said in the document.

Source: ITAR-Tass

Yushchenko Does Not Want To Share Coalition With Communists

KIEV, Ukraine -- New ruling coalition was almost formed in Ukraine yesterday. Party of Regions, Our Ukraine, Socialists, and Communists brought into line the final text of the “universal treaty on national unity” suggested by President Viktor Yushchenko.

BYuT leader Yulia Timoshenko and People's Deputy of Ukraine, Our Ukraine leader Roman Bessmertny before the round table of leaders of deputy factions with participation of the President of Ukraine.
Having agreed upon all controversial issues, politicians nearly reached agreement on forming new coalition. Yet, the president vetoed the document late in the evening. The talks go on.

Talks between leaders of political forces which want to join the ruling coalition lasted almost all day in Kiev. The round table continued since yesterday. Its participants were trying to agree upon the fundamental principles for the new coalition.

Yulia Timoshenko refused to join it, thus neither she, nor her followers took part in the discussion. However, members of Our Ukraine, the Party of Regions, Socialists, and Communists had enough differences between each other.

The most arguable point of the “universal treaty” is that of Ukraine’s ambition to join NATO. This point is fundamental for President Yushchenko, while all other parties of the anti-crisis coalition are against this idea. A compromise was eventually found: it was decided the issue should be solved by a referendum.

Another stumbling block was the issue of religion. The president has been dreaming for a long time of uniting all Christian Orthodox churches, subordinate both to Moscow’s and to Kiev’s patriarch. Almost all members of the round table confronted the idea of creating united Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

The third controversial issue was that of the language. The Party of Regions and the Communists stand for making Russian a second national language. However, they decided to give up this condition during yesterday’s talks. The “universal treaty” says there can be only one national language, according to Ukrainian Constitution.

The worst stumbling block was the last point of the “universal treaty”, which says the parties are creating a new parliamentary coalition. This point is important for Our Ukraine because it needs to emphasize that it is creating a new alliance, and not joining the already existing Regional-Socialist-Communist union.

Another demand of Our Ukraine is to exclude the Communists from the coalition. The Party of Regions was completely against the idea, as well as the Communists themselves. Both parties insisted, and the Communists were allowed to remain in the coalition.

When all members of the round table were returning to the president, they were sure the matter is over and the coalition is created. Yushchenko, however, was dissatisfied with the edited text of the “universal treaty”. The politicians remained with the president till late evening. Apparently, the process will be finished as early as today.

Source: Kommersant

Shevchenko Plans Stamford Bridge Retirement

LONDON, England -- Andriy Shevchenko has revealed that he wants to finish his career at Chelsea.


The Ukraine international swapped AC Milan for Stamford Bridge this summer and, having started off his career at Dynamo Kiev before heading for Italy, he is a loyal man.

“I have only played for two teams and this will be my third,” said Shevchenko.

“I hope in my head this is where I end my career. I hope to be happy here and hopefully that will be the last one.”

Shevchenko left behind the corruption problems in Italy but he insisted he was as surprised as anyone by the match-fixing allegations which involved Milan as well as Juventus, Fiorentina and Lazio.

“It is very difficult for me to understand what occurred in Italy,” said Shevchenko.

“Reflecting back on games I find it very hard to believe that there was something sinister going on with the players on the field.

“I feel all the players gave their all and myself I know I gave maximum on the field so for me I cannot get my head around how this happened. I cannot really grasp the situation in Italy.

“From a personal point of view I am happy that the sentence was reduced for AC Milan and they will play in the Champions League.”

With Italy now behind him, Shevchenko is relishing a new challenge with the Barclays Premiership champions.

He said: “It is very difficult in life to reach a certain level but it’s even more difficult to stay there at that high level.

“I have lived every single day with that philosophy and I need to maintain that level of excellence.

“So this was the motivation I needed to carry myself forward.

“It was just important that I was able to come to a club that had the same type of level I have.

“It is a great opportunity for me and the family but it was also important I came to a club that were a great team.

“Chelsea are already at the highest level and I hope I can help maintain Chelsea’s level of excellence.”

Shevchenko is also looking forward to going head to head with Arsenal hitman Thierry Henry but he has dismissed any comparisons.

The Ukraine international said: “He is a great player and certainly it is a nice thing to play in the same league as Thierry Henry.

“It’s not fair to make comparisons because the characteristics of football players are quite different.

“But as far as playing in the same league as him it will be fine but we are two very different players.”

Source: Ireland Online

Ukraine In Deadlock As President's Party Opposes Pro-Russian Premier

KIEV, Ukraine -- The marathon crisis talks to end Ukraine's four-month political paralysis broke off early Saturday without any agreement between President Viktor Yushchenko and the pro-Russian parliamentary majority that wants to put together the next government in this ex-Soviet republic.

Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko, left, and parliamentary faction leader Yulia Tymoshenko are seen during the round-table in Kiev, Ukraine, Thursday, July, 27, 2006
Yushchenko spent more than 10 hours in closed-door negotiations with his former Orange Revolution rival Viktor Yanukovych and the country's new parliament speaker Oleksandr Moroz in a bid to reach agreement on a memorandum of national unity.

The agreement is an effort to lock Yanukovych, who has been nominated to become prime minister, into the president's pro-western and reformist policy goals, and could open the door for Yushchenko's party to join a new coalition.

Ukraine has been in political turmoil since Yanukovych's pro-Russian Party of Regions won the most seats in the March parliamentary elections, besting the pro-Western reformers who backed Yushchenko, but falling short of a majority.

The Party of Regions formed a majority coalition earlier this month with Yushchenko's one-time partners, the Socialists, and the Communists. They proposed Yanukovych, whom Yushchenko defeated for the presidency in 2004, as prime minister.

"The negotiations ended because the leaders of the Socialist Party and the Party of Regions want to discuss the text of the memorandum with their political parties," said the president's spokeswoman Iryna Gerashchenko.

The draft memorandum, which consists of 24 points, commits Ukraine to working toward NATO and European Union membership, safeguarding Ukrainian as the sole state language, joining the World Trade Organization, advancing liberal economic reforms and promoting transparency in government.

While it is not considered legally binding, the agreement would represent a significant compromise for Yanukovych, who campaigned on making Russian a state language, expanding power to Ukraine's regions and improving ties with Russia. There was no specific mention of Russia in the original agreement.

Gerashchenko said the main areas of disagreement were over the question of language, NATO membership and the Party of Regions' support for decentralizing power in the country.

Yushchenko had been determined to reach agreement overnight, but after nearly nine hours the talks broke off early Saturday with no breakthroughs. The president appealed to the exhausted leaders to return to the table, and the talks continued for another two hours, before breaking again.

Gerashchenko said Yushchenko would summon the party leaders back later Saturday after they had time to consult with their parties.

Meanwhile, it remained unclear if any progress had been made on the two biggest stumbling blocks: Yanukovych's candidacy to be prime minister and the refusal by the president's party to cooperate in a coalition that includes the Communists. Neither is directly addressed in the draft memorandum.

Yushchenko has until next Wednesday to decide whether to approve Yanukovych, whom Yushchenko defeated for the presidency in a court-ordered revote in 2004. The revote was held after mass protests, known as the Orange Revolution, erupted over Yanukovych's fraud-marred victory.

Earlier Friday, a top member of Yushchenko's party made it clear that such a prospect was still unwelcome.

"We need to find a person who can consolidate the country. Yanukovych's is not such a candidacy," said Anatoliy Kinakh.

The standoff has highlighted the split between the largely Russian-speaking east of Ukraine, where Yanukovych's support is strongest, and the more nationalistic, Ukrainian-speaking west.

Yushchenko has previously warned that he could use his right to dissolve parliament and call new elections, a move that some warn could trigger civil unrest.

Source: AP

Yushchenko Lays His Conditions For Accepting Yanukovich

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, who is reluctant to approve the parliamentary majority’s choice for prime minister -- his 2004 presidential election rival Viktor Yanukovych -- has decided to explain his reluctance to the nation.


Yushchenko has made public a set of conditions, making it clear that he will call new elections if Yanukovych and his allies do not meet them. Yushchenko has the constitutional right to call early elections after July 25, when two months have elapsed since the entire cabinet resigned and no replacement has been formed.

He gave a press conference on July 26 and convened an unprecedented roundtable meeting with all major parties on July 27 to explain his position.

Speaking on July 26, Yushchenko reiterated that he would not hurry in appointing Yanukovych, as the constitution gives him until August 2. Yushchenko made it clear that he would use this time to persuade the parliamentary majority and Yanukovych to accept the conditions that, Yushchenko believes, he has the right to set as the winner of the 2004 presidential election.

He also hinted that the format of the majority may be changed, as his Our Ukraine bloc is in talks with Yanukovych’s Party of Regions (PRU), about possibly joining the majority.

Yushchenko urged the future government to continue Ukraine’s current domestic and foreign political course, which includes market transformation and European integration, and urged preservation of sovereignty -- which reflects popular fears about the PRU’s pro-Moscow sympathies. Yushchenko also repeated his earlier demands to seat the Constitutional Court and revise the constitutional reform of 2004.

Those changes, he believes, unbalanced the political system by inconsistently depriving the president of a set of levers, such as giving him no right to dismiss the defense minister and foreign minister, whom he appoints.

Yushchenko confirmed the rumor that he would like to appoint the interior minister in addition to appointing foreign minister, defense minister, prosecutor-general, and the Security Service head -- all of which are up to the president to nominate, according to the amended constitution. Other top posts are up to the majority to fill.

Yushchenko makes no secret of wanting to keep Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, whom the PRU dislikes for his radicalism during and after the Orange Revolution of December 2004.

Yushchenko repeated his main conditions to Yanukovych on the following day, when he gathered parliament speaker Oleksandr Moroz and the leaders of all five parliamentary factions for an unprecedented roundtable discussion that was broadcast live on several TV channels for several hours.

Yushchenko suggested signing a document that would confirm the need for national unity and list the points on which the main political players agree, preparing the grounds for a coalition possibly wider than the one formed around Yanukovych.

Roman Bezsmertny, the formal leader of Our Ukraine, and Yushchenko listed several positions on which the Ukrainian government should be based, according to Our Ukraine, and some of which may be hard for Yanukovych to accept.

These are European and Euro-Atlantic integration, including EU and NATO membership, and dropping the idea of raising the status of the Russian language.

Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, leader of the eponymous bloc, was the only political leader present at the discussion to reject the unity declaration proposed by Yushchenko.

Tymoshenko, who prefers dissolution of the parliament and early elections to a Prime Minister Yanukovych, refused to sign the text offered by Yushchenko, urged her counterparts not to be afraid of early elections, and quoted figures from a public opinion poll suggesting that Ukrainians are unhappy with the pro-Yanukovych majority.

Yanukovych sounded pacifying in his speech, clearly signaling a readiness for compromise with Yushchenko. He thanked Yushchenko for not taking sides in the current crisis, and he went as far as to praise the ideals of the Orange Revolution, in which he was Yushchenko’s main protagonist.

When Communist leader Petro Symonenko questioned the need for Euro-Atlantic integration, spelled out in the text offered for signing, and Moroz backed him, Yanukovych kept silent.

Several hours before the roundtable, the anti-crisis coalition comprised of the PRU, the Socialists, and the Communists officially asked Our Ukraine to start negotiations to expand the coalition. Also on July 27, Our Ukraine for the first time openly recognized that talks with the pro-Yanukovych majority were underway.

Outgoing Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov, an Our Ukraine leader who has consistently backed the idea of a grand coalition between Our Ukraine and the PRU, said at the roundtable that Our Ukraine should join the majority and form the next cabinet on the condition that the Communists should be dropped from the majority as a party whose ideology is at variance with Yushchenko’s.

He said that the Communists should be compensated for that by allowing them control of the parliamentary committees whose chairmanships they secured as part of the anti-crisis coalition deal.

Source: Eurasia Daily Monitor

Viktor Yushchenko Unites The Coalition

KIEV, Ukraine -- A round table of the leaders of all major political parties of Ukraine was held in Kiev yesterday. It became clear that Viktor Yushchenko agreed to uniting pro-president Our Ukraine to the governmental coalition.

Yulia Timoshenko does not imagine herself in one coalition with Viktor Yanukovich (L) and Alexander Moroz (R).
His supporters, as well as the Party of Regions, Socialist and Communist parties, are ready to sign the so-called universal treaty on national unity, and this will begin the formation of the new cabinet.

Only Yulia Timoshenko will remain outside the universal treaty, the coalition, and the government.

Vicious Circle

“We need to leave the course of indecision, take a clear-cut position in these prospects, important for the future of Ukraine. We need to give up the political revenge and confrontation, confirm that Ukraine’s domestic and foreign policy are permanent and irreversible, and give up personal ambitions,” Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko was diligently reading the text which he had prepared for the long-awaited meeting with deputies.

All TV cameras were recording him, and two TV channels were broadcasting his speech.

To the left of the president, there sat Prime Minister Yuri Ekhanurov. He was either reading something in his notebook, or rubbing his eyes, or yawning, trying to overcome sleepiness.

To the right of the president, there was Rada Speaker Alexander Moroz. The next was Viktor Yanukovich who was carefully looking through the speech, apparently, which he was to deliver. Next to Yanukovich, there sat Yulia Timoshenko. She scrutinized her black and white dress with frills, and frowned.

Politicians were waiting for this meeting with the president for a long time, but Yushchenko avoided them. Deputies wanted to see him on Monday, and came to work on their day off.

That Monday the members of the “anti-crisis coalition” expected the president to nominate their candidate, Viktor Yanukovich, for prime minister. Then followed Tuesday with the same expectations, but the president did not come either. Each time he gave new reasons for his absence—either his being busy, or the working hours of the Rada.

Finally, Yushchenko summoned the main characters of Ukrainian politics to his front office on Bankovaya street. The round table was scheduled for 4 p.m. By the way, the most important persons had visited the president before, individually.

For instance, Rinat Akhmetov, deputy of the Party of Regions and the richest man in Ukraine, visited Bankovaya street a few times quite recently. Yulia Timoshenko arrived to the front office on yesterday morning, several hours before the round table. Her talk with the president lasted two hours.

The subject-matter of all talks with President Yushchenko is clear. Ukrainian president does not want to nominate Yanukovich for prime minister and thus surrender to his old enemy. Yushchenko expects that his party Our Ukraine will nevertheless join the coalition and occupy a good position in it.

According to sources close to the president, his greatest wish is that the post of prime minister goes to Our Ukraine (he supports Yuri Ekhanurov or present Minister of Economy Arseny Yatsenyuk). At least, Yushchenko wants the positions of the first deputy prime minister for Petr Poroshenko, of the minister of justice—for Roman Zvarych, and of the minister of internal affairs—for Evgeny Chervonenko.

Yushchenko wants a different kind of concessions from Yulia Timoshenko. He understands that uniting Our Ukraine with the anti-crisis coalition will bring his party down in popularity and take away the trust of the voters. The best scenario would be to involve Timoshenko into the joint broad coalition.

Round Table

It became clear whether Yushchenko will get what he wants during the round table. Observers were shocked by the sitting arrangement of the president’s guests. For instance, Yanukovich found himself sitting next to Yulia Timoshenko.

Having discovered her ideological enemy and the subject to her mockery, Timoshenko outstretched her hand to him with a smile. Shyness suddenly came over Yanukovich, and for some time he seemed not to know what do, but eventually shook Timoshenko’s hand.

Yushchenko was the first to speak. He presented the document called “universal treaty of national unity”. His idea, which he expressed quite confusedly and broadly, is that the representatives of different political parties will unite Ukraine and put an end to dissent by signing the document.

“Some political forces will have difficulty when explaining it to their voters,” said Yushchenko, apparently meaning joining the broad coalition, and, apparently, addressing his followers and Yulia Timoshenko. “However, it is possible.”

The second to speak was Alexander Moroz. He turned out to be among those few who read the universal treaty and even criticized it,--he did not like the point concerning free sale of land. Yanukovich, as usual, made funny slips of the tongue in his speech, but spoke of uniting as well.

Then it was Timoshenko’s turn. She waved her hands and refused to speak. The floor was given to Our Ukraine leader Roman Bessmertny. He began with uniting, then switched over to carping against Socialist party leader Alexander Moroz, saying the greatest problem of modern Ukraine is “the problem of July 6”. He said Moroz secretly abandoned the “orange” coalition on that day, and openly joined the “anti-crisis” coalition.

When Bessmertny finished his speech, Yushchenko tried to give the floor to Yulia Timoshenko once again. But she waved her hands again. It became clear she wants to speak in the end, so as to finish the discussion.

However, she was forced to speak earlier. Having listened to Socialist Vasily Tsushko, Yushchenko began insisting again that Timoshenko speaks, and immediately. And she began talking, as if she was at a demonstration, and not at a round table.

She let off sharp jokes about her neighbor on the left—Yanukovich—several times. The latter raised his arm, like a schoolboy, every time, but the president gestured to him to keep calm. Leader of the Party of Regions was not supposed to speak for a second time.

The last to speak was Prime Minister Yuri Ekhanurov. He was the only one who raised the issue which troubled everyone,--the new governmental coalition. He even suggested his scenario for it: “Our Ukraine should join the coalition, the Communists should be excluded, but those parliamentary committees which they already have should be left to them, so that they do not feel offended.

The alliance of the Party of Regions, Our Ukraine and the Socialists should receive the name of the Coalition of national unity.

Joint Responsibility

The fact that Yushchenko eventually met with the deputies—members of the anti-crisis coalition, although not in the Rada but in his front office, might prove the compromise has already been reached.

Forming the new government out of members of Our Ukraine and the Party of Regions is already decided upon and will happen in a few days. Kommersant sources in the Party of Regions and in the Socialist party unanimously admitted the universal treaty suggested by President Yushchenko was worked out by anti-crisis coalition participants in cooperation with Our Ukraine members.

According to Alexander Moroz’s spokeswoman Natalya Mezentseva, the document speaks about creating a broad coalition on the basis of the existing anti-crisis one. In fact, it gives details of the entry conditions of pro-president party Our Ukraine to the triple alliance of the Party of Regions, Socialists, and Communists.

Accepting BYuT into this alliance is no longer discussed, because Timoshenko’s followers did not participate in writing the universal treaty. Moreover, the four factions ready to create the broad coalition agreed not to break up BYuT faction in the future, but to allow it to exist as the only opposition party.

Natalya Mezentseva told Kommersant the fundamental agreement on extending the coalition by means of Our Ukraine is reached, because the participants of the talks have already begun carving up the posts in the government.

“Our Ukraine is most interested in re-distributing the posts,” said Mezentseva. “It was Our Ukraine who did not join our coalition in time and were left out in the cold. Now they are trying to secure a bit of power for themselves in the future government.”

Yanukovich’s advisor Anna German assured Kommersant the president will nominate the candidate for prime minister as soon as the universal treaty is signed. She said this can be Yanukovich only.

“Tens of thousands of people in Kiev will not allow to nominate anyone else. After all, it is our right. If we make concessions here, we will lose the trust of the people. We won our presidential campaign by means of Yanukovich, and he is the most popular politician today,” believes Anna German.

Apparently, the government will soon be formed. Yushchenko gave in to Yanukovich, coming up with a new name of “universal treaty of national unity” for his act of capitulation. The division into “orange” and “blue” no longer exists.

However, it does not mean there is no more demarcation so much discussed at the round table, that is into West and East banks of the Dnieper river. Now the entire West bank simply goes to Yulia Timoshenko who said: “We shall join no broad coalitions under no circumstances.”

Source: Kommersant

Ukraine's Yushchenko Chairs Crisis Talks, No Deal

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's President Yushchenko backed away from a threat to dissolve parliament at crisis talks with his opponents on Thursday but there was no sign of an imminent deal on forming a new government.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko speaks during the round table meeting in Kiev, July 27, 2006
Ukraine has been in political turmoil and without a fully fledged cabinet for four months as rival parties try to clinch a coalition deal and form a government following an inconclusive parliamentary poll in March.

Yushchenko faces a dilemma: to dissolve parliament or bow to his opponents and nominate his old rival Viktor Yanukovich -- the man he defeated in the 2004 "Orange Revolution" -- as prime minister.

"We have moved further away from a dissolution of parliament and closer to creating a coalition," Roman Zvarych, a senior member of Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party, said at the marathon talks in the Marinsky Palace presidential residence.

But the party leaders who took part in the six hours of negotiations -- shown live on television -- appeared a long way from agreeing on what shape that coalition should take.

Yanukovich, who controls a slim majority in parliament, is proposing a government that he would head and would include his Regions party and his allies the Socialists and Communists. He has invited Our Ukraine to join as a fourth partner.

Yushchenko's supporters are pushing for a "coalition of national unity" that would include Our Ukraine, the Regions party and others but would exclude the Communists. Yanukovich has rejected that option.

The party leaders and Yushchenko spent the six hours discussing topics including the Ukrainian language, religious unity and democracy.

They plan to boil the discussion down into a declaration of principles which may be signed after further talks on Friday.

Source: Reuters

Ukraine's Yushchenko Holds Crisis Talks Over Political Stalemate

KIEV, Ukraine -- President Viktor Yushchenko held crisis talks to find a way out of Ukraine's political stalemate, but his appeal for compromise was shattered when lawmaker Yulia Tymoshenko lashed out against what she termed calls for artificial unity.


"In not a single democratic country in the world is it possible to unite all political forces," said Tymoshenko, one of the leaders of the 2004 Orange Revolution, in an angry speech during the round-table discussions. "As a rule, there are those in power and the opposition."

The ex-Soviet republic has been locked in turmoil since Viktor Yanukovych's pro-Russian Party of Regions won the most seats in a March parliamentary election, besting the pro-Western reformers who backed Yushchenko, but falling short of a majority.

Yushchenko's allies teamed up with Tymoshenko's bloc and the Socialist Party to create a majority coalition in June, but the Socialists defected before it had time to form a new government. The Socialists united with the Party of Regions and the Communists in a new coalition that proposed Yanukovych as prime minister.

Fraud allegations during Yanukovych's run for the presidency against Yushchenko in 2004 triggered the massive protests known as the Orange Revolution; the Supreme Court declared the vote invalid, and Yushchenko defeated Yanukovych in a rerun.

Yushchenko so far has not forwarded Yanukovych's nomination as premier to the parliament. But because the parliament convened more than 60 days ago without forming a government, Yushchenko technically has the right to dissolve the legislature and call new elections.

Faced with the equally unattractive prospects of calling new elections or allowing his foe to become prime minister, Yushchenko has been casting desperately for a solution as the Aug. 2 deadline to decide on Yanukovych's candidacy approaches.

"The moment of truth has come, we need to make a decision," Yushchenko said at the start of the round-table, which was televised live.

Yushchenko proposed that all the parties sign a memorandum of national unity that which would safeguard freedom of speech, Ukraine's territorial integrity, liberal economic reforms, European integration efforts and support for a single national language, Ukrainian.

But when the leaders began discussing the memorandum, discussion over whether Ukraine should join NATO sparked heated debate. The Socialists and Communists oppose NATO membership, while Yushchenko countered that cooperation with the alliance was the only way to provide security to Ukraine.

After Yushchenko and Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko exchanged barbs over NATO and the issue of creating a single Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Tymoshenko said the sharp disagreements were an example of why a broad coalition would not work.

"Why should we have two centers of power that rule the country with different courses ... it is only a matter of time before they clash," she said.

But Yanukovych, who is seeking Yushchenko's support, appeared eager to find a compromise. He said that "cooperation with NATO is natural."

However, after six hours of talks, the party leaders failed to reach an agreement on the text of the memorandum. Yushchenko ordered a working group to hash out differences and prepare a final document by Friday morning.

The tension in the room was obvious, even without the main issue — of Yanukovych's premiership — being addressed. When Yanukovych went into a long-winded speech, Yushchenko pointedly interrupted to tell him he had been speaking too long.

Yushchenko ally Roman Bezsmertny said that the president's bloc was willing to work with Party of Regions, but only if a new coalition of national unity was formed. "Today all of us must think first of all about unity," he said.

Ukraine remains deeply divided between the Russian-speaking east, which supports Yanukovych, and the Ukrainian-speaking west, which considers a Yanukovych premiership a betrayal of the Orange Revolution.

Tymoshenko pressed the president to reject any union with Yanukovych, urging him to dissolve parliament and call new elections.

Yushchenko has appeared reluctant to take such a drastic step.

The Party of Regions suggested earlier Thursday that it was ready for some compromises, but would refuse to discuss dropping Yanukovych.

Source: Fox News

Yushchenko Sees Moment Of Truth In Ukraine's Political Life

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko said Thursday "a moment of truth" had come about in the country's political life.


"We must make a decision," Yushchenko said at a meeting with Parliamentary Speaker Oleksandr Moroz, Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov, representatives of all parliamentary factions, and leading politicians.

Yushchenko said there were only two ways out of the deadlocked situation, either confrontation or the real unification of the nation.

He added that it was up to politicians to choose the nation's strategy.

Yushchenko is now facing a dilemma between confirming Viktor Yanukovych, his "orange" revolution rival, as prime minister or dissolving parliament - the right he received after the assembly missed a 60-day deadline for forming a new government on Tuesday.

He has until August 2 to decide how to respond to Yanukovych's nomination.

Source: RIA Novosti

Ukraine's Regulator To Auction 5 WiMAX Licenses

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's National Commission for Communications Regulation, or NKRS, plans to auction five frequency licenses for WiMAX broadband services sometime in September-November, the regulator's spokesman Vladimir Oleinik told reporters.


The regulator plans to auction three national and two regional licenses in the 5.47GHz-5.67GHz frequency range with a 40-MHz frequency band for each license, Oleinik said, adding that the regulator was accepting comments on tender conditions until August 1.

The starting price of a national license will amount to 1.088 million hryvnas ($217,000), Oleinik said, adding that about 30 operators indicated their interest in obtaining the license.

WiMAX, or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a standards-based technology enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL connections.

Source: Cellular News

Yushchenko To Nominate PM Candidate Before Constitutional Deadline

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said on Wednesday that he would nominate a candidate for prime minister before the the constitutional deadline.


Yushchenko called on lawmakers to stop pressuring him on the issue, according to reports from Ukraine's Interfax News Agency.

The president said he hoped the majority party in parliament would address some pressing issues, such as the formulation of policies, maintaining consistency in government, and strategic planning.

He said that there must be a clear definition of the relations between the president, parliament and the government.

It was important to maintain a consistency in applying the country's policies, Yushchenko said, adding that particular bodies such as the interior ministry, the defense ministry, the foreign ministry, the national security service and the supreme procuratorate should not be topics up for discussion in the establishment of a coalition government.

Yushchenko added that while the president had the power to dissolve parliament, it may well cause conflict in society. He said he would not forswear the possibility of using that power in order to counterattack some actions.

Under Ukraine's new constitutional amendment made in January, the country's parliament has 60 days from its first plenary session, which was held on May 25, to form a new government. Otherwise, the president has the right to dissolve parliament and call for new elections.

However, a resolution passed by Ukrainian lawmakers on Monday warned that it would be illegal for the president to dissolve parliament unless under very clear, proscribed conditions.

Yushchenko said his power to dissolve parliament was a right and not an obligation.

Ukraine has been mired in a political crisis since the parliamentary elections in March this year, in which Victor Yanukovych's Party of Regions was defeated by Yushchenko's Our Ukraine bloc.

The Party of Regions formed a parliamentary majority coalition with the Socialist Party and the Communist Party earlier in July, and nominated Yanukovych as the new prime minister. However, Yushchenko has not yet submitted Yanukovych's nomination to parliament.

Source: People's Daily Online

Vice Governor Sentenced For 2004 Election Fraud

MUKACHEVO, Ukraine -- A high-ranking official involved in the wave of fraudulent elections that led up to Ukraine’s Orange Revolution at the end of 2004 has been sentenced to prison, but the closed court proceedings and the lack of information about the fine print of the sentence casts the justice promised by President Viktor Yushchenko and his Orange allies in doubt.

Mukachevo Castle
Just over two years ago, Ukraine and the international community were stunned by the the April 18, 2004 repeat mayoral elections in the otherwise sleepy western Ukrainian town of Mukachevo.

Mukachevo’s election was widely interpreted as a dress rehearsal for Ukraine’s 2004 presidential election, in which large-scale fraud and voter intimidation ignited the massive nationwide protests known as the Orange Revolution in November and December of that same year.

The distressing cocktail of vote rigging, scare tactics and outright violence in Mukachevo not only blurred the distinctions between criminal gangs, law enforcement agencies and election officials, but also ranked the election among the worst in independent Ukraine’s recent history.

Over two years later, Ukraine’s Prosecutor-General’s Office (PGO) announced that the district court in Mukachevo sentenced a former deputy governor of Transcarpathia Region to five years imprisonment on June 30 for his role in falsifying the results of the Mukachevo’s mayoral election.

However, the PGO’s July 3 press release did not provide detailed information about the court’s decision, name the convicted former deputy governor, or reveal what statutes of the criminal code he violated, apparently because of confidentiality requirements in Ukraine’s court system.

Moreover, according to the release, the sentence stipulates that the first year of his prison term be “postponed.”

In early 2004, Mukachevo and all of Transcarpathia Region had become a fierce battleground between the then oppositionist Our Ukraine bloc led by Viktor Yushchenko and the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united) led by the former head of the presidential administration under former President Leonid Kuchma – Viktor Medvedchuk.

Candidates from these two political factions battled not once, but twice, for the mayor’s seat: on June 29, 2003 during an election held after Viktor Baloha, (current emergencies minister) vacated his seat to become a member of parliament following the 2002 parliamentary elections, and again on April 18, 2004, after a lengthy court battle and a decree by then President Leonid Kuchma declared the June 29 elections illegitimate.

The April 18 repeat election pitted Our Ukraine’s Viktor Baloha against the SDPU(united)’s Ernest Nuser. Unofficial vote tabulations and exit-poll results gave Baloha a commanding lead over Nuser, with a margin of over 5,000 votes.

The exit-poll conducted by Democratic Initiatives (DIF), in conjunction with SOCIS, the Kyiv International Institute for Sociology, “Social Monitoring”, the Razumkov Center and the Committee of Voters of Ukraine (CVU), showed that Baloha received 62.4 and Nuser obtained 29.99 percent of the vote. With a 60 percent response rate, 1,694 voters participated in the poll, which was enough to guarantee the validity of the results, according to DIF’s April 18, 2004 press release.

Nonetheless, a series of violent attacks by locals toughs (with their uniform closely-cropped hair and black leather jackets) on polling stations throughout the day and during the vote count, as well as drastic changes made to the protocols at the polling stations and the district electoral comission, rewrote the results of Mukachevo’s mayoral election, and Nuser was announced the winner at about 4:30 a.m., by the very same margin of 5,000 votes.

The election results were robustly criticized both in Ukraine and abroad.

Mukachevo attracted national and international attention not only because of the mobilization of hired thugs, who were involved in scuffles with observers, people’s deputies and journalists on voting day, and ransacked polling stations at night during the count, but also because the involvement of regional and local government officials and law enforcement in the orchestration of election fraud appeared to reach unprecedented levels.

In 2004 and 2005, a number of high profile criminal investigations were opened in connection with the Mukachevo elections.

In 2005, just a few months after Yushchenko had been sworn in as president, the PGO announced that it had opened a criminal case against former deputy governor of Transcarpathian Region Viktor Dyadchenko on April 26.

According to its April 28, 2005 press release, the PGO alleged that Dyadchenko, as a government official involved in organizing the elections, “deliberately made false changes to the protocols submitted by the polling station committees.” The PGO also charged that the former deputy governor had abused his position of power by forcing the heads of polling station commissions to make changes to already formulated protocols – the document that officially reports and records the result of the vote.

Furthermore, the PGO alleged that the group organizing the elections, of which Dyadchenko was a part, stole (and later destroyed) the ballot papers and protocols from the offices of the city executive committee, with the intent to cover up evidence of vote fraud.

The former chief of Mukachevo’s city police, Valeriy Dernoviy, was also detained in April 2005 pending an analogous set of charges, according to the same PGO news item from April 28, 2005.

Another high-profile criminal case was opened against Ivan Chubirko, then deputy to Mukachevo’s city council, on August 10, 2005, on allegations of giving bribes to heads of polling station commissions to ensure the victory of SDPU(united) candidate Nuser.

According to Yevhen Poberezhniy, vice president of CVU’s board of directors, the sentencing of the former deputy governor “is notable because they got to a high-level official, one who himself did not carry out rigging, but was involved in the technical organization of the process…which is why this case, in my opinion, sets a much more important precedent.”

Ukrainian law, however, curtails the amount of information available regarding court rulings – information must be presented in a way that does not identify the person who is the subject of the case. Therefore, although quite a number of criminal cases have been opened regarding the Mukachevo elections, information regarding the results of these investigations is not accessible to the public.

In a 2005 publication entitled, “Criminal Accountability for Violating Voting Rights,” Prof. Mykola Melnyk notes that the same holds true for criminal cases opened regarding the 2004 presidential election.

He wrote that an analysis of judicial practice in criminal cases opened based on evidence of violations during the 2004 presidential election shows that in most cases investigations and court hearings were limited to those who had directly carried out fraud – that is, the average polling station commissioner.

“The organizers and instigators of these violations were, as a rule, considered ‘persons not identified by the investigation’ and thereby avoided responsibility envisaged by legislation,” he wrote.

During the Ukrainian parliamentary election on March 26, 2006, the pro-Russian SDPU(united) didn’t overcome the three percent hurdle and so is no longer represented in the country’s Verkhovna Rada.

Source: Kyiv Post

Parliament On Brink Of Dissolution Amid Crisis

KIEV, Ukraine -- Amid calls this week for national unity and reconciliation by parliamentary factions on both sides of the country’s latest political divide – the remnants of the Orange Revolution camp and a recently forged alliance between leftists and pro-Russian interests.

A supporter of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko gestures during a demonstration near the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev
All eyes are fixed on Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, and whether or not he will move to dissolve the legislature just four months after it was elected and days before it is due to take its summer recess.

Socialist leader Oleksandr Moroz, the emboldened parliamentary speaker who just weeks ago was allied with the Orange camp, openly challenged the president’s authority to dissolve parliament on July 24, saying that he would not obey a decision to do so even if Yushchenko took such a decision.

As of midnight on July 24, 60 days had passed since the government of acting Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov, appointed by Yushchenko, formally resigned, following the March 26 parliamentary elections. As lawmakers have been unable to form a government before the two month deadline,President Yushchenko has the option of dissolving the Rada and calling fresh elections.

However, with the popularity of Yushchenko and his pro-presidential Our Ukraine party at an all-time low among voters, the hero of the Orange Revolution is unlikely to risk going through another general election.

In the meantime, the so-called Anti-Crisis Coalition – consisting of the Communists, the Socialists and the Donetsk-based Party of the Regions, who recently put together a surprise parliamentary majority – continues to push for the president to submit Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych for the post of prime minister.

Yanukovych was Yushchenko’s opponent in the 2004 elections, which were widely criticized as fraudulent, leading to the country’s Orange Revolution.

The formation of a government, which the parliamentary majority appoints in the main but in which the president also plays a role, has been the prerogative of lawmakers following controversial constitutional changes that came into effect at the start of 2006.

With lawmakers holding up the swearing in of new judges, the Constitutional Court cannot form a quorum and so ongoing problems in the formation of a new government and its policy agenda can only truly be settled by an agreement between the president and the parliament.

And without an operational Constitutional Court to adjudicate conflicts between the executive and legislative branches, the repercussions for what is widely perceived as inaction by the president remain unclear.

Another legal nuance coming into play is that the Anti-Crisis Coalition repeated its submission of Yanukovych’s candidacy for premier on July 18, which gives the president until Aug. 2 to consider the candidacy, and more time for him to negotiate for additional influence in the next government.

According to parliament’s schedule, lawmakers are due to start their summer recess on July 28.

Observers and political opponents have blamed the current crisis in parliament on Yushchenko’s reluctance to form a coalition with former Orange allies, the Socialists and the bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko, for fear of the popularity of Tymoshenko, whom Yushchenko fired as premier last fall.

But the pro-presidential Our Ukraine bloc continues to negotiate with the Anti-Crisis coalition, in order to secure key positions in a government formed by either a broad coalition that includes Our Ukraine, or one in which the rights of opposition parties are secured.

Roman Besmertniy, faction leader of Our Ukraine, has called for a tight dialogue between parliamentary factions during the Rada’s July 24 session, one that “would ensure the rights of the majority and its ability to work, and no less the rights of the minority to criticize the majority.”

However, Our Ukraine’s bargaining position, largely based on its image as the president’s faction, has been weakened over the last four months, as its public support steadily declines.

At this stage, according to Vadym Karasiov, the director of the Institute of Global Strategies, the president is currently “negotiating over his candidates for key positions from Our Ukraine in a government with Regions … to ensure that they get key positions, including the budget committee, the minister of internal affairs and the first vice president of [state oil and gas company] Naftogaz Ukrayiny.”

It’s doubtful that Regions would reconsider its submission of Yanukovych as premier, even though political experts have suggested that the post could be leveraged by both sides as part of the bargaining process. Moreover, Regions will hold onto some of its more controversial July 18 parliamentary committee appointments, such as former Kharkiv governor Yevhen Kushnaryov as the chairman of the committee on legal policy, and former head of the Central Election Commission Serhiy Kivalov, as the chairman of the justice committee.

“This will not change … the Party of Regions will not give up these committees,” said Karasiov, adding that these committees give the party significant control over the formation of the legislative branch of government.

As chair of the justice committee, Kivalov would exercise significant influence over the list of Constitutional Court judges that will eventually be submitted to parliament for a long-awaited vote and swearing in ceremony.

Kivalov headed the Central Electoral Commission and Kushnaryov was the governor of Kharkiv Region during the 2004 presidential elections, in which widespread fraud was recorded in Kyiv and the country’s eastern regions.

Parliament challenges president

Despite ongoing negotiations between the pro-presidential Our Ukraine, and the Anti-Crisis Coalition, some coalition members have made pronouncements that appear to be an attempt to force the president’s hand.

At parliament’s July 25 session, one day after Moroz had announced that he would not honor a decision by the president to dissolve parliament, in a strange twist, 239 deputies retroactively overturned the previous parliament’s resolution to dismiss current acting Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov’s government on Jan. 10, 2006.

The dismissal was supported by Orange and other parties following a controversial gas deal with Russia that Yekhanurov’s government oversaw.

The July 25 decision came after Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych, Our Ukraine’s Beszmertniy, and Ivan Bokiy from the Socialist party had called for national unity and reconciliation in the interests of the Ukrainian people.

MP Yuriy Kliuchkovsky, the president’s representative in parliament, called this maneuver a political game and said that those initiating it were hoping that they’d removed one of several legal pretexts that allow the president to dismiss parliament.

Kliuchkovsky further stated that the initial decision to dismiss Yekhanurov’s cabinet on January 10 violated “a whole series of norms in the old constitution,” and that the Verkhovna Rada made the decision on the basis of norms and regulations in the new constitution.

Fedir Venislavsky, assistant professor of constitutional law at Kharkiv’s Yaroslav Mudriy National Law Academy, noted that not only was this decision legally groundless, the last parliament’s decision to dismiss the Yekhanurov government also violated procedures outlined in the constitution, “and that anyone of sound mind would overturn it.”

However, he added, that “the decision to overturn the dismissal was not legally, but politically, motivated … and the president still has the right to dissolve parliament.”

Moreover, he said that constitutional experts consider “that the discontinuation of a government mandate, regardless of the terms, or rather whether it had been dismissed or resigned its mandate, is effectively a dismissal,” adding that from a legal perspective President Yushchenko has grounds to dismiss parliament under any circumstances if there has not been a government formed within 60 days.

In this context, the decision by the Anti-Crisis coalition to overturn the dismissal of Yekhanurov appears to be a public relations move, perhaps to give the appearance that they are narrowing the set of options left to Yushchenko for resolving this political crisis.

All the while, the faction of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc is continuing its boycott of parliament, which it began July 20. Tymoshenko said July 26 that “we will not return to the session hall unless the president endorses a relevant decision and the situation is cleared.”

After four months of protracted coalition negotiations it appears that political proclamations, however impassioned, have little potential to speed up the process, and that Yushchenko may very well take all the time he needs to negotiate a coalition better suited to his overall policy agenda.

Source: Kyiv Post

Ukrainian Parliament, Cabinet In Limbo

KIEV, Ukraine -- No cabinet is emerging in Ukraine to replace the outgoing one of Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov. Meanwhile, President Viktor Yushchenko may disband parliament at any time and call new elections.


Viktor Yanukovych
This uncertainty is apparently Yushchenko’s conscious choice, as he delays the appointment of a new cabinet, waiting for concessions from a parliamentary majority that is hostile to his party.

The majority coalition of Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions (PRU), the Socialists, and the Communists submitted for Yushchenko’s approval their choice for prime minister -- Yushchenko’s bitter rival in the Orange Revolution of 2004 Viktor Yanukovych -- on July 18.

Yushchenko has 15 days to endorse Yanukovych -- the constitution leaves him no choice -- and he has made it clear that he may use this term to the full, waiting until August 2.

At the same time, as of July 25 Yushchenko can at any moment dissolve a hostile parliament. The constitution entitles, but does not obligate, him to do so if no cabinet is in place after 60 days since the previous cabinet’s resignation.

Yekhanurov resigned on May 25, so parliament is now in limbo, as Yushchenko may dissolve it at any minute.

New elections would not benefit Yushchenko’s party, Our Ukraine, however, as its popularity is now under 10% -- even less than it scored in the March 26 election. Opinion polls, however, show that early elections would not harm Yushchenko’s Orange Revolution ally, Yulia Tymoshenko, who is probably more popular than she was in March.

It is not surprising that Tymoshenko, having lost her chance to become prime minister as the Orange coalition fell apart, is pushing for new elections. The Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc has stopped attending parliament sittings, and Tymoshenko said that Yushchenko’s refusal to disband a parliament dominated by Yanukovych would mean the betrayal of the Orange Revolution.

Our Ukraine however, has not followed the example of Tymoshenko’s bloc, continuing work in the session hall and horse-trading with the PRU on its possible participation in a new cabinet.

Leaks to the press suggest different figures -- according to Zerkalo nedeli, which is close to Our Ukraine, Yushchenko would like to secure some 10 posts in the cabinet for Our Ukraine people, but PRU-linked Segodnya said he wants just the posts of first deputy prime minister for his ally Petro Poroshenko and interior minister for Yuriy Lutsenko, in addition to foreign minister and defense minister -- the two ministers that the constitution gives the president the right to nominate.

Speaking in an interview with Stolichnye novosti, Our Ukraine chairman Roman Bezsmertny indirectly confirmed the rumors about horse-trading, saying that Our Ukraine is considering different options, including having its members take part in the cabinet.

Yushchenko’s camp, however, is not unanimous. His chief of staff, Oleh Rybachuk, who apparently speaks for the radical camp, believes that Yushchenko should dissolve parliament if the majority does not offer somebody more neutral than Yanukovych.

Interviewed by Delo, Rybachuk also rejected the PRU’s calls to join the majority in parliament, but he suggested a different coalition format, apparently without the Communists. The PRU, however, insists that the Communists will not be dropped from its coalition.

Both Yushchenko and his rivals agree that the constitutional amendments in force since January 1 are imperfect, which makes the current situation open to different interpretations. Not everybody agrees that Yushchenko can dissolve parliament.

Addressing the nation on TV on July 24, parliament speaker Oleksandr Moroz insisted that Yushchenko has no grounds for this. What’s more, he said that parliament would not obey if Yushchenko decrees to dissolve it.

On the same day Moroz’s ally, parliament deputy speaker Adam Martynyuk of the Communist Party, went as far as to say that parliament may solve the issue of the prime minister’s appointment even without Yushchenko if he does not appoint Yanukovych within 15 days.

He also said it is up to parliament to interpret the constitution in the absence of a legitimate Constitutional Court. Various parties for various reasons blocked the appointment of new Constitutional Court judges early this year in place of those whose term in office had expired, so now there is no Constitutional Court in place to resolve the current crisis in favor of either Yushchenko or the PRU and its allies.

Meanwhile, the PRU is at pains to get rid of its image as a pro-Russian and undemocratic party in order to make its possible union with Our Ukraine look more natural both at home and internationally.

Yanukovych has switched from using Russian to Ukrainian in his public statements. The PRU pledged adherence to Ukraine’s European choice in the majority coalition agreement, and one of PRU leaders, Borys Kolesnikov, said in a July 18 interview with Invest gazeta that European integration and NATO membership -- to which the PRU remains hostile -- are “absolutely different things,” as there are “EU members that are not NATO members.”

Yanukovych also said he would expel from the PRU MP Oleh Kalashnykov for using force to retrieve a compromising video from a TV crew earlier in July.

Source: Eurasia Daily Monitor

Ukraine's Future Looks Less Orange

KIEV, Ukraine -- Everything was meant to change in Ukraine as a result of the Orange Revolution in the last three months of 2004.


Corruption and cronyism were supposed to give way to transparency and democracy. "Bandits" were meant to be jailed, dubious privatisations were meant to be reversed. EU and Nato membership appeared to be within reach.

It has not quite worked out like that - though some important goals were achieved.

"The main achievement of the Orange Revolution was freedom of speech," says Taras Berezovets, chief editor of the Ukrainian political website, Polittech.org.

"Another benefit has been freedom of business. Politicians stopped interfering, and we now have an economic boom, which has continued despite recent political crises."

A parliamentary election in March, unlike many previous elections, was free and fair - so much so, that the winner was the man who "lost" the Orange Revolution, the pro-Russian former prime minister Viktor Yanukovych.

He has now been nominated again for the premiership, which, under constitutional amendments brought in after the Orange Revolution, would make him the most powerful man in the country.

In-fighting

But many of the Revolution's promised changes did not occur.

Corruption allegations still dog some government ministers. Political parties resemble business clans, bankrolled by tycoons who often double as members of parliament. Reports of vote-buying are rife.

Things started to go wrong from the very start.

Any political goals the leaders of the Orange Revolution may have shared were forgotten during the coalition government headed by Yulia Tymoshenko, which took office in February 2005, and quickly descended into in-fighting.

Ms Tymoshenko accused Mr Yushchenko's inner circle of corruption. He sacked her, and accused her of abusing her position to repay debts.

Mr Yushchenko then outraged many of his own supporters by turning to his rival, Mr Yanukovych, for help in a parliamentary vote to confirm his new prime ministerial nominee.

During the Revolution it had been Yushchenko and Tymoshenko against Yanukovych. Suddenly it was Yushchenko and Yanukovych against Tymoshenko, who voted against Mr Yushchenko's nominee.

Catch 22

In the months since the March election - in which his party came a poor third - Mr Yushchenko has been faced with a choice of which enemy to form a coalition with: Ms Tymoshenko or Mr Yanukovych.

Ukrainian commentators say he negotiated with both simultaneously, dragging the talks out for months in an attempt to extract maximum concessions.

Finally, he struck a deal with Ms Tymoshenko, with the Socialist Party as a junior partner, just as in 2005. But within days the Socialists had second thoughts and opted instead to join a coalition with Mr Yanukovych.

Now Mr Yanukovych has the upper hand, and is inviting Mr Yushchenko's party to join his coalition.

Mr Yushchenko now has to decide whether to agree, or whether it would be better for his Our Ukraine party to go into opposition.

A third option, favoured by Ms Tymoshenko, would be for him to dissolve parliament and call new elections.

"It is a Catch 22 situation," says Taras Kuzio, a senior fellow of the US body, the German Marshall Fund.

"Yanukovych as prime minister would overshadow Yushchenko. Yushchenko would be sidelined. And his supporters would desert him in droves, going over to Tymoshenko. Politically, he would be finished.

"But if he calls fresh elections it could be even worse."

'Anti-crisis' coalition

Taras Berezovets of polittech.org agrees that new elections held now would simply reduce Our Ukraine's share of the vote from 14% in March to 9% or 10%.

What a new Yanukovych government would mean for Ukraine and for the legacy of the Orange Revolution is an open question.

For example, the "anti-crisis coalition" formed by his Party of Regions, the Socialist Party and the Communist Party, pledges to continue moving towards Mr Yushchenko's goal of EU membership and to abide by any result of a referendum on Nato membership.

"Yanukovych claims he is a new man, and is not going back to the bad old ways," says Taras Kuzio. "We simply do not know whether he will have to work within the parameters of the post-Orange system or not."

How long a Yanukovych government would last is also unclear.

The Party of Regions' big business backers do not have much in common with the Communists, and neither group has much in common with the more "Orange" members of the Socialist Party, some of whom have already begun splitting away.

So whatever happens next, Ukraine seems far from a return to political stability.

Source: BBC News

Yushchenko: “Ukraine Is Facing Serious Threat Of Isolation”

KIEV, Ukraine -- “Ukraine is facing a serious threat of isolation as some local political forces want to put an end to democracy and democratic reforms in the country,” Ukrainian President Yushchenko said during his meeting with Foreign Minister Boris Tarasyuk.


Boris Tarasyuk
He stressed that he would not allow this. The presidential press service reports the sides to note that Ukraine’s foreign policy “will not be changed.”

Yushchenko instructed the Ukrainian diplomatic missions to make this position known to the world countries. “The policy of European and Euro-Atlantic integration will not be changed because it serves the national interests of Ukraine.

I am going to actively exercise my constitutional powers to supervise the country’s foreign political activities. I hope that all political forces in Ukraine realize that,” Yushchenko said.

Yushchenko said that he will promulgate his decision on the fate of the parliament and the government by the constitutional deadline. “This decision will be based on the Constitution and will consider all the factors of the present complicated situation,” Yushchenko said.

He said that the Supreme Rada must also comply with the Constitution and laws of Ukraine, must refrain from undertaking the functions of the other government branches and “must refuse even to think about usurping power.” “This will not be accepted by either Ukrainian society or the world,” Yushchenko said.

During the meeting Tarasyuk reported to Yushchenko on the results of the CIS informal summit. Yushchenko instructed him to consider the proposals made by the acting CIS chairman, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Tarasyuk also told Yushchenko about Ukraine’s talks with the EU for simplified visa regime for Ukrainian citizens.

Source: Regnum

Political Crisis In Ukraine Enters Critical Stage

KIEV, Ukraine -- The political crisis in Ukraine entered a critical stage today after legislators missed a deadline to form a new government.


Viktor F. Yanukovich, in dark suit at center, at a political gathering in Kiev, Ukraine. He has benefited from dwindling support for President Viktor A. Yushchenko, whose party has been accused of corruption.
Under the constitution, the parliamentary majority had until midnight on July 24 to form a new government. If it failed to do so, the president could dissolve the legislature and call new elections.

But the new, pro-Russian coalition, which has nominated Viktor Yanukovych for prime minister, cannot form a government until the president has formally approved the nomination.

President Viktor Yushchenko says he has until August 2 to consider Yanukovych's nomination.

Yanukovych's fraud-tainted win in the 2004 presidential election sparked the Orange Revolution, the mass street protests that eventually brought Yushchenko into office.

Yushchenko's former Orange Revolution allies have urged him to dissolve parliament and to call new elections to prevent Yanukovych from becoming prime minister.

Source: Radio Free Europe

Ukraine Parliament Restores Yekhanurov As Prime Minister

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's parliament has restored Prime Minister Yuri Yekhanurov to office, saying his dismissal in January was unconstitutional.


Yuri Yekhanurov
Mr. Yekhanurov has been serving as acting prime minister since parliament voted to dismiss him over a deal to buy natural gas from Russia.

The vote canceling his dismissal came hours after expiration of a constitutional deadline requiring that a government be in office.

This is the latest twist in a long-running political crisis in Ukraine following March elections in which the opposition Regions Party emerged as the leading group in parliament.

A coalition headed by the Regions Party had suggested nominating former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych to head a new government.

But President Viktor Yushchenko has until early August to respond to the suggestion.

Source: Voice of America

Ukraine Misses Key Deadline To Form Coalition Government

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's majority coalition has scheduled a special session to discuss the stalemate in forming the country's next government. President Viktor Yushchenko let a midnight deadline pass without deciding on whether to approve his arch-rival Viktor Yanukovych's nomination as prime minister.


Viktor Yushchenko
President Yushchenko remained silent as the midnight deadline to approve the majority coalition's nomination for prime minister came and went. Presidential aides suggest that Mr. Yushchenko has until August 2 to respond to Mr. Yanukovych's nomination, but with parliament scheduled to adjourn by week's end, tensions are flaring.

In comments broadcast on Russian television, Communist party leader Petro Simonenko places the blame for the three-month-long stand-off squarely with the president.

Majority coalition members say President Yushchenko has no reason to override, or ignore, public opinion, noting that the Ukrainian people cast the most votes in the March parliamentary elections for Yanukovych's Party of Regions.

Some members of the coalition, most notably the new speaker of parliament, Oleksander Moroz, have suggested that parliament could approve Yanukovych as prime minister, without the president's approval.

President Yushchenko has said he still retains the right to dissolve parliament and call new elections and that any act, without his approval, would be "illegal."

Kiev-based independent political analyst Ivan Lozowy tells VOA Mr. Yushchenko's silence is, as he put it, understandable.

"He faces a very, very difficult choice. That it's of his own choice does not make it any easier for him," said Lozowy. "He can dissolve parliament and face worse results than he received several months ago in the general election. [Or] He can appoint Yanukovych, basically committing political Hari-Kari [suicide] because this is his major opponent, who would come in with additional powers that the prime minister post received at the start of this year."

Those new powers, according to analyst Lozowy, would be enough for Yanukovych and his Party of Regions to basically erode the last vestiges of President Yushchenko's power just 18 months after he was swept into office by street protests during Ukraine's Orange Revolution.

Source: Voice of America

Deadline On Ukraine PM Nomination Expired, President Yushchenko Remains Silent

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine’s new parliamentary majority missed a midnight deadline to form a new government, with President Viktor Yushchenko giving no indication he is ready yet to nominate his former Orange Revolution rival to be the next prime minister, The Associated Press reports.


Under the Constitution, the new lawmakers elected in the March parliamentary vote had 60 days from their first session to form a government — a deadline that expired at midnight. But the pro-Russian coalition, which has nominated Viktor Yanukovych to be prime minister, cannot act until the president gives formal approval to the nomination.

With the deadline passed, the president could legally dissolve the 450-seat parliament and call new elections. However, he said earlier that his authority to dissolve parliament is a right and not an obligation. Yushchenko said he also is entitled to time to consider a prime ministerial candidate, giving him until Aug. 2 to decide on Yanukovych’s candidacy.

Yanukovych, whom Yushchenko defeated for the presidency in a court-ordered revote in 2004, suggested his party would be patient, up to a point. “We will wait as long as is specified under the law,” Yanukovych said in televised remarks Monday. “But in my opinion, the question has been dragged out,” he was also quoted as saying according to the Unian news agency.

Adam Martynyuk, first deputy parliament speaker and a member of the new coalition, accused Yushchenko of artificially delaying “to justify himself before society ... and to get more.”

Some members of the coalition have said that parliament could go ahead and approve Yanukovych as prime minister, without the president. The president’s office has warned that would be illegal.

This former Soviet nation has been embroiled in political crisis since Yanukovych trounced Yushchenko’s party in March parliamentary elections and formed a parliamentary majority with the Communists and Socialists. The strong performance of the pro-Russian opposition reflected disillusionment at the sluggish economy and a split within the reformist pro-Western team that came to power after the 2004 mass protests over election fraud known as the Orange Revolution.

The new coalition, with its support base in the Russian-speaking east, could slow down Yushchenko’s efforts to drag Kiev out of Moscow’s shadow and into NATO and the European Union, some analysts say.

Some of Yushchenko’s allies have called on the president to dissolve parliament and on Monday Yulia Tymoshenko, a key Orange Revolution figure, said all 125 lawmakers in her faction — the second biggest in parliament — were ready to surrender their seats.

Tymoshenko has said that if 151 lawmakers give up their seats, it would make parliament illegitimate and the president could dissolve it on that basis. Members of Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine bloc, however, have said they don’t support such a move.

Meanwhile, Ihor Markov, head of the Free Choice group, predicted that a new election could cost more than $1 billion and could leave the country even more polarized between the Russian-speaking east, which supports Yanukovych, and the more nationalistic, Ukrainian-speaking west, which backed the Orange Revolution.

Source: MosNews

Ukraine Parliament Standoff Spills Out Onto Streets

KIEV, Ukraine -- Activists of Ukraine's two main political camps confronted each other in central Kiev Tuesday after parliament missed a deadline for forming a coalition government and so faced possible dissolution.


A supporter of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko shouts slogans near the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev, Ukraine
About 10,000 members of the pro-Russian Party of Regions and the rival Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc blocked the approaches to the parliament building, disrupting traffic.

Both camps were waiting for President Viktor Yushchenko to decide between disbanding the assembly or approving the majority coalition's nomination for prime minister after the deadline, marking 60 days since the legislature's first sitting, had expired at midnight Tuesday.

Elected in March, parliament has been in limbo ever since as one coalition needed to form a government collapsed to make way for a rival alliance amid accusations of treachery, bribery and in-fighting.

The Party of Regions hammered out the "anti-crisis" coalition with the Communist Party and the Socialists earlier this month, nominating its 56-year-old leader, Viktor Yanukovych, as prime minister.

Yushchenko has so far been hesitant to endorse the nomination of his arch rival, whom he defeated in a 2004 presidential rerun following protests against vote rigging that came to be known as the "orange revolution."

The president appears equally reluctant to use his power to dissolve the legislature and hold new elections, despite persistent calls to do so from Yulia Tymoshenko, his main "orange" revolution ally and first premier.

Tymoshenko, the darling of the "orange revolution" and premier-in-waiting in the first post-election coalition, formally withdrew from parliament Monday with her eponymous faction in a bid to block the rival coalition's way to power. Her West-leaning bloc holds 125 seats - almost one-third of the 450-member assembly.

On Monday, 244 MPs supported a resolution stating that if the president launched consultations on dissolving parliament, the assembly should immediately hold a plenary session "to maintain constitutional law and order in Ukraine."

Parliament Speaker Oleksandr Moroz said dissolution was an unlikely prospect. "President Viktor Yushchenko has no grounds for disbanding parliament. And I strongly believe he will not venture into risky undertakings," he said.

Source: RIA Novosti

Ukraine: Timoshenko's Ambitions and Yushchenko's Dilemma

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's Yulia Timoshenko led her political bloc out of the Ukrainian parliament July 24. The move constitutes a bid to thwart the formation of a new government that is leaving her out in the cold.


With pro-Russian forces threatening to reconsolidate a hold on Ukraine's political life, and perhaps threatening Timoshenko's political -- and even personal -- survival, the withdrawal means Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko must make an impossible choice between Moscow and chaos.

All but one of Bloc Yulia Timoshenko's 125 members of parliament resigned July 24, urging former Orange Coalition partner Our Ukraine, with 81 members in parliament, to follow suit.

One-third, or 150, of the parliament's 450 members must quit to force a new election. Several members of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party promptly refused to quit, criticizing the bloc's decision.

Timoshenko is acting increasingly desperate as fellow pro-Westerner Yushchenko possibly moves to allow a new pro-Russian coalition government to form under their mutual archrival, Viktor Yanukovich.

Yushchenko is expected to decide July 25 whether to approve Yanukovich's nomination for prime minister, which would put the latter at the head of Anti-Crisis Coalition consisting of Yanukovich's Party of Regions, the Communists and the Socialists. Yushchenko's other options are to try to merge Our Ukraine into the Anti-Crisis Coalition in an attempt to moderate Yanukovich's influence, or dissolve parliament and call new elections.

Timoshenko and Yushchenko came to power together in the 2004 Orange Revolution, but faced mounting political and interpersonal conflict thereafter, culminating in Timoshenko's termination as prime minister in September 2005. The collapse of the Orange Coalition has left a chaotic open space in which the smaller Socialists and Communists have been able to leverage their swing votes and cut a deal with the Party of Regions.

Ukraine has been without a functioning government since its March 26 elections, without a credible government for months and without a stable government for almost a year. Budget issues are languishing, natural gas and other fuel-supply issues need to be addressed and the Constitutional Court of Ukraine is not in session since it just lost its chief but cannot get parliament to approve new members.

Yushchenko, who already has had great difficulty inching Ukraine toward NATO and the West, will be under considerable pressure to accept a Yanukovich Party of Regions government, especially given the lackluster support garnered by Our Ukraine in the last elections.

A Yanukovich government could potentially end Timoshenko's political career and/or subject her to criminal prosecution (or worse), so she can be expected to battle ferociously for another chance at an electoral roll of the dice -- or if need be, to work to undermine the political system altogether.

Despite the bitter enemies she created during her ascent to the top, Timoshenko does have a strong core of popular support. Her task now will be to mobilize this base against a hostile government, whether one emerges immediately or after a new election.

But there has been little if any shift in popular or regional opinion portending a different electoral outcome than the one reached in March, and whether Timoshenko can create enough civil disobedience to disrupt any Yanukovich-led government is unclear.

Though her supporters are highly motivated and often young, they are concentrated in western Ukraine and Kiev. She enjoys almost no support in the heavily pro-Russia east. Should she find herself isolated entirely from government; however, she might have no other option but to attempt the large-scale undermining of Ukraine's political system through public demonstrations, blockades, work stoppages or extra-constitutional maneuvers.

Her decision to leave parliament and gamble on new elections indicates that she considers such isolation increasingly imminent.

Timoshenko depends on her place in the system to keep her influence, fortune, freedom and pride afloat. If she can no longer influence the system in place, she will not hesitate to summon whatever power she has to change or undermine it.

When the Socialists killed the Orange Coalition government by quitting the coalition July 7, Timoshenko reacted procedurally, calling for an increase in the number of votes parties need to win seats in parliament -- a move designed to remove the Socialists and Communists from the national stage.

Though this is unlikely to occur, the stance could foreshadow more radical moves to come. Timoshenko's personal persuasion and public speaking skills, along with her ability to elicit strong emotions, are unrivalled in Ukraine. She has used these abilities before to bring about historic turnout levels among middle-aged and older female voters.

For Yushchenko, permitting or joining a pro-Russian government is appealing because it would allow him to avoid the continuous turmoil threatening Ukraine's economic and political foundations -- and his presidency. Timoshenko's move toward disruption from the outside is designed to remove this option.

She hopes Yushchenko will now see the uncertainties of new elections as preferable to dealing simultaneously with both a hostile Yanukovich government and a screeching Bloc Yulia. Yushchenko has been quite reluctant to choose a short-term political course but, as time passes, his options are becoming hemmed in from all points on the political spectrum.

Just hours after Bloc Yulia Timoshenko quit Ukraine's parliament, the remaining parliamentarians voted to continue legislating even if Yushchenko tries to dissolve the body.

For Timoshenko, this posturing is not about resetting Ukraine on a course toward Europe, nor about gaining concessions on energy or economic policy. It is a matter of personal ambition. Having lost the office of prime minister, she will not rest (or allow her followers to rest) until she is back at the top.

Source: Stratfor

Ukraine Rada To Continue Work Even If Dissolved By President

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's parliament voted Monday to continue its work even if the president decides to dissolve the Supreme Rada.

Viktor Yanukovich (C) in parliament

Despite the formation of a new parliamentary majority, led by the pro-Russian Party of Regions, and the nomination of its leader Viktor Yanukovych as prime minister last Tuesday, President Viktor Yushchenko has the power to dissolve the Rada if it fails to form a government by midnight.

The deadline will mark 60 days since the first sitting of the current parliament, elected in March.

More than a half of the 450-seat assembly (244 members) supported a resolution stating that, if the president launches consultations on dissolving parliament, the Rada should immediately hold a plenary session "to maintain constitutional law and order in Ukraine."

President Yushchenko has so far been hesitant to approve the nomination of Yanukovych, whom he defeated in a 2004 presidential rerun following protests against vote-rigging that came to be known as the "orange revolution".

However, the president also appears reluctant to use his power to dissolve the legislature and hold new elections, despite persistent calls from Yulia Tymoshenko, his main "orange" revolution ally.

Earlier on Monday, Tymoshenko's faction formally withdrew from the assembly to block the rival coalition's way to power. Her West-leaning bloc accounts for 125 seats - almost one-third of the assembly.

Source: RIA Novosti

Thousands Back Israel In Ukraine Rally

KIEV, Ukraine -- Several thousand people, mostly Ukrainian Jews, gathered in central Kiev on Monday to voice backing for Israel fighting Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.

An Israeli flag flies during a pro-Israeli demonstration in Kiev July 24, 2006. Several thousand people, mostly Ukrainian Jews, gathered in central Kiev on Monday to voice backing for Israel fighting Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.
About 5,000 students, schoolchildren and veterans waved Israeli flags and held aloft placards saying "Ukraine against terrorism" and "Yes to Israel, No to terrorism".

"We came here to show our support for Israel in its fight against the Hizbollah organisation," Vadim Rabinovich, head of the Jewish community, told the crowd.

In contrast with protests elsewhere denouncing the campaign in Lebanon, Ukraine's 100,000 strong Jewish community, turned out to show its support for the Jewish state.

Israel's 13-day-old onslaught, launched after Hizbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12, has killed 372 people and wrecked many civilian installations in Lebanon. Some 37 Israelis have been killed by Hizbollah rockets.

Many of the demonstrators had travelled from throughout Ukraine to the protest venue -- a metal arch built in Soviet times to honour friendship between nations, overlooking the Dnieper River.

Post-Soviet authorities have made considerable efforts to repair relations between Ukrainians and Jews, uneasy in tsarist times and under Communism due to Soviet-era discrimination against Jews in education and employment.

Source: Reuters

Yushchenko Ponders New Poll To Stop Rival's Return

KIEV, Ukraine -- The clock is ticking in Ukraine's worst politicalcrisis since the Orange revolution as President Viktor Yushchenko considers dissolving parliament to keep Viktor Yanukovich, hisMoscow-leaning rival, out of power.

Viktor Yushchenko (L) and Viktor Yanukovich (R)
Mr Yushchenko, who cancelled a trip to Moscow on Friday because of the deepening political trouble, has another grim option - to agree a compromise with the coalition backing Mr Yanukovich's candidacy and seeking closer ties with Russia.

Mr Yanukovich appeared cool and confident towards the end of last week after holding talks with Mr Yushchenko. "I saw a big desire in the eyes of the president to unite efforts," he said.

Mr Yanukovich, the former prime minister, is hoping to make an extraordinary comeback since losing the 2004 presidential election to Mr Yushchenko, whose public approval ratings have sunk in recent months.

The return of Mr Yanukovich to power would raise questions about Mr Yushchenko's ability to pushforward with plans to join Nato and, eventually, the European Union.

Ahead of March parliamentary elections, MrYanukovich's political camp vowed to revive strong ties with Russia and support gradual EU integration but opposed Mr Yushchenko's plan to join Nato as soon as possible. Mr Yanukovich's party mustered just over 30 per cent voter support, more than any other party.

A coalition backing Mr Yushchenko collapsed earlier this month when the Socialists backed out to join the rival group comprising Mr Yanukovich's Regions party and the Communists. The alliance that emerged triumphant from the Orange revolution first began to fall apart when Yulia Tymoshenko was ousted as prime minister in the autumnafter falling out with Mr Yushchenko.

Constitutional changes implemented this year shifted key presidentialpowers to parliament. Parliament now has the duty to form the government; the president is obliged tosubmit to parliament the candidate of the coalition that commands a parliamentary majority, within 15 days of receiving it.

Mr Yanukovich's candidacy was officially submitted on July 18, giving Mr Yushchenko until early August to submit the candidacy. But Mr Yushchenko also has the option of dissolving parliament if a new government is not formed by July 25, or 60 days after the previous government tendered its resignation.

The president has warned that he would not allow his market reform and western-integration agenda to be derailed. He has also urged legislators to swear in new judges for the constitutional court, which has not functioned since the autumn. The escalating political conflict could mutate into an even more serious constitutional crisis without a functioning constitutional court to interpret the new and still vague political rules.

Ms Tymoshenko, who controls the second largest bloc in parliament - named after herself, with 20 per cent of the vote - has urged Mr Yushchenko to call repeat elections. She has threatened to shift to fierce opposition to the president should his Our Ukraine bloc, which finished third in March with 13 per cent support, ally itself with Mr Yanukovich.

She said a compromise agreement with Mr Yanukovich would be a sell out of the Orange revolution in which massive street protests brought Mr Yushchenko into office in repeat elections after a previous poll was rigged in Mr Yanukovich's favour.

The rise to power ofMr Yanukovich's coalition "could threaten the investment climate in Ukraine and probably the prospects for structural reforms", Austria's Raiffeisen Zentralbank warned this month. "Onthe other hand, the newgovernment with Viktor Yanukovich as prime minister should have a betterposition in the negotiations with [the Russian gas giant] Gazprom concerning the [natural] gas price."

Ms Tymoshenko wants to review a controversial January accord in which Ukraine agreed to pay almost double for Russian gas imports, after a reduction in its supplies affected deliveries to other European countries.

Source: Financial Times

Tough Choices For Ukraine Leader In Big Crisis

KIEV, Ukraine -- President Viktor Yushchenko, the glow of the "Orange Revolution" he led long since faded, faces three options, all of them unpleasant, in finding a way out of Ukraine's protracted government crisis.


The outcome liberals and Yushchenko's backers in the West fear most is a dilution of the pro-western goals and commitment to transparent government proclaimed since his election.

Four months of post-election deadlock which has left Ukraine with no full-fledged government or working parliament may reach a climax this week as constitutional deadlines close in.

With a government led by rivals friendlier to Moscow poised to take office, Yushchenko must either agree to put it in place, at the risk of alienating already disenchanted "orange" backers, or go into opposition at the risk of marginalizing himself.

A third option -- seen as increasingly unlikely -- would be to reject the prospective government, headed by his arch rival Viktor Yanukovich, dissolve parliament and call a new poll.

"Yushchenko's main problem is that he leads the 'orange' alliance which represents political change, but he also must solve key national issues as head of state," said Andrei Yermolayev of the Center for Social Issues think tank.

"This means unpleasant compromises. He has to maintain a balance, but his allies will view that balance as treachery."

Nearly two years have passed since street protests led to Yushchenko's election in the re-run of a rigged poll.

Many backers of the revolution say they no longer believe in its ideals of fighting corruption and moving out of Russia's shadow into Europe's mainstream. Many blame Yushchenko for allowing the crisis to drag on.

Opinion polls underscore the reality that emerged from the March election to parliament. They show Yanukovich to be Ukraine's most popular politician on 30 percent approval, followed by Yulia Tymoshenko, the president's estranged ally sacked as premier last year, with 18 percent.

The president lies third with just under 10 percent.

That makes dissolution and a new election, uncertain in legal terms, an even less palatable political option for him.

DISSOLUTION LESS LIKELY

His powers reduced under the constitution, Yushchenko has ceded to parliament the right to nominate the premier. He says he has no wish to resort to dissolving the chamber from Tuesday should no cabinet be in place 60 days after its first sitting.

The constitution also gives him 15 days from July 18 to consider Yanukovich's nomination and submit it to parliament.

Yushchenko played down the gravity of events in a weekend radio address, devoted mainly to improved economic growth under caretaker premier Yuri Yekhanurov despite the crisis.

Ukraine, he said, needed a premier to cope with new gas price increases after big New Year rises negotiated with Russia.

"Only a team of professionals can tackle these tasks," he said. "It must be led by someone able to rise above party interests and assume responsibility for economic development."

Intrigue and rivalry led to the collapse early in July of attempts by "orange" parties to form a coalition of their own.

That allowed Yanukovich, the Moscow-backed candidate beaten by Yushchenko in the 2004 presidential race, to form an alternative group with Socialists and Communists, with business magnates sitting alongside opponents of WTO and NATO membership.

Presidential endorsement, however lukewarm, of a Yanukovich government could allow Yushchenko's allies to take cabinet jobs.

Some in Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party favor a "grand coalition" to bridge the gap between the Russian-speaking east, Yanukovich's power base, and the nationalist west, which distrusts him.

Such an alliance could also suit Western investors.

But it will rankle with grassroots liberals who have abandoned the president in droves for the bloc led by Tymoshenko -- who demands a new election to uphold the revolution's aims.

Some analysts see the president and his rival making a marriage of convenience to broaden its appeal to voters.

"The president is most likely to submit Viktor Yanukovich's nomination to parliament for approval and the president will get a quota in government," wrote the weekly Zerkalo Nedeli.

Source: Reuters

Orange Revolution Comes Full Circle

KIEV, Ukraine -- In a stunning turn of events, the political forces that were ousted from power in Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution are poised to make a vengeful comeback.


And at their helm will be Viktor Yanukovych, a man who suffered a humiliating defeat, and who may be days away from returning to his former job as prime minister.

"The situation is so complex that you won't make sense without a half liter" of vodka, former Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski said during a recent conference in Yalta in summing up the situation in Ukraine today.

Just three weeks ago, the country appeared to be headed toward a period of political stability, following hotly contested parliamentary elections in March.

The three parties that backed the Orange Revolution and collectively won the most seats in parliament finally signed a coalition agreement after months of negotiations. The new government was expected to give President Viktor Yushchenko a chance to move forward with reforms, particularly in integrating Ukraine into the European Union and NATO.

More importantly, the public was expected to have a three-year respite from a string of national and local elections, which had overly politicized the country.

Then, in a shocking development, just days after signing the agreement, Oleksandr Moroz, the Socialist Party leader, defected from the coalition on July 6. Instead, he formed a new coalition with Mr. Yanukovych's pro-Russian Regions Party and the Communists.

The new grouping voted in Mr. Moroz as parliament speaker, a powerful post following recent constitutional changes. They also chose Mr. Yanukovych as their candidate for prime minister.

Mr. Moroz's defection has not only changed parliament's balance of power, but has put Ukraine's Western orientation in doubt and pushed the country into its worst political crisis since 2004.

"The people are tired," Mr. Yushchenko said in his regular radio address last week, commenting on developments. "Society is unhappy with such a development in parliament. Responsible for the social apathy today are all national deputies and in particular, political leaders."

Under new constitutional changes, Mr. Yushchenko is now left with two unsavory choices: dissolve parliament and call new elections, or forward the nomination of Mr. Yanukovych to the legislature and allow the man who is his political opponent to form a government.

The president has until Tuesday to decide. On Friday, he canceled a trip to Moscow for a meeting of ex-Soviet states, citing "political situation" back home.

If he decides not to disband parliament, under the complex new constitutional changes, Mr. Yushchenko has until Aug. 5 to decide whether to forward Mr. Yanukovych's nomination to lawmakers.

As Mr. Yushchenko mulls over his choices, observers point out that leaders of the Orange coalition and the president himself are not without blame in the current situation.

For nearly three months, the Orange coalition haggled over government posts, critics say. Many of the arguments centered on whether Yulia Tymoshenko, the firebrand politician who has had a turbulent relationship with the president, would again become prime minister.

Mr. Yushchenko had fired her from the job last year because of infighting with his own political allies, who were also jockeying for high-powered positions. What job would go to Mr. Moroz, who previously had been parliament speaker, did not appear to be a priority.

During this period, parliament's work ground to a standstill. That prompted negative reaction from the public, which had high hopes for the new legislature. Instead of promised reforms, the public saw rising costs for energy and consumer goods.

Mr. Yushchenko's initial hands-off approach during the political negotiations also cost him public support. In hoping to appear above the fray, Mr. Yushchenko increasingly looked like a weak leader.

"At the macro level, he has been a visionary rather than a strategist," James Sherr of the Conflict Studies Research Center of Britain's Defense Academy wrote recently. "At the micro level, he has been an arbitrator rather than an arbiter and a conciliator rather than a tactician.

Since his inauguration in January 2005, he has frequently lost sight of the enemy and the country."

Mr. Yanukovych and his party, on the other hand, have orchestrated an impressive comeback. An American public relations firm has been hired to boost their images. Until recently, Mr. Yanukovych has remained in the background, letting other party members do the talking.

The party has also tapped into the public's discontent and blamed parliament's standstill on the leaders of the Orange Revolution. They have aggressively questioned Ukraine's readiness to join the EU and NATO -- both priorities for Mr. Yushchenko.

Mr. Yanukovych's party also has played the Russia card. Party leaders argue that relations between the two countries need to be strengthened and Russian must become an official language along with Ukrainian, because of the country's large ethnic Russian minority.

The strategy seems to be paying off. A recent opinion poll conducted by Kiev's prestigious Razumkov Center showed that if presidential elections were held today, Mr. Yanukovych would win 31.3 percent of the vote, while Mrs. Tymoshenko would earn 19.6 percent. Only 8.4 percent of those polled said they would vote for Mr. Yushchenko.

Mr. Yushchenko, a former central bank chief, served as prime minister under pro-Russian President Leonid Kuchma until he led protests against the authoritarian president in 2001. He contested the 2004 presidential election as the opposition candidate against Mr. Yanukovych, who was backed by Mr. Kuchma and Russia.

In the vote seen by observers as riddled with fraud, Mr. Yanukovych was declared winner. The resulting Orange Revolution protests led to a runoff win by Mr. Yushchenko.

The political capital earned in the revolution was soon lost in political wrangling between Mr. Yushchenko and Mrs. Tymoshenko and corruption charges. The two leaders parted ways last year until they were forced to come back together to stop the ascent of the pro-Russian party.

In the March elections, Mr. Yanukovych's Regions Party became the largest bloc in the 450-seat parliament, winning 186 seats, or 32 percent, but not enough to establish a stable government.

The party was followed by the Tymoshenko bloc in the second place with 129 seats (22 percent) and Mr. Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party in the third with 81 seats (14 percent). The Socialists and Communists came in the fourth and fifth places with 33 and 21 seats, respectively.

Initially Our Ukraine and the Tymoshenko bloc formed a coalition with support from the Socialists and with Mrs. Tymoshenko as the prime minister. That plan was upset by Mr. Moroz's defection.

In a sign of the times, Our Ukraine last week announced it was going into the opposition, following similar statements by Mrs. Tymoshenko.

Mrs. Tymoshenko, however, is demanding the president dissolve the legislature and call new elections to keep the pro-Russian majority from gaining power.

Mrs. Tymoshenko vowed Thursday that she and her deputies would stay away from parliament until Tuesday in an effort to pressure the president to dissolve parliament.

Mr. Yanukovych, for his part, met with Mr. Yushchenko Thursday, ostensibly to discuss the political situation and to promote his candidacy. He said there was no talk of dissolution and that he and the president shared many similar positions.

The Ukrainians, meanwhile, apparently are in no mood for another cycle of elections and political horse trading.

A July 10-14 poll by the International Institute of Sociology and the Center for Political Research in Kiev found 54 percent of Ukrainians are opposed to a dissolution of parliament, Agence France-Presse reported.

Source: Washington Post

Tables Turned In Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- Long-time opponents of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko allied with defectors from his camp to outplay him in a bid to secure control over the government.

Viktor Yanukovych
The Orange coalition, which was announced on June 20, barely survived two weeks; instead a coalition built around the Party of Regions (PRU) has secured a majority in parliament and is about to form a new cabinet.

Yushchenko’s firebrand ally Yulia Tymoshenko has lost the opportunity to become prime minister again; instead, the post of prime minister will most probably go to Yushchenko’s bitter rival in the 2004 presidential election and subsequent Orange Revolution, Viktor Yanukovych.

The radical turn of events came on July 6, when the Socialist Party (SPU) took back their promise to support a candidate for parliamentary speaker nominated by Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine bloc, Petro Poroshenko.

Unexpectedly for their Orange allies, the SPU put forward their candidate, party leader Oleksandr Moroz. The PRU immediately saw this as an opportunity to jump on the government train and voted for Moroz, rather than for their own candidate, Mykola Azarov.

Moroz was also backed by the Communist Party’s (CPU) votes. On the following day, the three parties formed a new majority, naming it the “anti-crisis coalition,” and the SPU quit the Orange camp.

This was a hard blow for Tymoshenko and Our Ukraine, who called Moroz a traitor. Tymoshenko warned on July 7 of “a return to the Kuchma era in its worst shape,” recalling that Yanukovych was former President Leonid Kuchma’s faithful prime minister in 2002-2004.

Yushchenko initially seemed to hope that Our Ukraine would be admitted to the new coalition, saying in a TV interview on the same day that he could not imagine Our Ukraine in the opposition. At the same time, he said that he might dissolve parliament, should talks with the PRU fall through.

On July 7, the anti-crisis coalition nominated Yanukovych for prime minister. Our Ukraine reportedly tried to persuade the PRU to form a grand coalition with the SPU, but without Tymoshenko and the CPU and on the condition that an Our Ukraine representative would be prime minister -- essentially the conditions the PRU had agreed to in the middle of June, before the emergence of the abortive Orange coalition -- but this time the PRU did not accept Our Ukraine’s overtures.

Yushchenko insisted that he would not accept the new coalition, which, he argued, was set up with procedural violations. He threatened to disband parliament and call new elections. Yushchenko argued that he had the right to do so, as the Orange parliamentary majority had fallen apart, and 30-day term set by the constitution for a majority to take shape had elapsed. At the same time, Our Ukraine was continuing fruitless talks with the PRU.

The new majority chose to meticulously adhere to procedures so as not to provoke Yushchenko. On July 10, the SPU officially pulled out of the Orange coalition, and on July 18, as requested by Yushchenko, the anti-crisis coalition submitted Yanukovych’s candidacy for prime minister.

Communist MP Adam Martynyuk, who was elected deputy speaker on July 11, said the majority would meet one of Yushchenko’s principal conditions for approving Yanukovych as prime minister -- to swear in the Constitutional Court (CC) judges -- very quickly, in order to have the CC on hand to appeal against Yushchenko’s possible decision to dissolve parliament.

Tymoshenko and Our Ukraine tried to use the weapon that the PRU had wielded in June -- physically blockading parliament -- in order to make opponents accept their conditions. But this could not continue incessantly, and Yushchenko eventually faced the dilemma of either disbanding parliament and calling new elections, which Tymoshenko demanded, or recognizing the new majority.

New elections, however, would have most probably been won by the PRU hands down, as they are at the peak of their popularity. Instead, Yushchenko decided to accept defeat. On July 18, Our Ukraine said that it recognized the new majority coalition and announced it is going into the opposition.

The PRU is the only party clearly benefiting from the new coalition. The CPU may find it hard to explain to their voters why they joined forces with a party that they for years castigated as “a criminal clan.” The SPU may find itself in an even worse position, even though its leader secured the post of speaker.

It is on the brink of a split -- the SPU’s de facto number two man, Yosyp Vinsky, publicly chastised Moroz for betraying the Orange Revolution and resigned from the party’s governing body; Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko announced he was quitting the SPU; and there have been reports about mass defections from the SPU in the regions.

Our Ukraine is probably hit hardest, as its protracted horse-trading with the PRU and then subsequent defeat must have disillusioned its electorate. The results of several public opinion polls, made public over July 15-17, showed that Yushchenko’s popularity is probably at an all-time low, under 10%. Yanukovych and his party are supported by more than 30% of Ukrainians and Tymoshenko by around 20%.

It is not only Yushchenko and Our Ukraine that face problems, however. The anti-crisis majority may be even less stable than the Orange one. There are differences in foreign policy matters -- while the CPU is decidedly pro-Russian, the PRU advocates a pragmatic approach, declaring the need to continue the European integration course and the intention to mend relations with Russia, as key PRU member, Borys Kolesnikov, said in an interview with Invest gazeta.

Differences in economic matters are much deeper -- the CPU opposes private ownership, but the PRU professes economic liberalism. The SPU favors state control over big industry, while the PRU’s opponents fear that this party is prone to redistributing national wealth between the regional “clans” and “oligarchs.”

Source: Eurasia Daily Monitor

A Little Victorious Retreat

MOSCOW, Russia -- Four armchairs will remain empty during the meeting of CIS leaders in Moscow. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko declined in the last moment the invitation to the informal CIS summit which opens in Moscow today.

Tbilisi explained Mikhail Saakashvili’s refusal to participate in CIS summit by saying that Moscow refused to take the hand of friendship extended to Russia.
Both Tbilisi and Kiev say the invitation was declined because Vladimir Putin refused to hold bilateral meetings with them. Georgian State Minister for Settling Conflicts Georgy Khaindrava was dismissed yesterday. Moscow believes this is a sign that Georgia is preparing for a military takeover of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Objectors

Four CIS leaders will miss the informal CIS summit in Moscow. Turkmenistan President Saparmurat Niyazov lost interest in CIS meetings quite a long time ago. Armenian President Robert Kocharyan pleaded ill. As to Mikhail Saakashvili and Viktor Yushchenko, it was believed until yesterday’s morning they would visit Moscow.

Everything in the airport of Tbilisi was ready for Saakashvili’s flight to Moscow yesterday at noon. Delegation members were sitting in the airplane. Saakashvili’s personal photographer and cameraman were waiting in the VIP-hall. The announcement of Georgian presidential administration that Saakashvili will not fly to Moscow was a complete surprise.

Georgian officials said that Russia refused to hold a one-on-one meeting between Saakashvili and Putin, while Georgian president intended to discuss very important issues—the ways to settle South Ossetian and Abkhazian conflicts.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko did not come to Moscow due to the complicated political situation in Ukraine. This is the official version. Yet, Kommersant sources in Yushchenko’s administration say he planned not to come to the summit from the very beginning. Yushchenko would have come to Moscow on Friday to meet with Putin. However, he was denied that meeting.

Robert Kocharyan, on the contrary, had a scheduled meeting with Putin. However, he did not come because of “acute virus disease of respiratory tracts”. Kommersant source completely refuted the “diplomatic character” of Kocharyan’s illness, saying that Armenian president has indeed caught cold and lost his voice after swimming in the Sevan lake on Monday.

The Kremlin’s Reaction

The refusal of four CIS leaders to come to Moscow obviously vexed Russian president’s administration.

“Has President Putin ever refused to meet with anyone?”, asked a high-placed Kommersant source in the Kremlin. “When they ask him about anything, he always meets them. Sometimes it spoils all our schedules. Did Mister Saakashvili learn only yesterday that we do not, will not, and cannot have time for a pre-scheduled bilateral meeting with such complicated agenda?

Or, perhaps, he did not realize there will be a presidential dinner in the X hour when he could have approached Russian president and discussed everything with him, including the meeting?

Last year, it was the same story with Ukrainian president. He simply came up to Russian president, talked to him, they had meeting right away, held full talks, and then even came out to journalists. It could have been just like that now too. But, apparently, it was unnecessary, because Georgian president simply had nothing to say during such a meeting. Here is the main reason why Georgian president will not come to Moscow.”

A Retiree

After the news that Saakashvili’s visit to Moscow is cancelled, another hot news arrived: Georgian State Minister for Settling Conflicts Georgy Khaindrava is dismissed. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Merab Antadze is expected to take the post. Georgy Khaindrava himself learned about his dismissal from journalists, and was really surprised.

It should be reminded that after the incident of detaining Russian diplomatic car this week, Khaindrava called this incident “unacceptable and contradicting the Vienna Declaration on diplomatic immunity.” In response, Georgian Minister of Defense Irakly Okruashvili accused Khaindrava of “coquetry” and “show-off”.

Moscow believes Saakashvili’s refusal to visit Moscow and Khaindrava’s dismissal are two interconnected events which testify to the fact that Georgia took the direction on increasing confrontation with Russia in what concerns the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Konstantin Kosachev said: “Tbilisi stakes on confrontation with Russia, hoping it will create the basis for a military solution first of South Ossetian, then of Abkhazian conflicts. Apparently, Tbilisi needs a little victorious war. Unfortunately, everything is going that way.”

Tskhinvali took the news in pretty much the same way. “Georgy Khaindrava was for the peaceful solution of the conflicts, and we believed in his aspirations for peace. The dismissal of Khaindrava is the evidence that Georgia is preparing a military action against South Ossetia,” said Boris Chochiev, South Ossetian Minister of Special Affairs.

Source: Kommersant

Yushchenko Unready for Yanukovich

KIEV, Ukraine -- In the last effort to challenge creation of Anticrisis Cabinet of Viktor Yanukovich, the orange opposition left the Ukrainian Supreme Rada Thursday, pledging to boycott it till July 25, when President Viktor Yushchenko is authorized to dissolve the parliament and declare new elections.

Ukrainian riot police stand in formation as supporters of the Regions Party and its leader Viktor Yanukovich rally near the building of the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev
Thursday’s sitting of Supreme Rada began by an abrupt demarche of Bloc of Yulia Timoshenko faction. The deputies left parliament to protest against the Anticrisis Coalition of the Regions Party, Socialist Party and Communist Party.

On July 25, Timoshenko vowed when leaving the Rada, the president will execute his constitutional right and rule to hold early elections. Timoshenko also called on another orange party, pro-president’s Our Ukraine, to close ranks and prevent Viktor Yanukovich from getting the PM office.

The great fuss kicked up by Yulia Timoshenko will bear fruit only if it is backed up by Victor Yushchenko. The president is on the horns of a dilemma now, and his personal meeting with Regions Party leader Viktor Yanukovich apparently came to nothing despite the more than two-hour duration.

Asked by reporters whether and/or when Yushchenko will nominate him to the parliament as the future PM, Yanukovich recommended putting this question to the president, but confirmed the readiness to become the prime minister in Ukraine. Whether the president is ready for Yanukovich is yet unclear.

Source: Kommersant

Yushchenko Faces Grim Choice To Solve Ukraine Crisis

KIEV, Ukraine -- Viktor Yushchenko has cancelled a visit to Moscow this weekend to attend a meeting of leaders of ex-Soviet states, as time runs out for the Ukrainian president to end the country's worst political crisis since the Orange revolution of 2004.


Mr Yushchenko is facing a grim choice: to work out a compromise with the coalition backing the candidacy of his arch-rival Viktor Yanukovich or to dissolve parliament - a move that would prevent Mr Yanukovich from becoming prime minister.

The Moscow-leaning former prime minister appeared confident on Thursday at a meeting with Mr Yushchenko, despite having not received guarantees that his candidacy would be supported. "I saw a great desire on the part of the president to unite efforts," Mr Yanukovich said.

He is hoping to make an extraordinary comeback since losing the contested 2004 presidential vote to Mr Yushchenko, whose public approval ratings have sunk in recent months.

The return of Mr Yanukovich, who was backed by Moscow in the 2004 presidential vote, would raise questions about Mr Yushchenko's ability to push through his programme of western integration through membership of Nato and the European Union.

Ahead of March parliamentary elections, Mr Yanukovich's camp vowed to revive strong ties withRussia, while seeking long-term opportunities for EU membership. But it opposed Mr Yushchenko's rapid Nato integration agenda.

Mr Yanukovich's party mustered just over 30 per cent voter support, the most of all Ukrainian parties.

The political crisis arose this month when the previous coalition comprised of camps that backed Mr Yushchenko in the Orange coalition collapsed after the Socialists backed out to join Mr Yanukovich.

Constitutional changes that took effect this year require Ukraine's president to submit the candidacy of a coalition for prime minister within 15 days of receiving it. Mr Yushchenko has the option of dissolving parliament if a new government is not formed by July 25, or 60 days after the previous government tendered its resignation.

The president has warned he will not allow his reform plans to be derailed.

He could avoid a repeat of last March's elections by striking a compromise involving support for his agenda and possible top posts in the government. But this could prove challenging, given the divisions on reforms and foreign policy that exist between him and members of Mr Yanukovich's coalition.

Mr Yushchenko has also urged legislators to swear in new judges for the constitutional court, which has not functioned since last autumn.

Source: The Financial Times

Ukraine Opposition Ups The Volume In Demand For Rada Dissolution

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's political travails continued Friday as former premier Yulia Tymoshenko's faction approved a letter to the president Friday demanding a dissolution of parliament.

Yulia Tymoshenko allies cover their seats with a blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag as other lawmakers look on in the parliamentary chamber in Kiev, Ukraine
The Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc is now in opposition to a new parliamentary coalition led by Viktor Yanukovych, head of the pro-Russia Party of Regions, after the "orange" coalition that it led collapsed earlier this month.

The new, "anti-crisis" coalition submitted their leader's prime ministerial candidacy to President Viktor Yushchenko, who is to decide on recommending the candidature to parliament within 15 days.

"President Yushchenko has two options - to dissolve parliament after July 25 and try to save Ukraine or to give up and admit that Maidan [venue of the 2004 "orange revolution" protests] was a mistake and the hopes of millions of people for a decent life are an illusion and recommend the candidature of Yanukovych to the Supreme Rada," Tymoshenko bloc's letter said.

The letter was supported by all 125 members of the faction, which marched out of parliament Thursday in protest against a new coalition.

Tymoshenko, who served as prime minister under Yushchenko for eight months before being fired, said recommending Yanukovych, who enjoyed the Kremlin's backing while running for president in the former Soviet state in 2004, would be a betrayal.

The opposition is holding a separate session in the Rada Friday, as Tymoshenko said Thursday her bloc was giving up its lawmaking powers and would start the official procedure to do so July 24.

Source: RIA Novosti

Timoshenko Demands President Yushchenko To Prevent Coup D’etat

KIEV, Ukraine -- The Ukrainian parliamentary fraction led by Yulia TYmoshenko has written an open letter to President Viktor Yushchenko demanding him to prevent the coup d’etat in the state.

Yulia Tymoshenko believes there is a coup d'etat in the works in Ukraine
The letter says the first stage of the coup d’etat took place when the Supreme Rada chairman was illegitimately elected, Communist criminal majority appeared in the parliament through bribery and corrupt ways.

Representatives of this majority demonstrate anti-state, anti-Ukraine and anti-democratic position.

Tymoshenko thinks their policy will lead Ukraine to the danger of losing its state independence.

Tymoshenko offers the Ukrainian President to dissolve the parliament and declare new parliamentary elections in order to avoid this danger.

Source: APA

Knocking On A Closed Door

YALTA, Crimea -- Ukraine is keen to join the EU, but existing members are less than excited at the prospect.

Aleksander Kwasniewski
Passing under an ornate marble arch and into the Livadia Palace, high on a hill above the Black Sea resort of Yalta, a hush descends. No explanation is needed as visitors brush past the large round table where Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill carved up Europe in the last months of the second world war.

The simple table, decorated with the flags of Britain, the US and the former USSR, provokes powerful emotions for Poles whose country was thrown behind the iron curtain when Stalin staked his claim to his neighbour with the chilling declaration: "Throughout history, Poland has been the corridor through which the enemy has passed into Russia. Poland is a question of life and death for Russia."

Aleksander Kwasniewski, the former president of Poland who first visited the Livadia Palace in the 1980s when he served as a communist minister in Warsaw, highlighted the emotions Poles feel when he recently made a return visit.

"We were victims of the treaty signed in this palace. When I was first here, this table and these chairs were much bigger. Today, the table is not big and the chairs are modest. This is a sign that the Yalta treaty does not exist anymore. Europe is not divided, but now we have new challenges."

Mr Kwasniewski was speaking at a conference where leading political figures from across Europe contemplated the ultimate trashing of the legacy of the Yalta treaty: charting a course to admit the very soil where the iron curtain was created into the European family.

The world's worst butcher will probably be turning in his grave at the news that a cross-border group, the Yalta European Strategy (YES), wants to admit Ukraine, the bread basket of the Soviet Union, into the European Union. (Stalin has his nemesis to blame for this. Nikita Khrushchev handed Crimea, then part of Russia, to Ukraine in 1955.)

At its annual conference in Yalta this month, YES outlined a timetable that would see Ukraine join the EU by 2020. This is an ambitious aim that would be launched with a formal application when Poland holds the union's rotating presidency in 2011.

Mr Kwasniewski, who was instrumental in admitting Ukraine's neighbour, Poland, into the EU in 2004, threw his weight behind this goal when he told the conference: "My deepest conviction is that Ukraine should occupy a place in European institutions. You cannot talk about an integrated Europe in the 21st century without Ukraine. It has a place in the European family."

Ukraine has every right to expect a place in the EU. As the largest country by land mass in Europe, Ukraine has the right under the union's founding rules to be considered for membership.

But Ukraine will be lucky if it makes it in this generation, or the next, as a series of factors conspire against the country of nearly 47 million people. In the first place, Ukraine appears ungovernable as the orange revolution collapses into a rather pathetic mess.

Victor Yushchenko, whose victory in 2004 over forces who appeared to think that life revolved around awaiting the next set of instructions from Moscow, pulled out of the conference as he struggled to cobble together a new government. Mr Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party may now have to share power with Moscow favourite Viktor Yanukovich.

The dismal petty back-biting of Ukrainian politics was highlighted by a cross-party group of politicians who bickered at the conference and offered no vision for their country.

Mr Kwasniewski told the conference: "I am a bit afraid. The political leaders are so engaged in this small place - the tactical place of parliament - that they are forgetting about Ukraine."

This is not lost on European leaders who are growing tired of an ever-enlarging EU and who are wary of upsetting Vladimir Putin. "Russia still sees Ukraine as part of an integrated space organised by Russia," Mr Kwasniewski said. "That is not just a political strategy. It is also part of history. Ukraine is not a neighbour, it is a part of the family."

Germany, which takes over the EU's rotating presidency in January, believes it has struck on the right formula to keep alive Ukraine's membership hopes while ensuring that nothing happens overnight.

Berlin is planning to rewrite the European neighbourhood policy for countries whose membership hopes are distant or impossible. Germany will reach out to Ukraine, which could join, by separating it from countries, such as Algeria, which could never join because they are not in Europe.

But Ukraine appears to be stuck in an awkward place. It is keen to join the EU, while there is little appetite for this in Brussels. The one institution in the west that appears to be keen to admit Kiev -- Nato -- is hugely unpopular in Ukraine.

Some Ukrainians appear to be realistic about their chances. Victor Pinchuk, one of the country's richest men who is the driving force behind the YES group, admits that membership is a long way off. "I am not sure that in 10 to 15 years Ukraine will be a member of the EU," he said. "But we need these reforms: democracy, a market economy and the rule of law."

His intervention is highly significant: Mr Pinchuk is the son-in-law of Leonid Kuchma, the former Ukrainian president whose authoritarian rule fuelled the orange revolution.

In Mr Kuchma's last days in office, Mr Pinchuk bought the giant Kryvorizhstal steel mill for a bargain €670m, to the outrage of the Orange revolutionaries. The state bought it back and later sold the mill for its true market price of €4bn to the Mittal group.

Mr Pinchuk gave Mr Kuchma pride of place in the conference's front row, but he would be wise to retire his father-in-law before next year's conference. Promoting a former authoritarian leader, with a questionable record on human rights, may not be the best way to impress the EU.

Source: Guardian Unlimited

Ukraine's Orange Bust

KIEV, Ukraine -- It is Oleksandr Moroz, the Socialist leader and newly minted parliament Speaker, who will endure the greatest share of criticism for the collapse of the so-called Orange coalition in Ukraine last week. Deservedly so.

Oleksandr Moroz (L) and Yulia Tymoshenko (R)
The Moroz-led defection of the Socialist Party to the pro-Russia bloc in parliament could jeopardize efforts to enact further democratic reforms and build stronger ties with the West - both essential to Ukraine's further development and well-being.

Against such stakes, it seems churlish to point out that the move has also nullified a signed agreement Moroz himself negotiated.

Yet Moroz should not be made to bear the burden alone. His decision was preceded by months of deceitful talks among the putative Orange allies, culminating in an agreement that was marked for failure.

And one ought look no further than President Viktor Yushchenko for the blame here. His disdain for one-time ally Yulia Tymoshenko, whom he fired as prime minister last year, was the central animating feature of the talks, which in reality could only have ended with her reappointment.

Throughout negotiations, in fact, Yushchenko advisors let it be known, sotto voce, that they would or could or should or might be more amenable to a coalition with Viktor Yanukovich and his Party of the Regions - an absurd notion for a party devoted to joining NATO and integrating with Europe.

In any case, it seems Moroz and his Socialist bloc beat them to it.

Once the embodiment of Ukraine's hopes for prestige and modernization, Yushchenko has turned inward and insolent in his year-and-a-half as president. The warning signs were apparent early in his administration.

Wary of Tymoshenko, he moved a top ally into the role of state security chief in order to balance out her power. The ensuing clash of wills dominated the first nine months of his presidency, ending only when Yushchenko accepted the resignation of the security adviser, Petro Poroshenko, and dissolved Tymoshenko's government.

By this point, Yushchenko was already exhibiting an unhealthy fixation on enemies - not an unusual trait among leaders in this region, but also not quite the spirit of "Maidan," as the Orange protests are widely known in Ukraine.

In mid-summer last year he hinted darkly that opponents in the state secret service were behind reports about the lavish lifestyle enjoyed by his 19-year-old son, Andriy.

In truth, Andriy's pampering was no less than the ordinary Ukrainian expects from a scion of the elite; it was the news coverage of it that was so unusual, in a country where fear once (in fact, quite recently) controlled the media.

Yushchenko botched an excellent teaching moment about the democratic values he often extols.

All of Yushchenko's flaws and failures might have been forgivable were it not for his handling of the coalition talks. Having been pummeled in the March parliamentary elections by both Yanukovich and Tymoshenko, Yushchenko nevertheless struck a defiant stance.

He and his aides dragged their heels throughout the negotiations, evidently in the hope that, facing a parliament deadline for organizing the new government, Tymoshenko and her forces would accept something less than her reappointment as prime minister.

No such luck. So in an act of jaw-dropping petulance, Yushchenko accepted her reappointment - on the condition that Poroshenko be made Speaker of the Rada. As if adopting the lioness meant adopting the lion-tamer.

Beyond the plain cynicism of this move, it also revealed that Yushchenko had no idea how far Ukraine has traveled since the Orange Revolution. His countrymen no longer view him as the heroic figure atop the stage in the orange scarf, but rather as an inept and somewhat beleaguered administrator who is perhaps in over his head.

His party's 14 percent at the polls in the recent round of elections should have been a clue to that. Yet now he was reassembling the same inevitable mess he created when he first came to office, as if his position had strengthened over time.

Even if the ploy had succeeded, it sent an awful message to weary Ukrainians who lost their faith in Yushchenko during the first period of infighting.

Tymoshenko ought to accept her own share of the blame for the troubles. (There's plenty of blame for everyone, natch.) As the figure-head of her eponymous party, she stressed the need to root out corruption in government during the campaign season.

Which is all well and good, since Ukraine continues to struggle mightily with the problem. Except that when Tymoshenko spoke of corruption, she cited not the faceless multitude that populates Ukraine's bureaucracy at every level, trolling for bribes, but rather the circle of advisers surrounding Yushchenko.

This, in fact, was a continuation of the same quarrel that brought about the collapse of the first post-revolution government - a battle over who was using his or her office for personal aggrandizement. Coming in the wake of Tymoshenko's grandstanding on the crisis-averting gas agreement between Ukraine and Russia - she charged that the pact "sold out" Ukraine - her attacks during the campaign were especially unhelpful, not to say short-sighted.

They alienated the very same people she would need to deal with after the elections. (On the other hand, Tymoshenko's appeal comes from her fiery manner and willingness to attack the powerful. A strong case could be made that her party would have failed to muster its 25 percent in the parliamentary balloting if she had held back.)

Moroz was undoubtedly correct when he averred, after his election as Speaker, that the arrangement of personalities in the new power structure would have inevitably - and quickly - brought about its collapse. (Less clear is Moroz's claim to have a document, which he has referred to but not revealed, that "proves" the collapse was a foregone conclusion.)

But he made the agreement with the other Orange parties, without any stipulations in that area. And his refusal to take his name out of consideration for Speaker after Poroshenko did so suggests that concern about the durability of an Orange majority coalition was the pretext for a move that had been already settled.

The new majority coalition, which includes Regions, the Socialists and Communists, is likely to have an even tougher time reaching any sort of common accord, beyond degrees of opposition to further integration with the West. The Communists never expected to be part of any coalition.

Now the 22-member bloc is the linchpin of the majority coalition. Tymoshenko has taken to declaring that the new coalition will be "ruled by the Communists." It is just as likely that the Communists will bring about its quick demise.

The real fallout from the Socialist defection is more psychological than political. In the sense that the Socialists have formally aligned themselves now with Regions and the Communists - at least, the larger segment of Socialists that didn't resign from the party hierarchy in protest - it is the first real schism in the three-hearted Coalition of Democratic Forces that formed during the Orange Revolution protests.

Yushchenko has threatened to dissolve parliament (perhaps as soon as July 20) and call new elections if the new majority coalition in parliament can't form a government. There are plenty of reasons to doubt its ability to do so.

Yet even if Yushchenko calls early elections the outcome would probably not lessen the existential confusion for Ukraine. There is not likely to be any sense of what constitutes a "pro-Western" majority or mandate in the near future.

Moroz himself said last week: "Today, we are living not in Asia and not in Europe. It is shameful to name a place where we are living." The confusion will ensure that every policy decision of government is weighed against the paranoia it might elicit in Russia.

That is a recipe for paralysis. It is a reversion to the state of affairs that existed for the 13 years of unsettled independence that preceded the Orange Revolution.

Source: RealClearPolitics.

Retailer Says Cell Phone Sales In Ukraine At $917 Mln In Jan-Jun

MOSCOW, Russia -- The sales of mobile handsets in Ukraine amounted to US$917 million in January-June, Russia's largest mobile handset retailer Euroset said in a report released Tuesday without providing comparisons.


In physical terms, mobile handset sales amounted to over 5.6 million units, the retailer said, adding that the average price of a sold handset stood at $163 in the period.

Of the total sales, 318,000 handsets worth $73 million were bought on credit in January-June, Euroset said, which accounted for 5.6% of total sales in physical terms and 8% in monetary terms.

The average price of a handset bought on credit amounted to $230, while the average price for a handset bought with cash stood at $159 in January-June, Euroset said.

Source: Prime-Tass

Ukraine's Yushchenko Set To Back Arch Rival For PM Job: Source

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's leader will support the candidacy of his former presidential rival, pro-Russian Party of Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych, for prime minister, an informed source in the Ukrainian parliament said Thursday.

Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko (L) shakes hands with pro-Russian leader Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych has said he was cautiously optimistic that the President would eventually agree to his nomination as prime minister.
A new parliamentary coalition led by Yanukovych's Party of Regions officially assumed duties Tuesday and re-submitted their leader's prime ministerial candidacy to President Viktor Yushchenko. The president will now have to decide on recommending the candidature to parliament within 15 days.

The source said, "The president simply has no choice. Supporting Yanukovych is a bad option for him, but other options are even worse."

Yanukovych lost to Yushchenko in a 2004 presidential rerun called in the wake of protests against alleged vote rigging that became known as the "orange revolution."

Earlier on Thursday, Yulia Tymoshenko, Yushchenko's main "orange" revolution ally, led her faction out of parliament, demanding that the president dissolve the legislature to prevent the Yanukovych-led majority from gaining power. Some 120 lawmakers - nearly a third of the 450-seat assembly - followed her out of the hall.

The source said attempts to reformat the anti-crisis coalition or to dissolve the Supreme Rada would make the situation even worse, adding that the only viable option was to expand the anti-crisis coalition by taking in at least a part of the pro-presidential Our Ukraine bloc, which would receive several portfolios in the new government.

"This is what Yushchenko and Yanukovych are discussing now, and I believe that they will find mutually acceptable arrangements within the 15-day term, as provided for under the Constitution," he said.

Source: RIA Novosti

Ukraine's Tymoshenko Faction Walks Out Of Parliament

KIEV, Ukraine -- The parliamentary faction of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (BYT) Thursday walked out of Ukraine's parliament until July 25, demanding early parliamentary elections.

Yulia Tymoshenko
A new parliamentary coalition led by Yanukovych's Party of Regions officially assumed duties Tuesday and re-submitted his prime ministerial candidacy to President Viktor Yushchenko.

The president will now have to decide on recommending the candidature to parliament within 15 days.

"Our faction is leaving this hall until July 25 until the president issues a decree on early parliamentary elections," former premier and bloc leader Yulia Tymoshenko said.

She called on all Ukrainian patriots "to prevent Yanukovych's nomination as prime minister."

Western-leaning Tymoshenko, who expected to return to the premier's job, and pro-Russian Yanukovych, who served as prime minister in 2002-2004, are bitter rivals.

Source: RIA Novosti

Focus: Freedom Of Speech

KIEV, Ukraine -- The deepening political and constitutional crisis in Ukraine has contributed to growing Ukraine fatigue in the West. Unlike the Ukraine fatigue found in the Leonid Kuchma era, today’s Ukraine fatigue is of a different ‘lighter’ nature.

Yushchenko and the "Orange Revolution" - an exercize in futility
During Kuchma’s second term as president, Ukraine fatigue rested on allegations of abuse of office, illegal arms sales and alleged involvement in the murder of journalist Heorhiy Gongadze.

Today’s Ukraine fatigue-lite is of a different nature and can be divided into genuine and disingenuous feelings. Genuine Ukraine fatigue-lite can be found inside and outside Ukraine among those who welcomed the Orange Revolution and hoped it would lead to a democratic breakthrough in Ukraine.

This, in turn, would have led to Ukraine’s integration into the West, firstly into the WTO and NATO, and at a later date into the EU.

Genuine Ukraine fatigue-lite is exasperated by five policy failures.

First, Viktor Yushchenko has been unable to grow into the president’s shoes. Western media now openly talk of the lack of leadership in Ukraine. Since January 2005, Ukraine has not had a ‘hospodar’ (master) at home.

Insiders in the president’s team say Yushchenko does not have loyal and honest advisers whom he can trust to speak to him candidly. Yushchenko does not have his own Condoleezza Rice or Dick Cheney, like U.S. President George Bush.

Second, loyalty to the president has been a more important factor than competence. The past two heads of the presidential secretariat (Oleksandr Zinchenko, Oleh Rybachuk) have failed to provide the president with an efficient, strategic and competent support structure.

Volodymyr Lytvyn and Viktor Medvedchuk, who served under Kuchma, had many negative traits, but they were nevertheless competent managers.

Anatoliy Kinakh, with little knowledge of international affairs, was not the right secretary of the National Security and Defense Council. While trumpeting the virtues of cooperation with NATO, his own parliamentary faction was backing the left and Party of Regions in voting against it.

Kinakh’s support for Ukraine joining the WTO together with Russia was at odds with government policy.

Continued support for Oleksiy Ivchenko as head of Naftogaz Ukrainy until his resignation in May was another poor cadre choice. One energy expert compared former Naftogaz Ukrainy head Yuriy Boyko to Ivchenko. While Boyko was corrupt, he noted, Ivchenko was both incompetent and corrupt.

Third, the division of the Orange camp in September 2005, following Yushchenko’s dismissal of the Yulia Tymoshenko government, has proved impossible to heal. After three months of negotiations, an Orange coalition collapsed in June before it could even propose a government.

The dragging out of coalition negotiations increased Ukraine fatigue in the West and overshadowed the holding of a free and fair election in March 2006.

This year’s controversial gas agreement with Moscow showed how the authorities reacted to, rather than formulated policy toward important strategic issues.

There has also been a poor understanding of the link between domestic and foreign policy factors. The choice of which coalition and government would be created, and how long it would take to create them following the elections was bound to have an impact on Ukraine’s integration into the WTO, NATO and EU.

Fourth, if Yushchenko has shown how difficult it is to move from central banker to revolutionary, then this is even more the case for Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov.

A good technocrat does not always have the right qualities for a politician, as seen in Mr. Yekhanurov’s weak leadership of the pro-presidential Our Ukraine party during the 2006 elections and since.

A lack of leadership following the elections is to blame for Ukraine’s current crisis. Why couldn’t the president have stated his support for an Orange coalition immediately following the elections, rather than wait until mid-June?

Why did the president permit Our Ukraine to simultaneously hold talks with its two Orange partners as well as the Party of Regions, whose leader Viktor Yanukovych had challenged Yushchenko for the presidency in 2004?

While accepting credit for holding a free and fair election, Yushchenko and Our Ukraine were unwilling to accept its logical outcome, as party leader Roman Besmertnyiy had argued in favor of doing.

In holding simultaneous talks, Our Ukraine sought to secure for itself an upper hand in either an Orange or Grand coalition, thereby negating the fact that it had come in third in the elections.

Disingenuous Ukraine fatigue-lite fails to take into account the positive legacies of the Orange Revolution, which remain numerous, no matter how poorly Orange politicians have mismanaged the country since Yushchenko’s election.

Ukraine is both a different country to that of the Kuchma era and very different from the norm in the CIS. One has only to compare Russia and Ukraine to see how this is indeed the case.

Disingenuous Ukraine fatigue-lite can be better understood by comparing that felt by Ukraine’s supporters in the West and those who were always cynically predisposed toward the Orange Revolution.

The U.S., Canada, Scandinavia and Central-Eastern Europe welcomed the Orange Revolution and supported Ukraine’s rapid integration into the West. Among these countries, genuine disappointment is akin to that found among Orange supporters inside Ukraine, who feel let down and who are today recreating a Maidan-2, or protest tent camp, in Kyiv.

NATO as an organization welcomed the Orange Revolution and reiterated its open door policy toward membership. Until the June anti-NATO demonstrations in the Crimea, which cancelled planned military exercises, and the creation of the Anti-Crisis coalition, NATO was ready to invite Ukraine into a Membership Action Plan this year and membership in 2008-2010.

Western Europeans, particularly in the EU, exhibit a disingenuous Ukraine fatigue-lite. The EU has largely cold-shouldered the Orange Revolution, citing the failed referendum votes on the EU constitution, enlargement fatigue and the Turkish membership question for the EU not opening its doors to Ukraine.

The European Neighborhood Policy Action Plan that Ukraine signed in February 2005 is no different than what would have been offered to Viktor Yanukovych if he had won the 2004 elections.

Western European EU members have had a cynical view of the likelihood of the Orange Revolution succeeding. This view is surprisingly similar to that found among Yanukovych’s voters and supporters of the Party of Regions, who repeatedly stated their pessimism of the chances of the Orange coalition remaining united.

The crises in Ukraine are pointed to by Western European EU members as alleged proof of the correctness of their cautious position toward the country.

Unlike the U.S. and NATO, the EU has been unwilling to accept the important strategic ramifications of Ukraine’s integration into the West. West European EU members have been unwilling to upset relations with Russia, which is a vital source of energy supplies.

Russophilia has fed a disingenuous Ukraine fatigue-lite.

Source: Kyiv Post

Lutsenko Stands Firm

KIEV, Ukraine -- Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, who is widely regarded as a man of principle, announced July 7 that he was suspending his membership in the Socialist Party of Ukraine, saying that he would not be a part of any coalition with the Party of Regions.

Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko (in sunglasses)
The announcement came the day after Socialist leader Oleksandr Moroz was elected speaker. Just like MP Yosyp Vinskiy, another high profile Socialist Party figure, Lutsenko disliked the way Moroz became speaker, effectively putting the final nail into the coffin of the Orange coalition and giving the new pro-Russian coalition a good chance of grabbing power.

Lutsenko said publicly on several occasions, including last month, that he would not be part of any Cabinet led by Viktor Yanukovich, who now looks likely to become premier.

Lutsenko’s principles go back to the times when he was a leading light in the Ukraine Without Kuchma protests of 2000-01, opposing all the unsavory political practices of that era. Lutsenko’s principled stance meant it was no coincidence that he became the first civilian to head the Interior Ministry.

In the wake of the Orange Revolution’s promises to put bandits in jail, Lutsenko rightly went after dubious figures from the Kuchma era, like Ihor Bakay. Mogul Rinat Akhmetov was invited for tea and questions, as was now former president Kuchma himself.

Akhmetov sidekick Boris Kolesnikov spent time behind bars, though the case was eventually closed. It was not Lutsenko’s fault that the prosecutor’s office decided to close it and other similar cases.

His actions show him to be a man of principle. He has stuck to his word, unlike his former party leader, who appears to have sold out for 29 pieces of silver, the number of Socialist MPs out of a faction total of 33 who voted for Moroz's appointment.

Lutsenko's tenure as Interior Minister, a post he has held since January 2005, may well be drawing to a close. However, his term should be remembered as one of a man who kept his word and principles in the face of difficulties - certainly a rare breed on the Ukrainian political scene.

Let’s hope that his time in office and his example will usher in an era of honesty in Ukrainian politics.

Focus: freedom of speech

The old gang from the days of former President Leonid Kuchma has not yet even been confirmed as the ruling parliamentary coalition or members of the new government; but freedom of speech in Ukraine is already under attack.

A member of the pro-Russian Regions Party, whose leader Viktor Yanukovych was handpicked to succeed Kuchma for the country’s presidential elections in 2004, manhandled a couple of journalists covering a protest near parliament July 12.

The protests involved members of the now defunct Orange coalition, as well as the so-called Anti-Crisis Coalition, which includes the Party of Regions and the Communists.

Regions deputy Oleg Kalashnikov, who physically forced an STB TV cameraman to hand over a video cassette he’d been recording, initially showed no regret for his actions, making a speech shortly after the incident, in which he only said he was sorry for damaging his party’s image.

Later, after pressure mounted on the more image-conscious elements of the Donetsk-based party, Kalashnikov made another apology to the journalists themselves, blaming his actions on the heat and the pressure of the moment.

Yanukovych, who has himself been the subject of media reports citing his alleged violent criminal past, met with STB representatives, confirmed his party’s respect of freedom of speech and pledged to have Kalashnikov removed from the party. In the meantime, Ukrainian media were reporting that Kalashnikov had been admitted to hospital with heart problems.

Only a few years have passed since Ukraine was rocked by protests against a couple of journalist murders, which some say were ordered by senior members of the Kuchma regime.

With the election of Viktor Yushchenko as president, many have taken freedom of speech for granted. Now with Yushchenko politically marginalized and the Orange Revolution in disrepute, many of the faces from Kuchma’s days are returning to the corridors of power.

They would have us believe that they aren’t as bad as they were portrayed, but their actions speak louder than words.

Source: Kyiv Post

Ukraine Seeks To Honor Anti-Soviet Troops

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's government said Wednesday it had drafted a bill offering anti-Soviet guerrillas the same privileges currently provided to World War II veterans - a measure likely to meet a strong opposition in parliament.

Members of Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)
Deputy Prime Minister Vyacheslav Kyrylenko said the measure, which is subject to approval by parliament, would apply to members of militant groups that fought against the Soviets in 1939-1956. The bill would require additional spending of about $9.9 million, he said in a statement.

Since Western-leaning President Viktor Yushchenko came to power last year, his government has been striving to win recognition for the 100,000 partisans who fought both the Nazis and the Soviets as Ukrainian patriots who struggled to create an independent homeland.

Communists and war veterans say such a move would be a mockery of the Soviet Red Army dead.

About 10,000 partisans are believed to still be alive, while there are 3.8 million World War II veterans still living.

Hostility toward the partisans runs deep in Ukraine because in the war's early years, the anti-Soviet partisans aligned themselves with the Nazis who overran the country before the Red Army drove them out in 1944.

During Soviet times, Ukrainian schoolchildren were taught that the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and its guerrilla force, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, were enemies of the people who committed horrific atrocities alongside Nazi troops.

An estimated 7 million Ukrainians died in the fighting against the Nazis, and 2.4 million people were sent to Nazi concentration camps. Yushchenko's father was a Soviet Red Army soldier who spent four years in a Nazi camp.

Yushchenko has repeatedly urged Red Army veterans and anti-Soviet guerrillas to forgive each other for the sake of the national unity, but his attempts have caused several protests by Communists and other pro-Russian parties.

The new bill is likely to meet strong resistance from the majority coalition in the Ukrainian parliament consisting of the pro-Russian Party of Regions, Communists and Socialists.

Communist lawmaker Petro Tsybenko strongly criticized the government's move. "These people supported the Nazis. It is immoral and criminal to give them the same status and benefits the Red Army veterans have," he told The Associated Press.

Source: AP

Fresh Twist In Ukraine Struggle

KIEV, Ukraine -- The pro-Western party of Ukraine's president has announced that it is officially going into opposition.

Pro-democracy youth have been protesting outside parliament
The move follows months of political turmoil caused by a general election in March in which no party won a majority.

A pro-Russian coalition was formed earlier this month when an alliance of parties which supported the Orange Revolution collapsed.

Thousands of protesters have gathered outside the parliament building, according to local TV reports.

The BBC's Helen Fawkes in Kiev says the announcement means that the Our Ukraine Party, led by Viktor Yushchenko, will link up with some of its former Orange allies who are already in opposition.

The pro-Russian coalition is likely to find it difficult to govern, our correspondent says. It only has a small majority and is made up of parties with diverse interests.

Calmer parliament

It also means that Ukraine's political uncertainty looks set to continue.

The statement was made to a relatively calm parliament. Last week there were rowdy scenes as a number of MPs physically attacked each other.

The governing coalition has also nominated Viktor Yanukovych to be appointed prime minister.

Mr Yanukovych, who leads the largest party, lost the 2004 presidential election in which allegations of vote-rigging sparked the Orange Revolution.

Source: BBC News

Ukraine's Pro-Yushchenko Bloc Moves Into Opposition

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine’s new, pro-Russian parliamentary majority stepped closer to power Tuesday after pro-western President Viktor Yushchenko’s bloc dropped its challenges, paving the way for an awkward and potentially unfriendly cohabitation, The Associated Press reported.


Yushchenko’s bloc declared itself in opposition to the 450-seat parliament’s new 239-person majority. But while lawmakers agreed to sit down to work for the first time, abandoning last week’s noisemaking and scuffles, hundreds of rival protesters — for and against the coalition — amassed outside parliament, forcing traffic to be rerouted and riot police to separate them.

“I propose to set aside emotions, ultimatums and ambitions and remember our common responsibility before the Ukrainian people,” lawmaker Anatoliy Kinakh from Yushchenko’s faction said, noting that the president’s bloc would formally take up its place in a constructive opposition “in the interest of our state and our people.”

This ex-Soviet republic has been in political turmoil since the March parliamentary election ended without a clear winner, widening the divide between Ukraine’s Russian-speaking east, which looks to Moscow, and the more nationalist, Ukrainian-speaking west, which dreams of shaking off the Kremlin’s influence.

After months of bickering between the former Orange Revolution allies, Yanukovych seized the initiative last week by persuading the president’s former ally, the Socialist Party, to suddenly switch sides.

Yushchenko had warned the new coalition, which also includes the Communists, was formed in violation of parliamentary procedures and the constitution, and the coalition moved to address these complaints by forming itself anew on Tuesday. It also re-nominated Yanukovych to be prime minister.

The new coalition has its power base in eastern Ukraine, and some analysts say it is likely to slow Ukraine’s march toward the European Union and NATO. Yanukovych was the Kremlin’s clear favorite in the 2004 fraud-marred presidential election, which prompted the Orange Revolution mass protests.

“I want people of good will, intelligent people who don’t consider Ukraine’s independence, its national identity, to be empty words, I want them to understand that a political coup is taking place today in parliament,” Yulia Tymoshenko, one of the Orange Revolution’s most fiery orators, said Tuesday in parliament.

Tymoshenko proposed that her party, which came in second in the March election behind Yanukovych’s, unite with Yushchenko’s bloc to give up their mandates, saying that would make parliament illegitimate. Other lawmakers, however, said the plan was unrealistic; it also appeared unlikely to win much support.

Tymoshenko also kept up her push for Yushchenko to dissolve parliament and call new elections. The president will gain that right as of July 25 if no government is formed by then. He can provoke that situation by refusing to sign off on Yanukovych’s nomination to be premier by that date.

Oleksandr Kyrlov, a veterinarian, hopes Yushchenko does just that. “Our lawmakers have no moral values. So now we need to last till the end and get new elections,” said the 26-year-old who was among the protesters outside the parliament Tuesday.

But Yushchenko, whose party took a beating in the March election, coming in third place, appeared reluctant to dissolve parliament. Polls have shown that a majority of Ukrainians don’t want new elections, and they also signaled that Yushchenko’s party could do even worse if a new vote were held.

Yanukovych’s party pleaded for cooperation. “People are tired of the conflict, people don’t understand why they are being called to the street when they should be working,” said Yevhen Kushnaryov, a top lawmaker from Party of Regions.

Source: MosNews

Memorial To Babi Yar Massacre Damaged; Ukrainian Jews Condemn Vandalism

KIEV, Ukraine -- A memorial near the site where Nazis killed tens of thousands of Ukrainian Jews was badly vandalized over the weekend, a Jewish leader said Monday.


Ukraine's Jewish community condemned the damage as a disturbing act of anti-Semitism.

Unidentified vandals smashed the inscription plate on the menorah-shaped memorial, erected in 1991 by the Jewish community near the site of the World War II massacre. In September 1941, Nazis marched tens of thousands of local Jews to the edge of the Babi Yar ravine and shot them.

More than 33,700 Jews were killed in a few days, and within months the toll is believed to have reached more than 100,000, including thousands of Red Army prisoners of war and resistance fighters.

"Police are saying they have no leads, except that they are classifying it as hooliganism - this was not mere hooliganism," said Volodymyr Kadman, spokesman for the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress. He noted that the vandals would have had to come prepared to break the glass covering the inscription plate.

Vadym Rabynovych, head of the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress, appealed to authorities to provide 24-hour security for the site. But Kadman said the Jewish community had received no response and was not going to wait. Rabynovych called a special meeting to discuss organizing security on their own and setting up security cameras to monitor the memorial.

Kiev police officials could not immediately be reached to comment.

President Viktor Yushchenko has announced tentative plans for a high-profile service this September to remember Babi Yar victims, inviting numerous heads of state, including U.S. President George W. Bush. Ukrainian Jews have welcomed the plans, but said the government needs to do more to combat anti-Semitism after some high profile attacks on Jews last year.

Source: AP

Ukraine Political Crisis Rumbles On As Supporters Block Rada

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's protracted political crisis took another step onto the streets Tuesday as supporters of two political parties tried to seal off approaches to parliament in protest against the formation of an "anti-crisis" coalition in the country.


On July 12, Ukrainian Parliamentary Speaker Oleksandr Moroz said Ukraine had formed a new parliamentary coalition comprising the pro-Russian Party of Regions, the Communist Party and the Socialist Party, which led to ugly scenes as members of the 450-seat legislature started several fist fights, traded insults, and attempted to drown each other out with sirens and megaphones.

And today a thousand supporters of the bloc led by former premier Yulia Tymoshenko and the Pora party blocked approaches to the Supreme Rada, demanding the dissolution of the parliament and the holding of new parliamentary elections.

Ukraine's Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko said law-enforcement bodies had been informed about preparations to seize parliament.

"The police know about the preparations for a blockade and the probable seizure of the Supreme Rada," Lutsenko said. "We are carefully watching the situation and will ensure that deputies are able to enter the parliament building."

There have been several minor clashes between representatives of Tymoshenko's bloc and the Party of Regions but the police have cordoned off representatives of various political forces and are so far keeping the situation under control.

Source: RIA Novosti

Stakes High In Effort To Govern Ukraine

YALTA, Ukraine -- The power struggle in Ukraine enters a new phase Tuesday when rival parties headed by two former enemies decide whether to bury their differences sufficiently to govern together in a broad coalition.

Marriage of convenience?
A political marriage of convenience between President Viktor Yushchenko, who has led Ukraine's experiment with democracy for 18 months, and Viktor Yanukovich, the man he defeated in a bitter repeat election, could end a stalemate that has left the country without a government for four months.

But even if Yushchenko and Yanukovich cut a deal, it is by no means certain that personalities would be replaced by policies - or indeed that a coalition could be sustained.

The stakes are high, from Ukraine's standing with the European Union and NATO to the fragile balance between the country's east, which generally backs Yanukovich's Party of the Regions, and its west, which supports Yushchenko. A continuation of the deadlock produced by parliamentary elections in March could also shake investor confidence.

If a coalition is not forged by July 25, Yushchenko is obliged by the Constitution to dissolve Parliament and call new elections, even though the results might again not produce a clear winner and could sharpen tensions in the country.

"I hope politicians will find the wisdom to produce a compromise by July 25," Yushchenko said Saturday. "I will not permit the country to be torn asunder by politicking."

Since March, two previous attempts to build a coalition have failed and political squabbling has intensified, culminating last week in spectacular fistfights in Parliament.

"The political parties have done everything possible to increase the confrontation in the Parliament," Prime Minister Yuri Yekhanurov said. "The conflicts are growing. The citizens are divided. Reconciliation has been forgotten."

Even advisers to Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko, the leaders of the Orange Revolution that ushered in a new era in December 2004, admit that they have squandered an extraordinary groundswell of support.

Yushchenko, 52, gained world sympathy after he was poisoned during the disputed 2004 election campaign, but since then has spent his time battling with Tymoshenko. Their relationship became so untenable that he sacked her as prime minister last September.

Tymoshenko, 45, has managed to alienate most of the political parties with what they call her uncontrollable ambition. During her short stint as prime minister, she went on a wild spending spree, raising pensions and expanding the budget.

Amid this infighting, the camp of Yanukovich, 56, also a former prime minister, has revamped its image by hiring an American public relations firm that also advises Senator John McCain, a possible Republican presidential contender, and portraying the Party of the Regions as the movement that could forge a national consensus.

This reinvention of Yanukovich, who was supported by President Vladimir Putin of Russia in the 2004 presidential campaign, allowed him to win the most votes - 32 percent - in the March elections. Tymoshenko received 22 percent and Yushchenko a poor 13 percent.

Yushchenko and Tymoshenko considered forming a coalition in order to prevent Yanukovich from leading the government, but the negotiations - strongly backed by the Bush administration - collapsed this month.

"Personal ambitions have ruined the Orange Revolution," said Ksenia Lyapina, a legislator and member of Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party.

Now, with the possibility of a Yushchenko-Yanukovich coalition looming, many questions remain.

First, there is the key matter of who would serve as prime minister. Yushchenko has ruled out appointing Yanukovich, fearing that this would be seen as a sellout by some supporters of the Orange Revolution. It could also be exploited by Tymoshenko and her supporters, who said over the weekend that they would go into opposition.

Second, the stability of any future government could be undermined by a parliamentary system under which legislators may switch political allegiance on an ad hoc basis - a set-up that suits the powerful oligarchs involved in much of Ukraine's economy.

Finally, what unites Yushchenko and Yanukovich is not political convictions but their deep dislike of Tymoshenko. Supporters of the two men say they want to keep her from becoming prime minister, among other reasons, because a new Constitution introduced in January gives that office greater powers than those of the president. But it is far from clear that their feelings about Tymoshenko will be enough for the creation of a stable coalition.

Aleksander Kwasniewski, the former Polish president and a strong supporter of the admission of Ukraine to the European Union and NATO, tried last week to mediate among the politicians, warning them that they were squandering the Orange Revolution and international good will. "I am very afraid and very pessimistic," he said. "It is difficult to be an advocate of Ukraine if you cannot understand the situation here. Time is slipping away."

Source: International Herald Tribune

Polls: Majority Of Ukrainians Against President Dissolving

KIEV, Ukraine -- The majority of Ukrainians oppose calls for President Viktor Yushchenko to dissolve parliament and order new elections, according to opinion polls released on July 17 - results likely to push the pro-Western leader closer to accepting the parliamentary coalition led by his former Orange Revolution rival.

Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Yanukovych, whom Yushchenko defeated in a court-ordered presidential revote in 2004, outmaneuvered his pro-Western rivals to put together a new, parliamentary majority last week comprised of eastern Ukrainian industrialists, Communists and Socialists. The coalition has nominated Yanukovych to be the next prime minister.

Some of Yushchenko's allies have appealed to the president to dissolve parliament and call new elections in a bid to keep the pro-Russian politician out. They have warned that any other option would mean a betrayal of the 2004 mass protests that helped strip Yanukovych of his fraud-marred presidential victory and usher Yushchenko into power.

Yushchenko, however, has appeared reluctant - and opinion polls suggest that if he did dissolve parliament, his party would take an even worse beating than it did in the March vote, when it came in third.

Under Ukraine's constitution, Yushchenko gains the right to dissolve parliament as of July 25 if no new government can be formed. For parliament to form a government, Yushchenko must agree to submit Yanukovych's nomination for the premiership.

A series of opinion polls, released over the weekend and July 17, found that most Ukrainians want to see parliament - which has not worked effectively since the March 26 election - get back to work. The polls suggested this nation of 47 million favors compromise.

Some 54 percent of Ukrainians polled by Kyiv's International Institute of Sociology oppose dissolving parliament, while 26 percent support such a move. The poll of 2,095 Ukrainians, which was released July 17, was conducted from July 10-14 and had a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points.

A separate poll of 1,500 Ukrainians by FOM-Ukraine released the same day indicated that only one-fifth of Ukrainians support dissolving parliament, the Interfax Ukraine news agency reported. The majority want Yushchenko to seek

compromise or unite his party with the newly formed coalition. The poll was conducted July 13 and had a margin of error of 2.6 percentage points.

A third poll by the Sofiya Center for Social Research found that 48.4 percent thought a Yanukovych premiership would be "largely negative," and 44.7 percent thought it would be "largely positive." But out of a list of 10 possible candidates, Yanukovych had the highest positive rating, and the lowest negative rating. That poll, released July 17, quizzed 2,022 Ukrainians, which had a margin of error of 2.2 percent, was conducted from July 3-11.

Meanwhile, Yanukovych's Party of Regions said talks were still under way with Yushchenko's bloc in a bid to persuade it to join the coalition. Parliament Speaker Oleksandr Moroz, whose decision to abandon his former Orange Revolution allies led to the creation of the new parliamentary coalition, predicted on July 17 that the most likely outcome would be "to sign an agreement on cooperation."

Source: AP

Opinion: With Parliament Divided, Ukraine On Brink Of Chaos

KIEV, Ukraine -- With parliament hopelessly divided into the pro-Russian Party of Regions, aligned with the Socialists against the West-leaning Our Ukraine and the Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc, there are no signs of a viable government on the horizon.

Parliamentary speaker Oleksander Moroz speaks during a news conference in Kiev July 17, 2006. President Viktor Yushchenko would not have the constitutional right to dissolve parliament even if no coalition could be formed by July 25, Morozov said on Monday after Yushchenko on Sunday gave bickering politicians 10 days to form a government or face dissolution of parliament and a new parliamentary election.
President Viktor Yushchenko is threatening to call new parliamentary elections as he invokes what he called "violations of the constitution and procedures" in the creation of a new majority in Ukraine's bitterly divided Verkhovna Rada. How serious he is about this is not yet clear, since he himself recently declared his opposition to a fresh ballot. The options though are narrowing fast.

Former Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko has no such inhibitions. She told the U.S. daily "The Christian Science Monitor" on July 12 that the parliament has betrayed its promises to the people and is therefore illegitimate. There are two possibilities, she said: either we "become the coalition ourselves, or, if the law allows it, we will definitely be in favor of holding an early election".

Perhaps because it senses public opinion swinging in its favor, the Party of Regions is also in favor of holding new parliamentary elections. Viktor Yanukovych, the leader of the party, may feel he has a chance now to win a majority in parliament.

But this could be wishful thinking. The chances are that new parliamentary elections would merely confirm the rifts that so badly divide Ukraine, further alienate the country's long-suffering electorate, and do nothing to bring political compromise any closer.

President Yushchenko is postponing any decision on what to do next by calling on parliament to elect a new Constitutional Court before he nominates anyone for the position of prime minister. He has also said that any new prime minister must be a moderate with no "business interests." He clearly wants to exclude Yanukovych but may have in mind Renat Akhmetov as a compromise candidate. Akhmetov is the richest and one of the most influential members of the Party of Regions.

As the political battles in parliament continue, the government appears rudderless. In the meantime, negotiations have resumed to create an international gas consortium to manage the Ukrainian gas-pipeline system. This consortium would most likely consist of Ukraine, Russia, and Germany.

Russia, which earlier this month threatened to increase the price of gas for Ukraine, has apparently decided to wait and see. It may fear that a significant increase in the gas price would show that the pro-Russian Party of Regions is no more able to influence decisions made in Moscow than Yushchenko.

In the absence of a strong central government, regional and city councils in eastern Ukraine are challenging the authority of the state. They have refused to obey orders to rescind resolutions making Russian the "second official language" -- resolutions that directly contradict the constitution.

Yushchenko appears either unable or unwilling to use force to enforce the law and is in danger of losing face with his core support base in western Ukraine. Many there are demanding that he act forcibly to prevent the country from sliding into anarchy. But, as Yushchenko no doubt fears, a show of force may make matters worse.

Source: Roman Kupchinsky (RFL/RL)

Ukraine's Opposition Bows To "Anti-Crisis" Coalition Reality

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's opposition parties have recognized the legitimacy of the new "anti-crisis" coalition, opposition leaders said following a session of the conciliatory commission in parliament Monday.

Yulia Tymoshenko
The anti-crisis coalition of the pro-Russia Party of Regions, the Communists and Socialists was formed July 7 and will begin work Tuesday, said representatives of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and pro-presidential Our Ukraine, now in opposition.

The previous coalition deal between the West-leaning trio of the Tymoshenko Bloc, Our Ukraine and the Socialists signed June 22 will expire in the early hours of Tuesday. It will give way to the new "anti-crisis" coalition that the Tymoshenko Bloc and Our Ukraine had opposed and even questioned its legitimacy in court.

Roman Bezsmertniy of Our Ukraine said the new "anti-crisis" coalition deal would formally come into effect Tuesday and its members would be responsible for the formation of a government and the situation in the country.

Oleksandr Turchinov of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc echoed his colleague from Our Ukraine: "Only tomorrow will the coalition of democratic forces cease to exist and only tomorrow will the new coalition become legal."

At the conciliatory session, the sides agreed to set up a working group that will distribute committees between the coalition and the opposition in the 450-seat legislature.

Petro Symonenko, the Communist leader, said that the opposition (210 seats) had been offered 11 out of 26 committees but added that neither of the opposition parties had submitted their candidates to the committees yet.

Source: RIA Novosti

Rebrov Named Ukraine's Player Of The Season

KIEV, Ukraine -- Dynamo Kiev striker Serhiy Rebrov was selected the Ukrainian Premier League's Player of the Season for 2005-2006, the club said on Monday.

Serhiy Rebrov
Rebrov, 32, was a member of Ukraine's World Cup side, which fought into the second round in their first ever World Cup finals. He scored against Saudi Arabia in Ukraine's first appearance at the World Cup finals in Germany.

He is the top scorer in Dynamo's history with 106 goals in 216 matches as he played for Dynamo from 1992 to 2000 and returned to the club in 2005 after a spell in England with Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United.

Source: People's Daily Online

The People's Choice

KIEV, Ukraine -- Two years ago, politics in Ukraine seemed to be a battle between good and evil. Now the picture is more complicated.

Russia has defeated U.S. for sphere of influence in Ukraine
The good guy is president, but the bad guy is likely to become the next prime minister. Some say it's a failure of democracy. We disagree.

In the uproar after Ukraine's 2004 presidential election, there were clear principles at stake. Viktor Yanukovich, the Russia-backed candidate, tried to steal the presidential election through massive voting fraud.

His pro-West opponent, Viktor Yushchenko, nearly died after a poison attack that no one has yet explained. Ukraine's weak democratic institutions were crumbling under the weight of election rigging and political violence.

Massive popular demonstrations forced a rerun of the presidential race and ultimately kept a vote-rigger out of the presidential palace.

But since then, Mr. Yushchenko and his Orange coalition have faltered. The government has had to face Russian bullying and a bevy of domestic problems while the momentum of revolution waned.

In March's parliamentary elections, the party of Mr. Yanukovich claimed the most seats. And after months of parliamentary wrangling, he won the nomination for prime minister last week.

It's not an outcome the West will like; Mr. Yanukovich as prime minister will do his best to keep Ukraine in Moscow's orbit.

Even if he doesn't get the parliament's top job, which is still a possibility given the volatility of Ukrainian politics, Mr. Yanukovich will rank among the most influential politicians in government.

It is tempting to wish that Ukraine's president would call for new parliamentary elections, a move he called a last resort on Saturday, in the hope that a pro-West coalition would get more seats.

But Ukrainians elected the current parliament only three months ago, and there was no evidence of widespread vote tampering.

The emerging political settlement in Ukraine reflects the current divisions within the country, which has a large ethnic Russian population in the east, Mr. Yanukovich's natural constituency, and a fierce Ukrainian nationalist movement in the west, Mr. Yushchenko's power base.

It should be no surprise that the leader of the parliament might represent one end of the country and the president the other. The continued political instability that new elections would cause and the distrust in the east that they would encourage wouldn't help cement Ukraine's democratic institutions.

This is a chance for the United States and Europe to show that they favor democracy first, not a particular democratic outcome in a single parliamentary election. That means being ready to support Ukraine's aspirations to join NATO or to assist Mr. Yushchenko in claiming energy independence from Russia -- if the Ukrainian government asks.

Providing an attractive alternative to Russian domination through deference to the democratic process and willingness to act in partnership with Ukraine will further the West's cause much more than would a pliant pro-West parliament.

Mr. Yanukovich may not be the prime minister we would have voted for. But we respect the honest choice Ukrainians made.

Source: Washington Post

Ukraine President's Party Sets Conditions For Joining Coalition

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's political landscape shifted radically on Friday when President Viktor A. Yushchenko's pro-Western party, Our Ukraine, said that under certain conditions it would join a coalition with its archrival, the pro-Russian Party of the Regions led by Viktor F. Yanukovich.

Yushchenko (L) and Yanukovich - the odd couple
Our Ukraine is insisting that a new government exclude the Communists, who were part of an earlier coalition proposal. Another contentious issue is control over who would become the next prime minister.

Ukraine has been in a state of political turmoil since parliamentary elections in March, when Yanukovich's party won the most seats, but not enough to form a government on its own.

Yanukovich, who was defeated by Yushchenko during the presidential runoff in January 2005, would like to make a political comeback as prime minister.

But Yushchenko, whose Our Ukraine was one of two parties that spearheaded the 2004 Orange Revolution, is eager to maintain a more Western-leaning government and might press for another candidate.

Yanukovich has until Tuesday to decide whether he will meet the president's demands.

The Socialist Party, which opposes economic reforms and Ukraine's joining NATO, would also join the proposed coalition.

The Socialists' participation in a new government could derail attempts by the United States to invite Ukraine to start negotiations for joining NATO at the alliance's meeting in Riga, Latvia, in November.

This "anticrisis" coalition - the third attempt at forming a coalition since the parliamentary elections - was brokered after marathon talks on Thursday and Friday.

The proposed coalition, however, would not include the other leader of the Orange Revolution, Yulia V. Tymoshenko, whose party, the Tymoshenko Bloc, came in second in the elections.

She has said she had no intention of supporting the anticrisis coalition and would join the opposition.

Tymoshenko was poised last week to become prime minister after the Orange Revolution parties won the support of the Socialist Party, led by Oleksandr O. Moroz.

But negotiations became bogged down by bitter rivalries and clashes between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko, whose cooperation during the heady days of the Orange Revolution has all but evaporated.

Yushchenko repeatedly tried to block Tymoshenko from becoming prime minister, particularly since constitutional changes that took effect last January strengthened that post at the expense of the president.

There were disputes, too, over who would be president of the Parliament and who would lead the parliamentary committees.

Amid the political haggling, Moroz suddenly changed sides, saying he would join with the Party of the Regions. With support from the small Communist Party, Yanukovich said this week that he would establish the next government.

Moroz was rewarded by being elected president of the Parliament, a powerful position he had long sought.

Source: International Herald Tribune

Ukrainian Political Turmoil Continues As Rival Supporters Clash

KIEV, Ukraine -- Supporters of two rival movements in Ukraine clashed during a rally in the center of the capital, Kiev, Saturday.

Stanislav Sandulyak wears a head banner reading 'Yulia Tymoshenko bloc' during a rally in Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday, July, 12, 2006. Demonstrators began erecting a tent camp in the Ukrainian capital's main square on Wednesday to protest the new pro-Russian coalition, a move meant to echo the successful 2004 Orange Revolution protests.
Activists of pro-democracy youth organization Pora, which is pushing for the dissolution of Ukraine's legislature, became involved in a skirmish with members of Unity movement who tried to remove the rival party's tent camp from Kiev's main square, the site of major government buildings.

Police stepped in to stop the clash.

Pora was a proactive participant in Ukraine's 2004 mass protests against vote rigging that swept into power pro-Western opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko.

Tents have reappeared in central Kiev as many Ukrainians, frustrated over a parliamentary deadlock that has lasted since March, have taken to the streets to protest against a coalition of leftist parties blocking the legislature's work.

Although reminiscent of the 2004 rallies, which became known as the "orange revolution," the current protests are a far cry in numerical terms.

Yushchenko has dismissed as illegitimate the new coalition, forged last week by Viktor Yanukovych's Party of Regions with the Communist Party and the Socialists, and refused to accept the nomination of his presidential rival as prime minister.

Yushchenko can now either conclude a power-sharing deal with Yanukovych or dismiss the legislature and call an early election.

In a radio address Saturday, he said not all possibilities to overcome the parliament impasse had been exhausted yet, but warned that a solution should be found before July 25.

In keeping with the constitution, the president will have to dissolve the assembly unless it forms a coalition government by that date.

Source: RIA Novosti

Russian TV Presenter Barred From Entering Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine has barred Russia’s top TV presenter Mikhail Leontiev from entering the country in what is seen as a response to his derogatory remarks about the Ukrainian nation and the president.

Mikhail Leontiev
Leontiev hosts a political analysis program on Russian’s pro-Kremlin TV network.

Ukrane’s Foreign Ministry confirmed Friday that Russian journalist Mikhail Leontiev had been barred from Ukraine.

“Indeed, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has received information from law-enforcement agencies about Mikhail Leontiev having been barred from Ukraine in accordance with the Ukrainian law,” the Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, Vasyl Filipchuk, said, according to Interfax.

He declined further comments and said that this matter is in the competence of the Security Service of Ukraine.

A source in the Ukrainian government said that Leontiev was barred from entering Ukraine. He said that the decision was made in connection with “Leontiev’s insulting statements which incited ethnic hatred and endangered Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty”.

The source said that Leontiev repeatedly made statements that Ukraine is split and that the Ukrainian nation does not exist. The source said the statements were also insulting to the president of Ukraine.

Source: MosNews

Yushchenko To Parties: Sign Deal Or Face Poll

KIEV, Ukraine -- President Viktor Yushchenko, vowing to keep Ukraine from plunging into anarchy, on Saturday gave bickering politicians 10 days to form a government or face dissolution of parliament and a new parliamentary election.


Ukraine has functioned for nearly four months with neither a full-fledged government nor a working parliament after a March election produced an inconclusive result.

The chamber, disrupted by protests led by deputies both allied and opposed to the pro-Western Yushchenko, has been largely in recess amid successive rounds of coalition talks.

A three-party coalition behind the "Orange Revolution" that thrust Yushchenko into power in 2004 collapsed this month.

Formed in its place was a grouping led by the Regions Party of Viktor Yanukovich, the Moscow-backed figure Yushchenko defeated in the revolution's aftermath. But the president this week said his nomination as prime minister was unconstitutional.

In a weekly radio address, Yushchenko called for new efforts at compromise, but said he was ready to resort to dissolution.

"The president's right to dissolve parliament is his final argument, to be used if parliament and political parties fail to comprehend their responsibility before Ukraine," he said.

"As a head of state who understands the cost of such a step, I hope politicians will find the wisdom to produce a compromise by July 25.

"I will allow no anarchy or chaos. Nor will I allow actions to the advantage of those working against Ukraine's interests. I will not permit the country to be torn asunder by politicking."

Yushchenko had initially opposed dissolution, an option open to him under constitutional changes that reduced his powers.

EAST-WEST SPLIT

His chief of staff, Oleg Rybachuk, also said at the weekend that a new election was possible if no cabinet able to tackle Ukraine's longstanding divisions between the industrial Russian-speaking east and the nationalist west could be formed.

Yanukovich made a comeback after his humiliation in 2004 -- his party, which finished first in the March poll, is allied in the new prospective coalition with Socialists and Communists.

Leaders of his Regions Party say they are willing to bypass the president to secure Yanukovich's endorsement by parliament.

Lawyers say most disputes are rooted in the reforms approved during the revolution to ease tension. Yushchenko wants them put to the Constitutional Court, but the opposition has blocked nominations to the court.

Among the options now being considered by politicians is a "broad coalition" bringing together some members of the president's Our Ukraine party with Yanukovich's Regions Party.

Its advocates say this could heal rifts between the east, Yanukovich's power base, and western regions which distrust him.

Two parties still backing an "orange" coalition -- Our Ukraine and the bloc of ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko -- have been impeding parliamentary activity for a week.

Tymoshenko, who stood to be restored as premier in an "orange" team, says only a new election can solve the crisis.

"We must not under any circumstances be afraid of giving the people the right to settle this matter," she told the weekly Zerkalo Nedeli. "Our people are a lot smarter and wiser than many people give them credit for."

Source: Reuters

Ukraine: With Parliament Divided, Is Country Spiraling Into Chaos?

PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- With parliament hopelessly divided into the pro-Russian Party of Regions, aligned with the Socialists against the West-leaning Our Ukraine and the Yuliya Tymoshenko bloc, there are no signs of a viable government on the horizon.

Tymoshenko bloc and PORA protest tent camp at Independence Square.
What can this lead to in the future? New parliamentary elections or anarchy?

President Viktor Yushchenko is threatening to call new parliamentary elections as he invokes what he calls "violations of the constitution and procedures" in the creation of a new majority in Ukraine's bitterly divided Verkhovna Rada, or parliament.

How serious he is about this is not yet clear, since he himself recently declared his opposition to a fresh ballot. The options though are narrowing fast.

Former Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko has no such inhibitions.

She told the Boston-based "Christian Science Monitor" on July 12 that the parliament has betrayed its promises to the people and is therefore illegitimate. There are two possibilities, she said: either we "become the coalition ourselves, or, if the law allows it, we will definitely be in favor of holding an early election."

Perhaps because it senses public opinion swinging in its favor, the Party of Regions is also in favor of holding new parliamentary elections.

Viktor Yanukovych, the leader of the party, may feel he has a chance now to win a majority in parliament.

Divided Country

But this could be wishful thinking. The chances are that new parliamentary elections would merely confirm the divisions that so badly rift Ukraine, further alienate the country's long-suffering electorate, and do nothing to bring political compromise any closer.

President Yushchenko is postponing any decision on what to do next by calling on parliament to elect a new constitutional court before he nominates anyone for the position of prime minister.

He has also said that any new prime minister must be a moderate with no "business interests." He clearly wants to exclude Yanukovych but may have in mind Renat Akhmetov as a compromise candidate. He is the richest and one of the most influential members of the Party of Regions.

As the political battles in parliament continue, the government appears rudderless. In the meantime, negotiations have resumed to create an international gas consortium to manage the Ukrainian gas pipeline system. This consortium would most likely consist of Ukraine, Russia, and Germany.

Russia, which earlier this month threatened to increase the price of gas for Ukraine, has apparently decided to wait and see. It may fear that a significant increase in the gas price would show that the pro-Russian Party of Regions is no more able to influence decisions made in Moscow than Yushchenko.

Lacking Central Government

In the absence too of strong central government, regional and city councils in eastern Ukraine are challenging the authority of the state. They have refused to obey orders to rescind resolutions making Russian the "second official language" -- resolutions that are in direct contradiction of the constitution.

Yushchenko appears either unable or unwilling to use force to enforce the law and is in danger of losing face with his core support in Western Ukraine. Many there are demanding that he act forcibly to prevent the country from sliding into anarchy.

But, as Yushchenko no doubt fears, a show of force may make matters worse.

Source: Radio Free Europe

New Bloc Could Mean Rivals Will Lead Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's political landscape shifted radically on Friday after President Viktor Yushchenko's party said it would join a coalition with its archrival, the pro-Russian Party of the Regions led by Viktor Yanukovich, who could make a comeback as prime minister.

"On again... off again" Yanukovich
In an extraordinary shift in fortunes for Yanukovich, who lost to Yushchenko during a presidential run-off in January 2005, any coalition would include Our Ukraine, one of two parties that spearheaded the 2004 Orange Revolution.

The Socialist party, which opposes economic reforms and Ukraine's joining NATO, will also join the coalition. But Yushchenko has insisted that the Communists, who are part of an earlier coalition agreement, must be excluded. Yanukovich has until Tuesday to decide whether he will meet Yushchenko's demands.

The participation of the Socialists in the new government could derail U.S. attempts to invite Ukraine to start negotiations for joining the alliance at the NATO meeting in Riga in November.

The "anti-crisis" coalition - the third attempt at forming a different coalition nearly four months since the parliamentary elections - was brokered after marathon talks on Thursday and Friday. The Party of the Regions had won the most seats during the March election but not enough to establish a stable government.

The latest coalition, however, will not include the other leader of the so-called Orange Revolution, Yulia Tymoshenko, whose party, the Tymoshenko Bloc, came in second in the elections.

Tymoshenko said this past week that she had no intention of supporting the anti-crisis coalition and would instead join the opposition after her own political fortunes ebbed and flowed over the past several weeks.

Tymoshenko, who is immensely popular among the younger generation, was poised 10 days ago to become prime minister after the pro-Western Orange Revolution parties had obtained the support of the Socialist Party, led by Oleksandr Moroz.

But the coalition negotiations became bogged down by bitter rivalries and clashes between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko, whose cooperation during the heady days of the Orange Revolution has all but disappeared.

Yushchenko repeatedly tried to block Tymoshenko from taking the top government job, particularly since the new constitutional changes that came into effect last January has strengthened the post of prime minister at the expense of the president, whose powers have been considerably weakened.

There were disputes, too, over who would be president of the Parliament and who would lead the parliamentary committees.

Amid such political haggling, Moroz suddenly changed sides, saying he would move over to the Party of the Regions. With support from the small Communist Party, Yanukovich this week said he would establish the next government. Moroz was rewarded by being elected president of the Parliament, a powerful position he had long sought.

Source: International Herald Tribune

Ukrainian Lawmakers Demand President's Intervention In Political Crisis

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian lawmakers on Friday called on President Viktor Yushchenko to intervene in the political crisis engulfing this ex-Soviet republic, either by dissolving parliament and calling new elections or by working with the new pro-Russian parliamentary majority.

Oleksandr Turchynov
"Make your decision (Yushchenko)," said Oleksandr Turchynov, one of the top pro-Western lawmakers calling for new elections. "It is the entire Ukrainian people who are waiting for your decision."

The new coalition is headed by Party of Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych, and includes the Communists and Socialists. It nominated Yanukovych, whom Yushchenko defeated in 2004 to win the presidency after the Orange Revolution mass protests, to be prime minister.

Yushchenko's party has rebuffed calls to join the coalition, which it has branded as illegitimate.

His party, together with the bloc of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, has led noisy disruptions in parliament to interrupt the new coalition's work. Both parties on Friday abandoned noisemaking but refused to enter candidates' names for parliamentary committees, prompting Parliament Speaker Oleksandr Moroz to call a break until Tuesday.

The country has been in political paralysis since March parliamentary elections, in which the Party of Regions won the most seats but fell short of a majority. The inconclusive result underscored the divide between the largely Russian-speaking east, which looks to Moscow, and the nationalist Ukrainian-speaking west.

The squabbling Orange Revolution allies formed a coalition last month after weeks of bargaining, but that agreement collapsed when the Socialist Party switched sides and formed a coalition with the Communists and Party of Regions last week.

Top members of Yushchenko's party have suggested that they would accept some union with Yanukovych's party, but they oppose Yanukovych as premier and the inclusion of the Communists. Yushchenko held talks with Yanukovych, but the negotiations appeared to end in an impasse.

"The only way out of this situation is dialogue in which the president could play the key role, the role of the man who unites the nation, but he is not ready," said Evhen Kushnaryov, a top lawmaker from Yanukovych's party.

The new alliance controls at least 238 seats in the 450-seat parliament, and it has threatened to go ahead with a vote on Yanukovych as prime minister if the president refuses to return the nomination to parliament by July 25, as required by law.

"We consider that the head of state should set aside his personal feelings of sympathy or aversion and do everything that he can to complete the formation of a professional and capable government," the Party of Regions said in a statement. Meanwhile, supporters of Yanukovych and Tymoshenko – who would have returned to the prime minister's job under the Orange coalition - maintained tent camp vigils outside parliament, chanting the names of their leaders.

Vasyl Kodru, who said he supported neither side, called on Yushchenko to intervene. "The current situation needs (the president's) involvement and his decision," he said. "But he has demonstrated himself to be a leader who cannot lead."

Source: AP

Ukraine’s Yushchenko Rejects Yanukovich, Hints at Dissolving Crisis-Ridden Parliament

KIEV, Ukraine -- This week, allies of President Viktor Yushchenko kept up noisy protests in and outside the parliament building against the formation of a new pro-Russian coalition.

Viktor Yushchenko
The Ukrainian leader signaled that he might dissolve parliament altogether and call new elections, The Associated Press reported.

The new coalition this week put forward as its candidate for prime minister Viktor Yanukovich, the Kremlin-backed politician whom Yushchenko defeated in 2004 to win the presidency after the Orange Revolution protests.

Yushchenko, whose party appears to have rebuffed overtures to join Yanukovich’s Party of Regions in its new coalition, said in a letter to lawmakers that parliament’s move this week to declare the Orange Revolution coalition dead and replace it with a new alliance of pro-Russian parties violated the constitution as well as parliamentary rules.

Such decisions contradict principles used by European parliaments, raise questions about their legitimacy “and will demand from me an adequate response,” the president said. He did not elaborate.

Yushchenko’s warning came after lawmakers from his party and that of his Orange Revolution ally, Yulia Tymoshenko, sounded sirens and disrupted Parliament as part of a continuing effort to harass the new coalition.

Ukraine has been plagued by political turmoil since legislative elections in March, in which the Party of Regions won the most seats but fell short of a majority. The inconclusive result underscored the divide between the largely Russian-speaking east, which looks to Moscow, and the nationalist Ukrainian-speaking west.

After weeks of bargaining, the squabbling allies in the Orange Revolution struck a deal to form a coalition in June, but that agreement collapsed when the Socialist Party switched sides and formed a coalition with the pro-Russian Communists and Party of Regions earlier this week.

The new alliance controls at least 233 seats in the 450-member Parliament.

The Yanukovich-led coalition has sparked angry protests from pro-Western lawmakers, who on Thursday sounded hand-held sirens whenever a member of the new coalition spoke.

Drowned out by the noisy protest, Speaker Oleksandr Moroz warned that, on Friday, he planned to push ahead with naming lawmakers to parliamentary committees.

With the pro-Western reformers pledging continuing disruption, leaders of the new, Yanukovich-led coalition appear to have pinned their hopes on wooing Yushchenko’s bloc into joining. Many analysts say that Yushchenko may favor some sort of loose coalition with the Party of Regions, but that he draws the line at making Yanukovich prime minister.

Such a likelihood, however, appeared to dim on Thursday as top leaders from Yushchenko’s party fired condemnation after condemnation at the new coalition. Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk said that it appeared to have been “developed outside of Ukraine.”

“There is an impression that the authors of this scenario need destabilization in Ukraine, they need a cheap demonstration ahead of the G-8 summit,” he said in a thinly veiled reference to Kiev’s former master, Moscow.

In another development Thursday, lawmakers with Yushchenko’s parliamentary faction demanded an investigation into an attack on television journalists.

Two journalists from the channel STB Volodymyr Novosda and Marharita Sytnik said lawmakers from the pro-Russian Party of Regions attacked them Wednesday and seized a tape with their coverage of a rally outside Parliament. A spokesman for the Kiev police, Volodymyr Polishchuk, said the police would investigate the incident.

A Party of Regions representative, Oleh Kalashnikov, called the allegations a provocation, but his party later apologized anyway. “We are open to media and will do everything possible that media can feel itself free,” said the party’s top representative, Yevhen Kushnaryov. He also said the lawmakers involved in the incident had denied using force.

On Thursday, Yushchenko’s faction and Tymoshenko’s faction won support for an investigation from Moroz, the parliamentary speaker.

When Yanukovich was prime minister in 2004, his government and party were strongly criticized for pressuring the media.

Source: MosNews

Ukrainian Parliament Falling Apart

KIEV, Ukraine -- Our Ukraine parliamentarian Boris Tarasyuk told journalists yesterday that negotiations on the formation of a “broad coalition” in the parliament have reached an end.

President Yushchenko
“Further holding of such consultations are impossible,” he said. Indirect confirmation of the failure of those negotiations was received from Party of the Regions leader Evgeny Kushnarev as well.

“The dissolution of the Supreme Rada will place early presidential elections on the agenda,” he noted, although there is no law on impeachment in Ukraine.

Top officials are remaining silent so far, the negotiations have not been declared a failure and they do not consider the dissolution of the parliament and new presidential elections unavoidable. But it is only a matter of time, Kommersant special correspondent Valery Panyushkin reports.

When the latest round of negotiations ended on Wednesday evening, Party of the Regions leaders cautiously expressed satisfaction, although they admitted that there was no specific progress. Socialist leader and speaker of the Rada Alexander Moroz also expressed qualified optimism.

A high-placed member of the pro-presidential Our Ukraine Party, however, shrugged his shoulders and said that nothing had been agreed on. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said that a coalition between his party and communists, socialists and regionals was “unpromising.”

It is likely that Our Ukraine leaders tried to convince the president to dissolve the parliament overnight. The next morning, the president sent the parliament a communique about the “inadmissibility of making decisions in a manner that contravenes the principles of the European Parliament…

That places in question the legitimacy of the decisions of the Supreme Rada and demand adequate measures be taken by me.” Translated from the Byzantine language of Ukrainian politics, that means that the president has suddenly refused to acknowledge the negotiating authority of the “anticrisis coalition” that he himself called to the table several days earlier.

Kushnarev told me before the beginning of the parliamentary session that “We, the Party of the Regions, are not considering the possibility that Viktor Fedorovich Yanukovich will not be prime minister. Only Viktor Fedorovich can make that sacrifice. If he makes that decision personally, the party will consider it.”

Nothing could be heard in the parliament because of the 20 hand-held sirens members from the Yulia Timoshenko Bloc have been bringing with them regularly. Moroz opened the session and Socialist Ivan Boiky and Party of the Regions representative Nikolay Azarov spoke, but no one heard them.

When Our Ukraine's Lilia Grogorovich's turn came, she waved her hands and the sirens fell silent. Timoshenko Bloc members used the opportunity to change the batteries in them.

Grigorovich spoke about an attack made by Party of the Regions member Oleg Kalashnikov on reporters from STB television. That was not the only excess on that scale recently. The sirens were refortified by the time Communist leader Petr Simonenko spoke.

Most likely, he spoke about his trip to Moscow and meeting with Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev about lowering natural gas prices for Ukraine, since he talked about it all day.

When Timoshenko Bloc member Alexander Turchinov stepped up to the podium, he again waved his hands and was greeted with silence. “We are going over to the opposition!” Turchinov said. “We will not acknowledge any broad coalition that will be abroad grave for Ukraine! We call on President Yushchenko to dissolve the parliament.”

The proceedings were broadcast in the lobby, and it was somewhat easier to hear the speakers there. Speaker Moroz said that the president could not dissolve the parliament.

Yushechenko stated that he would dissolve the parliament if it did not form a government by June 24. Under law, he has the right to dissolve the parliament if it does not form a government within 30 days. But, Moroz said, the government did not resign on June 25 but only relived itself of authority. That is to say that there is a government in Ukraine, only it has no authority.

Later, Moroz explained the hairsplitting argument over authority to journalists, and added that it was not the Socialists who brought down the Orange coalition. Even though the socialist faction had no right to leave the coalition without giving ten days' notice, every Rada member individually had that right.

That is what happened on July 7. Therefore, on July 17, Yushchenko will have the right to dissolve parliament for violations of parliamentary procedure. That is more evidence of the failure of “broad coalition” talks. Kushnarev said, when asked directly, that the negotiations had ended but consultations were continuing.

The parliament can dissolve itself if 150 members relieve themselves of authority. There are 120 members of parliament from the Timoshenko Bloc. It only remains for 30 Our Ukraine members to refuse to accept Yanukovich as prime minister and take that step as well. When asked in the hallway in the Rada if she would have those 30 supporters from Our Ukraine, Timoshenko answered shortly, “No.”

Our Ukraine official Roman Bessmertny said that the party would wait for the president's decision on July 17 and not take independent action. Thus it seems once again that, since negotiations have stopped, they are continuing. Only in secret now.

Source: Kommersant

Ukraine Deputies In New Talks On Govt To End Crisis

KIEV, Ukraine -- Parliamentarians headed into new talks on Friday to form a government able to bridge Ukraine's longstanding political differences and end three months of turmoil which has severely hobbled government activity.

Supporters of Yulia Tymoshenko's bloc, wave flags and shout slogans during a rally in Kiev, Ukraine, Friday, July 14, 2006. Ukraine's divided lawmakers demanded on Friday that President Viktor Yushchenko intervenes in the political crisis.
Parliament, thrown into chaos this week by liberal deputies shouting through megaphones and blocking aisles, called a new recess after sitting for no more than a quarter of an hour.

Parties backing the 2004 "Orange Revolution" which propelled pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko to power failed to form a coalition after talks following a March election collapsed.

They now oppose an alternative grouping led by the Regions Party under Viktor Yanukovich, the Moscow-backed politician from industrial eastern Ukraine defeated by Yushchenko in 2004. Communists and Socialists are also in the prospective coalition.

Yushchenko rejected a proposal to make Yanukovich prime minister and called for a "consolidating" figure. He has said he will dissolve parliament if no agreement is reached.

During lengthy talks between "orange" groups, some allies of the president, such as caretaker prime minister Yuri Yekhanurov, favoured an alliance with Yanukovich's Regions Party.

Such a "broad coalition", they argue, could heal rifts between the Russian-speaking east and the nationalist west, where Yanukovich is viewed with deep suspicion.

Yekhanurov said a broad coalition was under consideration, but a new approach -- and a new leader -- was needed.

"Party leaders cannot head this government, because they are symbols," Ukrainian media quoted him as saying late on Thursday. "Their mere presence will split Ukraine in two."

But a senior Regions Party official said discussions with the pro-presidential Our Ukraine party had been broken off as the two sides could not agree on basic positions.

Yanukovich made a comeback after being humiliated in the revolution, his party taking first place in the March election. He says there can be no compromise on his being named premier.

A Regions Party statement said Yushchenko had no reason to dissolve parliament and call a new election.

"We presume the president will cast aside his personal sympathies ... and do everything possible to ensure a capable, professional government is formed," it said.

The two remaining parties backing an "orange" coalition -- Our Ukraine and the bloc of ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko -- have been impeding parliamentary activity for a week.

Tymoshenko, who stood to be restored as prime minister under an "orange" team, now says dissolving parliament and holding a new election is the only way to solve the crisis.

Source: Reuters

Yushchenko Refuses To Appoint Yanukovich

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine appears to be heading towards new elections as the political deadlock shows no signs of being broken. Scuffles in parliament this week again graphically underscored the divisions that came to the fore in the "Orange Revolution" of 2004.


Members from so-called orange groups clashed with deputies who had just formed an alliance dubbed the blue coalition.

That grouping has a working majority in parliament, but here's the rub - their proposed prime minister, Viktor Yanukovich, is the arch-rival of president Viktor Yushchenko.

He has refused to appoint his opponent, saying that the blue coalition was not formed constitutionally and that he wants a prime minister capable of uniting the country.

He stated: "If this crisis cannot be resolved by other means I will not hesitate to exercise my right to dissolve parliament and call elections."

But it is hard to see which figure could unite Ukraine. The turmoil seems only to have reinforced the split between the Russian-speaking industrial regions in the east which back Yanukovich, and the more nationalist western areas that support Yushchenko and tilt closer to NATO and the European Union.

Source: EuroNews

Yushchenko Rejects New Coalition

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has rejected a proposal to appoint his pro-Russian rival, Viktor Yanukovych, to the post of prime minister.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko
He said the forces in parliament which put forward Mr Yanukovych's name had violated the constitution when they formed a coalition last week.

His message coincided with another day of chaos in the parliament.

Ukraine has not had a government since March, and Mr Yushchenko has warned he may have to call new elections.

Sirens

Ukraine's pro-Western parties had been on the verge of forming a government last week - after three months of negotiating - when the Socialist party broke ranks and joined forces with Mr Yanukovych's Party of the Regions, and the Communist Party.

The new coalition controls just over half the seats in the 450-seat parliament.

Mr Yushchenko said in a letter to parliament on Thursday that the coalition had been formed too quickly.

In the chamber itself, pro-Western parties drowned proceedings with sirens and loudhailers.

On Tuesday fights broke out between a number of rival MPs.

Consolidation

Mr Yanukovych was the loser in the presidential ballot in 2004 - the election which was marred by claims of vote-rigging and sparked the mass protests at the Orange Revolution.

It was these demonstrations which ushered the pro-Western Mr Yushchenko to power.

However Mr Yanukovych's party, which has strong support in the east of the country, won more votes than any other in parliamentary elections held in March.

Mr Yushchenko urged politicians on Wednesday to form a government capable of consolidating Ukraine.

Correspondents say Mr Yanukovych has been trying to persuade Mr Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party to join his party in a loose coalition.

They say Mr Yushchenko may not have ruled this out, but would draw the line at making Mr Yanukovych prime minister.

Source: BBC News

What Will Happen If The Party Of Regions Comes To Power?

KIEV, Ukraine -- Although the Party of Regions is commonly called an “opposition” party, this is a misnomer that carries with it erroneous implications and assumptions that will lead to erroneous assessments and judgements.

Party of Regions logo
The Regions Party is rather a “restorationist” party that could destroy Ukrainian democracy and threaten European security if its leaders come to power again and turn Ukraine into another Belarus.

Ukrainians re-emerged on Europe’s political map in 1991 after more than 200 years of direct foreign political rule imposed by military might. Between 1709 and 1711, then between 1918 and 1921, and again between 1944 and 1950, Russia invaded Ukraine three times in a series of bloody wars that tied Ukraine to the tsarist and then Soviet empires.

Under Russian rule, Ukrainians got Russian-style serfdom, Siberian exile, governmental prohibition of publishing and teaching in the native language, terror and famine-genocide.

When in 1991 Ukraine emerged as an independent state there was no “liberation war.” Consequently, the imperial or “old regime” elites were not exiled or executed.

They remained in power until 2004 and since then have retained positions of influence to such a degree that they can keep their own out of jail.

Their constituency, meanwhile, is the product of Soviet migration policies that directed Russians into and Ukrainians out of Ukraine.

This immigration and “ethnic dilution”, combined with deportations and millions of unnatural Ukrainian deaths between 1917 and 1947, created large Russian-speaking urban enclaves in the country’s four easternmost provinces.

In addition, educational and media policies channeled upwardly mobile non-Russian rural migrants into Russian-speaking culture, and allowed urban Russians to live, work and satisfy their cultural and spiritual needs without having to use or learn Ukrainian.

Since 1991, an increasing percentage of Russians and Russian-speakers see Ukraine as their native country.

However, in 2005, whereas only 6 percent of Ukrainians still saw themselves as “Soviet citizens,” the percentage for Russians was 18 percent.

And while 2 percent of Ukrainians in Ukraine still did not regard Ukraine as their native country, 9 percent of Russians in Ukraine did not.

This means that a percentage of the population in Ukraine today, of whom most are Russian, support foreign rule over the territory in which they live - much as did once the French in Algeria, the Germans in Bohemia and Poland, the Portuguese in Angola, and the English in Ireland.

This anomie and nostalgia for empire of some Russian speakers would be harmless if not for Ukraine’s neo- Soviet political leaders who exploit it to maintain their bygone imperial-era power in a post-colonial state.

Both would be manageable if leaders in Russia, the former imperial power, were able to resign themselves to the loss of their empire, and like the British, help the new national government rather than its imperial era collaborators.

Putin is no DeGaulle – who realized in the end that French settlers had to leave Algeria.

Ukraine’s neo-Soviet leaders are organized into four major groups, with varying degrees of support, covert and overt, from Russia and its government, whose ambassador to Kyiv, Viktor Chernomyrdin, is not known ever to have made a speech in Ukrainian.

Ukraine’s Communists (1) and the Natalia Vitrenko Bloc (2) openly advocate the abrogation of Ukraine’s independence and its reincorporation into a revamped imperial Russian-dominated USSR.

The Russian Orthodox Church (3), which claims an estimated 50 percent of Ukraine’s Orthodox believers, is not only led by a Patriarch in Moscow, which sits in Putin’s government, but is dominated by its chauvinist, anti-Semitic fringe.

This church does not recognize Ukrainians as a distinct nationality. It publicly supports Ukraine’s Communists, and has fielded priests to run in elections.

In June 2003, the Russian Patriarch gave the leader of Ukraine’s Communist Party, Petro Symonenko, its “Order of Prince Vladimir,” although no more than 8 percent of Ukraine’s voters back these old Communist Party leaders.

The more serious threat to Ukraine is posed by its fourth major neo-Soviet group – the Donetsk-based Party of Regions.

Although the 2004 presidential and 2006 parliamentary election results suggest approximately one-third of all voters in 2006 supported the Party of Regions, these returns are dubious.

First, they are a product of documented coercion, intimidation and covert operations – albeit smaller in scope and scale than was the case in 2004.

Second, they are based on ‘machine politics’ in Ukraine’s eastern provinces where, in control of the local administration and manufacturing, the party can offer people fearing poverty and insecurity short-term material incentives in return for votes.

Third, they are based on a lingering Soviet-style cradle-to-grave enterprise-paternalism, still stronger in eastern than western Ukraine, which allows managers and owners to politically blackmail their employees, much as “company-town” owners did in nineteenth-century Western Europe and America.

How strong the party would be in Ukraine’s east without the dirty-tricks, machine-politics and neo-feudal enterprise-paternalist-based intimidation is difficult to determine. But it likely would have been less than one-third of the seats in the country’s parliament.

The Regions party ostensibly supports Ukrainian independence in as much as its leaders regard Ukraine as a territory that they should control as a “blackmail state,” just as they controlled it up to 2004.

Yet, Region’s anti-constitutional advocacy of Russian as a “second language” shows it wants to keep Ukraine within the Russian-language communications sphere and out of the English-language communications sphere.

While the Canadian and Polish ambassadors to Ukraine can learn Ukrainian before their appointments well enough to use it publicly, some Party of Regions leaders have the unmitigated gall to speak Russian in parliament.

Some, like former Deputy Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, have not yet managed to learn Ukrainian after 15 years of independence.

But then again, how many French in Algeria learned Arabic? How many English in Ireland learned Gaelic? How many whites in Africa knew Swahili or Bantu? How many Japanese learned Chinese or Korean? How many Germans in Breslau learned Polish?

Regions leaders, additionally, engage in symbolic colonial-homage type acts that pander to imperial Russian nostalgia and compromise Ukraine’s status as an independent country.

In November 2005 in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk, for example, Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych publicly gave the speaker of the Russian State Duma a bulava – the symbol of Ukrainian statehood.

While the party formally supports Euro-integration, just like Russian President Vladimir Putin supports the Eurointegration of Russia, it has not explicitly stated that it is for “EU membership for Ukraine.”

Given this omission, there is every reason to believe that if Regions gets control of the country they will first incorporate Ukraine into the Moscow-sponsored Single Economic Space, and only then, via Russia, “integrate into Europe,” just like Belarus.

Party leaders learned their politics under Soviet-era Ukrainian leader Vladimir Shcherbitsky, ran Kuchma’s “blackmail state,” and employed criminal Bolshevik-style electioneering and campaign practices.

They publicly belittle Ukrainian independence, are in constant contact with Russian extremists like Deputy Duma Speaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Konstantin Zatulin, and Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, and they included the Communist Party in the new coalition announced on July 7.

All of which shows that for all their chatter about laws, representation and committees, Ukraine’s neo-Soviet Party of Regions is no mere opposition party. It is more a restorationist party whose purpose is to destabilize the country.

If the Party of Regions’s tactics succeed, they will strengthen those opposed to Ukraine’s entry into the EU and who think that the country should remain in Russia’s sphere of influence.

Foreign observers must ask themselves how a renewed Party of Regions-led Kuchma-like “blackmail state” is supposed to fit into the EU?

How is Russia, a resource-based autocracy, supposed to be “stable” when resource-based autocracies everywhere else in the world are notoriously unstable?

Ukrainians can be sure that Party of Regions leaders will not trouble Bill Gates about a Ukrainian version of Windows, or Hollywood studios about Ukrainian dubbing and subtitles, or fashion magazine chains like Burda about Ukrainian translations.

Source: Kyiv Post

Cowardice Or Conspiracy

KIEV, Ukraine -- As early as last summer, one could find supporters of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko referring to the internationally renowned hero of the Orange Revolution as the country’s “messiah.”

"Those were the days, my friend
We thought they'd never end..."
Now, just a year later, Yushchenko has been crucified by his enemies and betrayed by one of his former allies, whom some recent protesters have dubbed “Judas.”

How could a leader so revered undergo such a drop in popularity in such a short period of time – even in a country as unstable as Ukraine?

For starters, he alienated one of his key allies in his fight for the presidency: firebrand femme fatale Yulia Tymoshenko, who was fired by Yushchenko last fall. A slyer political leader would have kept her close and de-clawed.

Instead Yushchenko chose the company of spent politicians like Roman Zvarych, who left the center stage of Ukrainian politics last year as well, after having been caught lying about his education.

Zvarych was again side by side with Yushchenko as the Orange coalition, the parliament, and any respect that might have remained for the values of the Maidan, lapsed into disgrace.

The “messiah” should have taken the hint when the people didn’t vote to spare him during the parliamentary elections, giving their support to a party of what many Ukrainians call “criminals” – the modern-day Barabas.

Thereafter, only a short walk remained between the president and the cross, a path he seemed to choose himself.

Why didn’t Yushchenko act like a king of kings (or at least of Ukrainians) when his political opponents challenged the sovereignty of the state by challenging the state language and the right of Kyiv to host military exercises.

The challengers were small – regional officials and a handful of radicals – but the stakes were high, testing the messiah’s faith like the devil himself.

From there it was easy for the Regions Party, so demonized by Yushchenko and his allies during the Orange Revolution, to raise the bet even further.

They literally took control of the parliament and made their demands known, while the “messiah” tried to distance himself from the entire struggle, as if he were above such earthly matters.

Nevertheless, Yushchenko ended up yielding to Regions’ demand that he take part in coalition talks, gave up the coalition agreement to vote for the speaker and premier simultaneously, and allowed the secret parliamentary vote that made Socialist leader Oleksandr Moroz, the so-called Judas, parliamentary speaker.

Time and again his allies and followers tried to convince Yushchenko to revive the Orange Coalition with Tymoshenko (more Joan of Arc than Mary Magdelane) and Moroz.

But Yushchenko seemed to be either incapable of mustering the resolve, or blinded by his fear of the more charismatic and courageous Tymoshenko.

On July 6, that fateful Thursday evening, when the secret vote took place, there may not have been a last supper, but the messiah’s fate had been fixed. His faithful apostle Peter (Poroshenko) couldn’t save him.

But this is where the biblical analogy ends. Yushchenko is supposed to be a president, not a prophet, but the country hasn’t had a Constitutional Court or functional parliament for months.

Due to cowardice or conspiracy, Yushchenko has been crucified politically.

On the day the Post went to print, Moroz and Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych were telling journalists how the president’s Our Ukraine party was sure to join them, following their meeting with Yushchenko.

In the meantime, Tymoshenko announced on national television that she would never join the coalition of her long-standing enemies, whom her party referred to in a press release as “criminal-communists.”

She didn’t mince her words, but urged people to fight for the values of the Maidan, challenging Moroz’s appointment in court and setting up a tent camp in Kyiv.

Yushchenko was less stalwart, telling journalists that his chances of joining Regions & Co. were “hardly optimistic,” and citing violations in parliamentary rules – less inspirational than one would expect from a messiah.

Even some deputies from his party have helped block the parliament along with Tymoshenko’s BYuT. Others, including a few Socialists, quit their party in protest against Moroz’s defection.

Whether the president’s reluctance to act is due to cowardice, conspiracy, or a martyr complex, Ukraine is badly in need of a leader.

If Yushchenko can’t even save himself, what can the nation expect from him?

Source: Kyiv Post

Yushchenko Says Unlikely His Party Will Unite With Pro-Russian Coalition

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said Wednesday his party was not likely to join the pro-Russian parliamentary coalition headed by his former Orange Revolution rival, noting that it would be too difficult to explain such a union to his supporters.

Parliamentary speaker Oleksander Moroz (L) and leader of the opposition Regions Party Viktor Yanukovich (R) take part in a news conference after their meeting with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko in Kiev, July 12, 2006.
Yushchenko spoke after holding crisis talks with Viktor Yanukovych, whom he defeated in 2004 for the presidency, amid continuing political turmoil following the inconclusive March parliamentary election that reinforced deep fault lines between the country's largely-Russian speaking east and the nationalist, Ukrainian-speaking west.

"In the format of the coalition that we have today, there is little optimism of coming closer," Yushchenko said after the three-hour talks. "This step would be very difficult to explain to voters. Too many arguments."

The pro-Russian coalition combines Yanukovych's pro-Russian party, which won the most votes in March elections, with the Communists and the Socialists. It was formally formed this week, after Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz abandoned his former Orange Revolution allies, saying their constant bickering would have spelled doom for a new government led by them.

The new coalition, which would control at least 236 seats in the 450-member parliament, immediately proposed Yanukovych to become premier.

Its attempts to start work in parliament Tuesday, however, led to brawls and noisy disruptions by the pro-Western reformers who helped Yushchenko lead the protests against Yanukovych's initial, fraud-marred presidential victory in 2004. Those protests, known as the Orange Revolution, led to a court-ordered revote that brought Yushchenko to power.

On Wednesday, rival tent camps sprouted around the capital as the divided political forces called out supporters - in an echo of the Orange Revolution.

"As a politician, I am sure that the project in which the political forces that represent the west and the east, a project in which these political forces were able to unite, it would be one of the great political projects," Yushchenko told reporters.

Yanukovych concurred.

"Today, we understand that uniting Ukraine is the desire of our voters," Yanukovych said in a separate news conference. "But in what format we will have our cooperation, we cannot say now." He said talks would continue.

Asked if he would support Yanukovych's nomination for the premiership, Yushchenko said he wanted a candidate who would consolidate the nation. When pressed to give a yes or no reply, Yushchenko refused to answer.

A government led by Yanukovych would likely draw Ukraine back under Moscow's influence and obstruct Yushchenko's goal of drawing this former Soviet nation of 47 million closer to Europe and seeking NATO and EU membership. Yushchenko insisted the country's pro-European choice would not change.

On Wednesday, about 30 tents - including three, large military-style tents - were put up on Independence Square under the bright yellow flags of Pora, the youth group that helped galvanize Yushchenko's supporters less than two years ago.

Evhen Zolotaryov, deputy head of Pora, said they hoped to attract tens of thousands of protesters by the weekend to demand that Moroz be removed from the parliamentary speaker's post. Supporters of Yulia Tymoshenko, who would have returned to the prime minister's job under the Orange Revolution coalition, set up their own tent camps. Tymoshenko did not participate in Wednesday's talks.

In a park near parliament, about 1,000 Yanukovych supporters set up tents and pledged to remain until the pro-Russian coalition was firmly in place.

"I can't be indifferent to our country's fate - we voted for Yanukovych and we'll continue to insist that our votes are heard," said Lena Mesheryakova, 20, from Donetsk.

Source: Kyiv Post

Ukraine 'In A Sorry State', Says EU

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The European Union has said Ukarine was in a "sorry state" and the country deserved better governance after a brawl that broke out in parliament.

Erkki Tuomioja
Erkki Tuomioja, Finland's foreign minister who currently holds the six-month rotating EU presidency, said on Wednesday: "Ukraine is making it difficult for the European Union to engage with the country.

"But we will certainly continue to do so, it is important for the Ukranians."

Meanwhile, demonstrators started erecting tents on Independence Square in Kiev - the site of the Orange revolution in 2004 - where Viktor Yushenko, Ukraine's president, rose to victory over the former leader, Viktor Yanukovych.

Supporters of the pro-Russian Yanukovych waved blue and yellow flags while shouting slogans such as "Ukraine needs stability" and "enough we are fed up of this farce".

In a complete turnaround, Ukraine may return to its Soviet roots with the nomination of Viktor Yanukovych for prime minister, after the chaotic session on Tuesday in which members of the Orange revolution party brawled and blared sirens.

After the session, a coalition was formed between the former ruling pro-Russian group, the socialists and the communists.

Yushenko promised to lead the country to modernisation and Western values only two years ago.

However, the country has been plunged into political uncertainty since Yanukovych's Regions party won the biggest share of the vote in parliamentary elections in March but did not get an overall majority.

Economic ties

Facing a government of his adversaries, the president promised that there would be no big changes to his programme of moving into the European mainstream.

Yushenko has set his sights on early EU membership. This may be short-lived optimism as the EU is obliged only to strengthen economic ties with its neighbour under the EU's neighbourhood policy, not offer membership.

With current resistance surfacing within the 25-nation bloc to ratify the EU constitution, Ukraine may be in for a long wait.

Source: Aljazeera

Tymoshenko Bloc Calls For Nationwide Protests In Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc has called for the start of nationwide protests action against the "anti-crisis" coalition comprising its political rivals.

Yulia Tymoshenko
The call follows the start of a blockade of the Supreme Rada, parliament, after Tuesday's announcement that the pro-Russia Party of Regions, the Communist Party and the Socialists had formed a coalition to replace the conglomerate of parties that came to power after the 2004 "orange revolution" but failed to form a new government after the March 24 parliamentary vote, reports Trend.

"We declare the start of a campaign against the anti-crisis coalition that will have no deadline," Oleksandr Turchinov, one of the Tymoshenko bloc leaders, told supporters gathered near parliament Wednesday.

During a parliamentary session Tuesday, turmoil broke out as members of the 450-seat legislature started several fist fights, traded insults, and attempted to drown each other out with sirens and megaphones.

Turchinov said rallies would be held throughout Ukraine until President Viktor Yushchenko dissolves parliament.

The "orange coalition" - the ex-premier-led Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, pro-presidential Our Ukraine bloc and the Socialists - broke up over the election of Socialist leader Oleksandr Moroz as Speaker of the Supreme Rada in breach of previous agreements within the coalition.

Several thousands of supporters of different political forces have been rallying in front of the Rada since Wednesday.

Source: Trend

Yushchenko Rival Nominated in Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's newly created pro-Russian governing coalition on Tuesday proposed a bitter rival of President Viktor Yushchenko as the next prime minister, an appointment that would mark a humiliating defeat for the president.

The "Orange" coalition. Moroz (C) was the instrument of the coalition's demise
The parliament speaker signed the coalition's nomination of Viktor Yanukovych as premier and forwarded it to Yushchenko's office. The president has 15 days to consider the request before forwarding it back to parliament for a vote. He has no right to veto the choice.

The nomination came hours after the new parliamentary coalition, which brings together eastern Ukrainian industrialists of the Party of Regions, the Communists and the Socialists, was formally announced in parliament, striking a major blow to the pro-Western reformers who helped bring Yushchenko to power in 2004.

It was Yanukovych's fraud-marred presidential victory that sparked the mass protests that became known as the Orange Revolution. His victory was later annulled, consigning him to the political wilderness and severely embarrassing the Kremlin, which had openly backed his candidacy.

But Yanukovych rebounded in the March 26 parliamentary election, with his party winning more votes than any other.

A government led by Yanukovych would present a major obstacle to Yushchenko's efforts to steer the country toward reform and closer ties with Western Europe. Under such a government, Ukraine would also likely slip back under the influence of Moscow.

The new coalition was created after Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz, the new parliament speaker, abandoned his former Orange Revolution allies to form the new union, which he said was the only way to unite the country.

Ukraine has been suffering political paralysis since the March election ended without giving any party the majority, leaving the nation deeply split over whether to seek closer ties with Moscow or the West.

Moroz formally announced the coalition in the chaotic session hall Tuesday to applause from the coalition members - and shouts of "Judas!" from his former allies.

The alliance controls at least 233 seats in the 450-member parliament.

Before announcing the new coalition, lawmakers scuffled, and one legislator from the president's party appeared to suffer a broken nose. Moroz had to be flanked by Party of Regions deputies for protection.

Lawmakers from the bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister and popular figure in the Orange Revolution, used sirens to drown out parliamentary speeches. Moroz called a four-hour recess.

Yushchenko's allies pleaded with the president to use his new constitutional powers to dissolve parliament and call a new election, arguing that the new coalition is illegitimate.

Under rules agreed to by the Orange coalition members, if any party left, the other members should have been given 10 days to hunt for new partners, lawmakers said.

Yanukovych said his party didn't support new elections, but also didn't fear them.

"If it happens, we will get a total victory and could stop this mess," he said.

Source: AP

In Ukraine Revolution, Colors Shift

MOSCOW, Russia -- With parliamentary debate in Ukraine reduced to insults and fistfights, supporters of President Yushchenko on Tuesday called on him to dissolve Parliament and hold a new election in a desperate effort to block the election of his opposition rival as the country's new PM.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko talks to the media in Kiev, Ukraine, Tuesday, July 11, 2006. Ukraine's new pro-Russian parliamentary majority formally nominated President Viktor Yushchenko's Orange Revolution foe as premier Tuesday after a chaotic session in which the president's frustrated allies brawled and blared sirens
The request came more than three months after elections in March resulted in a splintered Parliament, with no one party controlling a majority of seats, and it raised the chances that the political turmoil that has followed will deepen, threatening Yushchenko's vision of a democratic Ukraine more deeply entwined with Europe.

By law, the Parliament has only two more weeks to elect a prime minister to form a government, one who will wield new powers over the economy and domestic policy. After that, Yushchenko has the authority to disband the body, though calling new elections would run the risk that his party might do even more poorly than it did in March, when it finished a distant third.

"We are democrats," said David Zhvaniya, a member of Yushechnko's party, Our Ukraine, saying that a new election would be likely to reunite the bloc of supporters of the Orange Revolution, who swept the president to power after a fraudulent vote in 2004. "And they unite one day before the execution."

The execution he apparently had in mind was the nomination of Viktor Yanukovich, whom Yushchenko defeated in a repeat of that 2004 vote, as the country's new prime minister. Yanukovich, a burly former prime minister who represents Ukraine's Russian- speaking regions, emerged as the leader of a new majority in Parliament, with 238 out of 450 seats, after the collapse last week of a coalition that had, for a few days at least, aligned itself with the president and his West-looking foreign and economic policies.

Yanukovich, once maligned and abandoned even by supporters, appeared on the brink of an extraordinary comeback, as the new coalition formally submitted his nomination on Tuesday.

But Yushchenko's supporters and those of Yulia Tymoshenko, also a former prime minister, made every effort to thwart that. They stormed the Parliament floor during the session Tuesday, scuffling with deputies from the new majority and disrupting what passed for deliberations with shouts and sirens.

Yanukovich's supporters had employed similar tactics to disrupt Parliament for two weeks when it seemed that Tymoshenko would be chosen as prime minister. At least two deputies were slightly wounded during the debate Tuesday.

Tymoshenko also called for new elections, saying, "We have only one way out."

Yushchenko's party also threatened to challenge the new majority in court, based on what party leaders called procedural violations by the Socialist Party, which had supported the "Orange" coalition until its leader, Oleksandr Moroz, switched sides last week and was elected speaker of Parliament with Yanukovich's support.

Yushchenko himself, appearing increasingly isolated and indecisive, did not directly address the calls for a new vote. In a statement he urged all parties to adhere to the country's laws and demanded that the Parliament approve the appointment of judges for the Constitutional Court, which lacks a quorum and thus has been paralyzed by the political impasse for months.

His statement suggested that he envisioned a court ruling as the ultimate conclusion to the turmoil, not unlike the Supreme Court's decision in the disputed American presidential election in 2000.

"Only the Constitutional Court is capable of assessing the constitutionality of the actions of all branches of power," he said. "It is a necessary condition for the legitimacy of perspective decisions and measures."

Source: The New York Times

Battles Leave Ukraine On Brink Of Second Election In A Year

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine was facing its worst political crisis since the Orange Revolution of 2004 on Tuesday as parties backing the country's western-minded president, Viktor Yushchenko, called for parliament to be dissolved after a pro-Russian majority emerged in the legislature.

Yushchenko's allies sounded sirens in Ukraine's parliament in Kiev, Ukraine, Tuesday, July 11, 2006. Ukraine's pro-Russian political parties have agreed to unite and try to form a governing coalition, the parliament speaker announced Tuesday, in a dramatic reversal of the country's path toward reform and closer ties with the rest of Europe
The development set the stage for a repeat of heated elections held in March and raised questions over whether the country's western integration path adopted after presidential elections in 2004 could be reversed.

The two political parties that propelled Mr Yushchenko to the country's presidency by supporting protests against election fraud in 2004 yesterday urged him to dissolve the newly-elected parliament.

Calls for repeat elections came a week after the Socialist party backed out of a coalition agreement with Mr Yushchenko's allies to join pro-Russian parties in seizing control of the nation's legislature.

The decision presents the Ukrainian president with a deep dilemma: whether to allow a hostile coalition government to be formed, headed by his old rival Viktor Yanukovich; or dissolve parliament.

Mr Yanukovich's Regions party emerged from the March elections as the largest single party. Mr Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party came third, behind the group headed by Yulia Tymoshenko, his fellow leader of the Orange Revolution, and former prime minister. But their attempt to form a coalition with the Socialists collapsed last week.

The president has called for the formation of a constructive governing coalition that would stand by his foreign policy and domestic reform plans while warning that he reserved the right to dissolve parliament if it failed to preserve political stability. He also urged lawmakers to restore the nation's constitutional court. Attempts to swear in new judges have repeatedly been delayed in parliament sincethe autumn.

Oleh Rybachuk, Mr Yushchenko's chief of staff, conceded that the country had slipped into a "political and constitutional crisis". He said the constitutional procedure raised many legal questions, including how and when parliament might be dissolved by the president.

During a heated parliament session yesterday, members of Our Ukraine and Ms Tymoshenko's bloc clashed with pro-Russian legislators, who submitted Mr Yanukovich's candidacy for prime minister.

Our Ukraine's decision to join Ms Tymoshenko's radical call for repeat elections surprised political analysts who have predicted that influential business interests who hold about a third of the bloc's seats would be more inclined to join a new coalition with the Regions party, which is backed by some of the country's richest tycoons. The Communist party was expected to be left out of a pro-business alliance that would, in theory, include Our Ukraine, Regions and possibly the Socialists.

This scenario was avoided after rightwing members of Our Ukraine threatened to split off on their own, fearing voters would view a shift towards a coalition with Regions as a sell-out of Orange Revolution principles.

The chaotic turn of events follows months of political negotiations on forming the country's first coalition government. It follows a change in Ukraine's political system through which key presidential powers moved to parliament, now responsible for forming the government.

Like Ukraine's parliament, the country's population remains split over whether to continue a strong push westward or to preserve historically strong ties with Russia. Most Ukrainians in the Russian-speaking east still favour close ties with Russia, while the largely Ukrainian speaking west stand for integration with the European Union and Nato.

Our Ukraine's decision to renew its alliance with Ms Tymoshenko, strained due to nail-biting coalition negotiations held in recent months, provides a boost for Ms Tymoshenko, who has hoped to return as prime minister after being ousted last autumn following a falling out with Mr Yushchenko.

The revived alliance should help pro-western political forces gain the largest share of seats in a repeat election, particularly given that Ms Tymoshenko managed in the past poll to increase her popularity across the country.

The new partnership will help rebuild a strong base of support for the country's pro-western agenda, but it is also seen as a double-edged sword for Mr Yushchenko, as it increases the clout of Ms Tymoshenko, seen as a challenger for the 2009 presidential elections.

Source: Financial Times

Sirens As Ukraine Govt In Chaos

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's parliament, all but shut down during three months of fruitless coalition talks, plunged into chaos on Tuesday with backers of the "Orange Revolution" storming the rostrum and sounding sirens to halt debate.

Ukrainian lawmakers fight in the parliament building in Ukraine's capital Kiev, Tuesday, July 11, 2006.
The chamber opened its sitting by endorsing a coalition government headed by Viktor Yanukovich, the man humiliated by pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko in the "Orange Revolution".

But speaker Oleksander Moroz's attempt to continue debate collapsed when members of "orange" groups surged forward to the rostrum, scuffling with rivals from the Regions Party.

"Specific people want to take power at any price," Moroz shouted, his voice barely audible above the sirens. "This is an attempt to stop parliament from work."

Yanukovich lost the 2004 presidential race to Yushchenko after weeks of street protests. He quickly put together his grouping, with Socialists and Communists, last week after a last-minute defection wrecked a bid to build a coalition of "orange" parties behind the revolution.

The new grouping has support from 238 deputies in the 450-seat chamber after an inconclusive election in March.

It was the defection of Moroz, a Socialist, which last week toppled the initial attempt to form a government.

The two remaining "orange" parties -- the bloc of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko and the president's Our Ukraine Party -- now call for new elections.

Yushchenko says he will not rubber-stamp any proposed prime minister without guarantees that the Western values of the 2004 revolution will be safeguarded. He has also said he may dissolve parliament if no government is formed within fixed deadlines.

During the long weeks of talks aimed at forming an "orange" coalition, some of Yushchenko's comrades had suggested teaming up with the Regions Party in a "broad coalition".

Such a grouping, it was argued, would heal longstanding divisions between Ukraine's nationalist west and its Russian-speaking industrial east, more sympathetic to Moscow.

But Our Ukraine decided on Monday it wanted no part of the new grouping, in which communists will sit alongside wealthy business magnates.

Tymoshenko told reporters on Monday: "With such a coalition, Ukraine has no future and not even the hope for a future."

Under new constitutional provisions, the president's powers are reduced and parliament must choose the prime minister.

But the president is empowered to dissolve parliament if it fails to form a government within 60 days of its first session, which took place on May 25.

Source: Reuters

Yushchenko May Give PM to Yanukovich

KIEV, Ukraine -- In the weekly radio address delivered by Viktor Yushchenko Saturday, the president of Ukraine hinted he may approve his long contender Viktor Yanukovich as the prime minister but if only the parliament swears in judges of the Constitutional Court.

Viktor Yanukovich (C)
As to the Regions Party leader Yanukovich, he apparently sees himself as the PM already and calls for material revision of domestic and foreign policy of Ukraine.

A white-and-blue coalition of the Regions Party, Communist Party and Socialist Party came as a total surprise for him, Yushchenko said, though he promptly responded to the new political environment in the country.

The unexpected shift of Socialist Party’s Leader Olexander Moroz from the Orange camp to the White-and-Blue is a matter of moral and ethical norms, the president told Inter TV Channel already late Friday.

“The battle for offices shouldn’t be of extent that brings to naught all human contacts, all previous history, destroying just everything.”

But despite the emphatic remarks of Yushchenko, he is likely to benefit from the Orange collapse. His key rival for popularity, Yulia Timoshenko, will hardly become the PM in Ukraine. And the overthrow of the Orange princess couldn’t be blamed on the president.

Moreover, Yushchenko made clear he hopes the pro-president Our Ukraine will joint a new coalition. He vowed to eye creation of a new political force and warned to act quickly or he may dissolve the Supreme Rada.

Under the Constitution of Ukraine, the president may dissolve the parliament should the new cabinet be not established within 60 days after resignation of the previous ministers (which happened May 25).

Yushchenko signaled actually he could back up Yanukovich as the prime minister. But the parliament should first swear in judges of the Constitutional Court that has been idle for half a year in Ukraine.

As this Court resolves whether the actions of legislators correspond to the laws of the country, the president needs it as the last lever to pressuarize the tough Supreme Rada.

Yushchenko also promised Ukraine will stick to the policy of European integration, “The chosen domestic and foreign policy will be unchanged,” the president said.

Source: Kommersant

Ukraine: Not Ready For NATO

BERLIN, Germany -- Two years ago, seven countries entered NATO in one fell swoop - Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Three others - Albania, Croatia and Macedonia - were put off until the next round.


The exact date was left open - with good reason.

The integration of so many new members proved to be quite difficult. So the majority of NATO partners reached a tacit consensus stipulating a continued adherence to the "Open Door" policy, but without setting a definite time when the next applicants could step through this door.

This silent accord has started to crumble of late as an increasing number of American politicians have begun publicly calling for another quick NATO enlargement round. Washington is not campaigning for one of the prevailing candidates; rather President George W. Bush, like Senator John McCain and others, argue specifically for the entry of Ukraine and Georgia.

Prominent voices in Washington refer to the geostrategic weight Ukraine would lend NATO. Poland, a NATO member only since 1999, has also aligned itself on the side of expansion in an effort to stabilize the region to its east.

Such support cannot conceal the problems a rash decision on the enlargement of NATO would create. What causes concern is not only the possible protests in Russia against expanding NATO to Ukraine, a country that has always held a special historical and cultural meaning in the eyes of Moscow. Three other factors speak against a hasty admission of Ukraine or Georgia.

First, both countries are far from fit for entry. In Ukraine, public protests against joint maneuvers of international armed forces in the Crimea illustrate the skepticism that some citizens feel toward Western institutions in general. At the end of last year, only 16 percent of the Ukrainian population voted for membership in NATO.

The lack of public sympathy for the Atlantic alliance is not the only problem.

In politically divided Ukraine, many representatives of the old political leadership are still in power, preserving Cold War thinking at the various levels of the bureaucracy.

With NATO membership, they would gain influence in the flow of information and the decision- making process. The resulting security problems are obvious.

Second, a quick addition of Ukraine and Georgia would put the cart before the membership horse. It is hard to imagine accepting these two countries without admitting the three longstanding candidates - Albania, Croatia and Macedonia. Consequently, an enlargement round would have to include five countries, few of which comply with current NATO standards.

Thirdly - and herein lies the main problem - an excessive, hasty American push on the question of enlargement threatens to disrupt the delicate process of trans-Atlantic reconciliation after the crises over Iraq of the past few years.

The present constructive behavior of NATO members on both sides of the Atlantic rests on an implied deal - Washington ceases speaking of NATO as its "tool box," to be used at will, and instead actively works with Europe on the formation of joint NATO policies.

In return, Europe accepts the American concept of a "Global Partnership" for NATO, building new ties with Western-oriented countries in Asia, Australia, South Africa and Latin America.

If Washington burdens one side of the scale with an additional debate about controversial candidates, the delicate balance could tip.

NATO should abide by its "Open Door" policy, offering more countries an opportunity to join. The choice of new members, however, cannot be solely oriented to the strategic preferences of a single NATO state. It must also preserve the trans-Atlantic deal and be directed toward boosting the alliance's capacity to act.

Considering the capabilities of the applicant states and what they could bring to the alliance leads to the conclusion that the Ukraine and Georgia must wait a while longer.

Source: International Herald Tribune

Kiev Reformer Suffers New Defeat

MOSCOW, Russia -- President Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine, a Western- leaning reformist who led a wave of popular protests to office, only to stumble badly when tested in parliamentary elections, has suffered a new political defeat as his fragile coalition collapsed in acrimony two weeks after it was formed.

Viktor Yushchenko
His opponents, joined by a former ally of the president, have announced a new coalition and pledged to nominate as prime minister the man Yushchenko ultimately defeated after those protests overturned a rigged presidential election in 2004.

Friday's events, three and a half months after his party's humiliating showing in parliamentary voting in March, cast new doubts on Yushchenko's presidency, undermining his efforts to steer Ukraine on a course more closely entwined with Europe.

He faces the possibility of an opposition government and prime minister opposed to his policy of joining the European Union, NATO and the World Trade Organization.

"This is certainly going to be a blow to the president's priority objectives," said Roman Zvarich, one of Yushchenko's supporters, who previously served as justice minister.

Viktor Yanukovich, Yushchenko's presidential rival and leader of the Party of Regions, seized on the disarray among the pro-presidential parties. Only two weeks ago, the parties negotiated a fragile compromise to create a government that would, largely, support Yushchenko's policies.

Yanukovich, who has pledged closer economic, political and social ties with Russia, announced what he called an "anti-crisis coalition" uniting the Communists and the Socialist Party, which until this week had allied itself with what became known in 2004 as the Orange Revolution.

The crisis only seemed to worsen, though. Yushchenko, whose indecisiveness showed in weeks of tumultuous negotiations over forming a coalition after March's election, raised the specter of disbanding Parliament even before it effectively convened.

By law, he can call new elections if Parliament cannot form a government within 60 days of the dismissal of the old one, a deadline now set for July 25. In a statement, Yushchenko said he did not want "the country to walk in some wrong direction for five years."

"No matter what coalition we speak about," he said in a statement published on his official Web site, "I would ask all the parties not to make hasty decisions."

Yanukovich's party made haste nonetheless, nominating him as prime minister, a position that under constitutional changes approved in 2004 has enhanced powers over economic and domestic policy. The Party of Regions won the largest bloc of seats in the election, 186, but fell short of a majority in the 450-seat Parliament.

With the Communists and Socialists, the party now claims to have 240 votes, enough to form a majority and elect Yanukovich prime minister, a post he held under the previous president, Leonid Kuchma.

Yushchenko's coalition collapsed after two weeks of jockeying. For several days after the formation of a pro- presidential coalition, Yanukovich's supporters blocked Parliament from meeting by, literally, blocking the rostrum.

They relented Thursday after reaching an agreement to hold an open vote for parliamentary speaker, a potentially influential position among parties allied with Yushchenko.

Yushchenko's party, Our Ukraine, nominated Petro Poroshenko, a chocolate manufacturer and television magnate who served as national security adviser until he resigned last September in the face of accusations of corruption. He was nominated as part of a deal that would have returned Yulia Tymoshenko, Yushchenko's partner-turned-rival, to the position of prime minister.

But facing opposition not only from the Party of Regions but also from some of Yushchenko's supporters, Poroshenko withdrew his candidacy on Thursday.

The Socialists joined with the opposition to elect their party leader, Oleksandr Moroz, who once vowed never to ally himself with Yanukovich. Moroz, who previously served as speaker, had strongly supported Yushchenko in the Orange Revolution.

Moroz's defection provoked outrage. Zvarich accused him of political opportunism for personal ambitions. "Betrayal comes to mind," he said in a telephone interview.

In remarks earlier on Friday, cited by news agencies, Moroz said it was too early to discuss a coalition.

Several members of the Socialist Party were reported to have broken with Moroz in protest. His press secretary said he was not available to comment Friday night. Zvarich said the president's supporters would challenge the formation of an opposition coalition in court, citing violations of parliamentary rules.

Mychailo Wynnyckyj, a professor of sociology at the University of Kiev-Mohyla Academy, said Ukraine faced a political division like that of a previous French government, where a centrist president shared power with a leftist parliament. But the situation was more volatile, he said.

"In France, they call it cohabitation," he said in a telephone interview. And in Ukraine? "Chaos."

Source: International Herald Tribune

Sheva: I’ll Show ’em

LONDON, England -- Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko insisted on Saturday that he is determined to justify his £30 million ($55 million) price tag.


Ukraine star Shevchenko cost the English Premiership champions a club record fee when he moved to Stamford Bridge from AC Milan in May.

He will also earn wages of around £110,000 a week ($204,000) for the duration of his four-year contract, and it had been suggested Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho paid over the odds for a player who will be 30 this September.

But the former Dynamo Kiev forward is adamant he will prove Mourinho got it right when he persuaded Blues owner Roman Abramovich to sanction the transfer.

He told the Chelsea magazine: “He (Mourinho) is a very interesting person to talk to. I am looking forward to proving on the field that he was right about me.

“He said some kind words and I am very happy that Mr Mourinho said them, especially as they are words coming from one of the best managers in the world.

“I have spoken to him for a long time and I feel that he is a very special person and a very clever man, as well as someone who knows a lot about football.”

The former European Footballer of the Year admitted it was hard to leave Milan, where he enjoyed great success during his seven-year stay – including a Champions League triumph in 2003.

He added: “Obviously it was a very important decision for me and Milan. It could be the first time that a player has left the club in the prime of his career, so in a way this was not normal.

“I can only thank Adriano Galliani and the chairman Silvio Berlusconi because they always behaved very well with me.

“They also understood the reason I was leaving was not money related, it was the mix of a new challenge and family reasons.”

Source: AFP

Yushchenko Will Not Abandon Pro-Western Course

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine is bracing for more weeks of stalemate after three pro-Russian parties formed a governing coalition in the parliament.


President Viktor Yushchenko vowed he would not allow the new union to alter the pro-Western course he has set for the ex-Soviet nation, AFP reports.

The stunning developments late last week turned the nation’s political landscape on its head and indicated that the crisis-weary country —- still without a government following a March parliamentary poll —- faced hot summer weeks of political uncertainty.

The political earthquake in Ukraine erupted late Thursday when a key member of the “orange” coalition, the Socialists, unexpectedly defected to pro-Russian parties in order to elect its leader as parliament speaker.

Less than 24 hours later, the new allies signed an agreement to form a new governing coalition that would control 240 seats in the 450-seat Upper Rada legislature and seemed certain to slow Yushchenko’s policies of driving Ukraine toward membership in the European Union and NATO.

The coalition named Viktor Yanukovych —- the leader of the pro-Russian Regions Party who lost the bitter “orange revolution” presidential contest to Yushchenko in late 2004 —- as its choice for the new prime minister.

But the president warned that he would submit his candidacy to parliament only under certain conditions and vowed that his pro-Western policies would remain intact. “We will not veer from the chosen path,”

Yushchenko said in his weekly radio address Saturday. “Ukraine will head toward the European Union. The chosen course for foreign and domestic policy remains unchanged.”

The president said he would move on a new premier nominee only after lawmakers allowed the Constitutional Court to resume its work and if the new coalition’s program reflected his policies.

“The coalition must present for the president’s review a prime minister’s candidate,” Yushchenko said. “But I will submit it to parliament only after the Constitutional Court begins functioning again.”

Ukraine’s Constitutional Court has not been able to convene since last fall. Lawmakers have refused to appoint their allotted third of the judges on fears that Yushchenko would ask the body to review recent constitutional changes that bolstered the powers of parliament at the expense of the presidency.

If lawmakers refuse to budge, Yushchenko could refuse “to submit the name of the prime minister” to parliament and “we have early elections,” his chief of staff Oleg Rybachuk told reporters.

The president can dissolve parliament if a new government is not formed within 30 days after a governing coalition is legally registered in the legislature.

Yushchenko would likewise not move on the premier’s nomination if the new coalition’s program conflicts with his policies, Rybachuk said.

“The president will be able to present the coalition’s candidate for prime minister (to parliament) after he is convinced that the coalition will carry out a program with which the president agrees,” Rybachuk said.

Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine party could join the new coalition if it excluded the Communists and mirrored the policies that the “orange” union had agreed to over three months of stormy talks, before the Socialists’ defection, Rybachuk said.

The new governing coalition is made up of the Regions Party, a pro-Russian big business blok, the Communists and the Socialists.

Ukraine’s March parliamentary election did not hand enough votes to any single party to form the next government alone. Currently Regions holds 186 seats in parliament, Yulia Tymoshenko’s bloc 129 seats, Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine party 81 seats, the Socialists 33 seats and the Communists 21 seats.

Source: MosNews

Swift Fall Of Bloc In Ukraine Lifts Pro-Russia Leader

MOSCOW, Russia -- Ukraine's new coalition government of pro-Western democratic parties was predicted to be fragile. It proved so weak that it collapsed Friday before it even got started.

Will Yanukovich take Ukraine back to Moscow?
And out of the rubble emerged the man who was cast as the villain in Ukraine's democratic triumph known as the Orange Revolution. In a remarkable turnaround, Viktor Yanukovych, the losing, pro-Moscow candidate in the disputed presidential elections that led to massive street protests in 2004, appears set to become prime minister.

This week was supposed to bring the formal reconstruction of the unstable alliance that led the Orange Revolution, named for the color worn by the protesters. Instead, the bloc dissolved into familiar squabbling after its smallest member, the Socialists, broke ranks to get its own man elected to a parliamentary post.

Socialists jump ship

The Socialists then signed on to what they called a new "anti-crisis" coalition with the Communists and Yanukovych's Party of Regions. The agreement was signed Friday evening in front of journalists in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital.

The recent political turmoil and indecision in Ukraine have frustrated the European Union and the United States. They had hoped to see the country well along in restructuring necessary to open it to Western institutions and greater foreign investment.

The White House had considered sending President Bush to Ukraine, hailing it as an outpost of openness and free enterprise. Instead, he went to Hungary last month.

The pro-Moscow Yanukovych opposes or questions many of the goals of President Viktor Yushchenko, notably membership in the NATO alliance and the European Union. Yanukovych is interested in what is called the "single economic space," a concept promoted by the Kremlin to bind Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus together.

Because of constitutional changes that came into force after Yushchenko assumed the presidency, the post of prime minister is more powerful than it had been. The holder of the office is no longer appointed by the president but independently elected by parliament.

The president retains the right to propose candidates for three key ministries, including foreign affairs, but his ability to constrain the prime minister is much reduced.

Coalition's unraveling

The Orange coalition fell apart for the first time last September. Yushchenko dismissed his prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, the charismatic crowd-pleaser who galvanized the popular revolt that swept Yushchenko into office. He said corruption was rampant under her stewardship; she accused some of the president's key advisers of corruption.

Elections followed in March. Yanukovych's Party of Regions emerged as the largest single party, but no one party won an overall majority.

The three that had led the Orange Revolution--Yushchenko's Our Ukraine, Tymoshenko's bloc and the Socialists, led by Oleksander Moroz--together had enough seats to form a government. But weeks passed with no agreement on how to overcome the bad feelings between them.

In June, the three parties finally agreed to a new coalition. Tymoshenko would be prime minister, and Petro Poroshenko, a controversial tycoon and member of Yushchenko's party, would be speaker of parliament. The two are fierce rivals.

But on Thursday, Moroz, the Socialist leader, appeared to have had sudden second thoughts about the deal.

`I've got evidence'

"I've got evidence to show, which I am not going to do now, that the election of such charismatic people [as Poroshenko and Tymoshenko] to the country's highest offices will inevitably create an explosive mixture," he said. "It would spell the end of the coalition in the course of several months with all the consequences to follow."

The Socialists then nominated Moroz as speaker. Yanukovych's Party of Regions, joined by the Communists, saw an opening and backed him. He was elected Thursday evening.

His former partners were left to fume. "We consider that the coalition never took place," Tymoshenko said. "Thus, the coalition did not unravel; it never existed in the first place."

"Moroz is a professional betrayer and a greedy, cynical and a mercenary man," David Zhvania, a member of Our Ukraine, told reporters.

Moroz quickly adjourned parliament until Tuesday, when a new coalition led by Yanukovych might be put to a vote.

If Yanukovych becomes prime minister, the stage would be set for persistent confrontation between pro-Russian coalition forces and Yushchenko, further hampering efforts to reverse a slowdown in economic growth and set policy in a nation that has been independent only 15 years.

Source: Washington Post

New Law Snags Smoking

KIEV, Ukraine -- Beginning on July 1, a law curtailing the amount of smoking allowed in public places came into full force in Ukraine, requiring restaurants, bars and other buildings openly accessible to the public to have designated non-smoking sections by this time.


Many foreign restaurant chains have taken steps that bring them in line with this new legislation although at this moment in time it is difficult for businesses to gauge the effect on business in the long term. The new law requires that at least 50 percent of public places must be designated for non-smokers, in such a way that smoke does not drift into these areas.

A public place is any building or structure that is openly accessible to the public either by invitation or through payment of services, all or part of the time. This also pertains to entrances to buildings, city underpasses and stadiums.

Some bars, clubs and restaurants, like those in the Happy Days Group, have had to introduce new non-smoking sections. Other restaurants like Il Patio and TGI Fridays, part of a single group of restaurants located in Kyiv, have had separate non-smoking sections and high-quality ventilation systems since opening in 2002.

According to Vasyl Kovach, director of Il Patio’s city-center restaurant, this means that they have not had to make serious changes to comply with the new legislation. According to Christoff Letorte, a French chef at Limoncello Fusion, the Happy Days Group of restaurants, which includes Limoncello, and also Shooters Bar, Terrace, Harem and Walter’s Pizzeria, has designated new non-smoking areas.

“Not everything is done yet, but we expect all the changes to be completed within the next few days for all the restaurants in our group… In Limoncello, for instance, we’ve added no-smoking signs to the tables, half of which are non-smoking, and designated the non-smoking area closest to the window where there is better ventilation.” He added that other restaurants in the group have taken similar measures.

“Even Shooters club should be ok,” he added, “because it has a very good ventilation system that shouldn’t need to be upgraded.”

Ihor Nosenko, a spokesman for the popular O’Briens Irish Pub, said that in their case just a few changes would have to be made, but that for them it’ll be business as usual.

“O’Briens has had separate smoking and non-smoking sections since it opened in 1998… we’ll have to expand the [non-smoking] area a little bit, but we have a very effective ventilation system, that was put in from the very beginning for our clients,” Nosenko said.

When asked whether or not Ukrainian’s (and ex-pats for that matter) will smoke less as a result, Nosenko, a non-smoker himself, said that remains to be seen, adding that “if these kinds of efforts have worked in other countries and people started smoking less, than maybe we’ll see similar results in Ukraine.”

Limoncello’s Letorte, a smoker himself, added that these regulations are essentially bringing Ukraine’s restaurant and bar culture into line with European norms and that they should also markedly improve the overall dining experience in restaurants throughout the city.

“I am French, and in France most of the restaurants are half smoking, half non-smoking… moreover, in Italy a large number of restaurants are completely non-smoking… This should not only be better for [Ukrainian] customers, who won’t have ash trays cluttering the tables, and will also improve their overall health.”

In Europe it is common practice for smoking to be allowed only at the bar, he added, as another example.

Letorte added that these changes are especially positive for non-smokers, because they often choose not to go out to clubs or restaurants as they are too smoky. But as a chef, he also noted that for smokers this should enhance their restaurant experience, “because smoke affects the palette and a person’s ability to taste the food fusion.”

Nonetheless, the Frenchman believes that if the Ukrainian government’s legislation aims to curb smoking, the most expedient way to do that is to increase the tax on cigarettes.

“In France cigarettes cost 5 euros, which is 13 times more expensive than cigarettes in Ukraine… It would be good for the government to do this [increase the taxes on cigarettes], he said.

These efforts on the part of the Ukrainian government are not driven by a desire to bring the country’s restaurant, nightclub and cafe culture into line with European standards, but part of a larger initiative to reduce the amount of cigarette and alcohol consumption in Ukraine.

The new smoking law also outlaws the sale of cigarettes to minors under the age of 18 and restricts smoking in the workplace and public places to specially designated areas.

In effect, this law, which came into full force this week, halved the smoking area in all of Ukraine’s public establishments. Fines will be the instrument used to enforce it.

A breach of the law by smoking in places forbidden, or in other areas determined by local city and village councils, is subject to a warning or a fine ranging from Hr 17 to Hr 85. A second offense commands a fine of Hr 85 to Hr 99.

Source: Kyiv Post

Furniture Giant’s Plans Still On

KIEV, Ukraine -- The billion-dollar plans of a multinational furniture retailer intent on expanding its presence in Ukraine continue to be delayed – ostensibly over the fate of some of the capital’s trees.


Giant IKEA, a Dutch-registered conglomerate with Swedish roots, has been trying for over two years to acquire land on Kyiv’s left bank, where it wants to put up to $400 million into the construction of a shopping mall. However, the city administration says it’s under pressure from environmentalists committed to protecting a wooded site on the edge of the city.

Senior advisor for IKEA investments in Ukraine Swen Holm met with members of the Kyiv city administration on June 21 to discuss a way out of the deadlock.

During the meeting Eduard Leshchenko, deputy head of the Kyiv city administration architecture, construction and city environment design department, said that by granting land to IKEA, the city would invoke renewed condemnation from concerned citizens.

In 2005, the Ukrainian Green Party protested the furniture giant’s left bank project in a statement released to the media, calling the patch of wood in question the “lungs” of that part of the city.

Kyiv has offered IKEA an alternative plot of land in another part of the city, according to a statement published on the city administration’s website, but IKEA is intent on developing the left-bank site.

“We researched Kyiv very thoroughly and came to the conclusion that this land plot is the most suitable in terms of local infrastructure, transportation and environmental concerns,” Natalia Altynova, IKEA’s human resources manager for Russia and Ukraine.

“During the [June 21] meeting, IKEA’s representative confirmed our intentions concerning implementation of our investment program in Ukraine once more. Now we are just waiting for the green light from the Ukrainian government and the Kyiv city administration,” She added.

In the meantime, the city will set up a separate commission to study the issue, announced Denis Bass, deputy head of the Kyiv city administration, adding that a final decision wouldn’t be taken until public hearings are held.

A deadline for the holding of the hearings or a decision by the commission has yet to be set.

Altynova thinks that the problem lies with Ukraine’s continually changing authorities. IKEA has appealed to two different Ukrainian presidents, premiers and mayors over the last two years.

IKEA’s Holm said the multinational won’t consider an alternative land plot, but that he is confident the city allocate the left-bank site because of the obvious advantages to the local economy.

"I am pretty sure they will allocate this land ... It is not about chopping down the whole forest. And it is a substantial investment into the Ukrainian economy of a total of $1.7 billion, and providing about 25,000 jobs only in Kyiv," he said.

IKEA has operated a saw mill and furniture plant in western Ukraine’s Transcarpathia region for more than a decade, but is better known for its furniture outlets and the shopping centers it builds around them.

In July 2004, IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad first met with now former President Leonid Kuchma to discuss the company’s investment plans.

In March 2005, Kamprad returned to Ukraine to meet with newly elected President Viktor Yushchenko.

It was during the 2005 visit, according to Natalia Altynova, IKEA’s human resources manager for Russia and Ukraine, that Kamprad received “verbal approval” for the company’s $1.2 billion investment plans in Ukraine.

Five years earlier, in March 2000, the furniture giant had opened its first store in Moscow, where it has pumped hundreds of millions of euros into building retail outlets surrounded by modern shopping malls replete with restaurants and recreational facilities.

The IKEA network consists of more than 200 stores in more than 30 countries.

According to Altynova, the plans for Kyiv’s left bank include a family shopping center with up to 150 different retail and entertainment facilities.

The multinational wants to eventually open another six such malls in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Lviv and Odessa. The company said that the delay of its Kyiv project is holding up the launch of construction in the regions.

"Our strategy is to start in the capital," said Holm.

Source: Kyiv Post

All Eyes On Berlin For Final

BERLIN - After more than two years of competition featuring 194 teams, 910 games and more than 2,600 goals, the World Cup will be decided tonight, with either Italy to crowned champion for the fourth time or France for the second.


A billion people will turn their attention to Berlin's Olympiastadion, where two teams drenched in World Cup history will do battle in the 18th final.

The match has left bookmakers divided, but is littered with fascinating sub-plots that fans of each side can cling to in the desperate hope that they are fated to triumph.

For France, it is the opportunity to complete the circle of recovery after it was knocked out after the first round without scoring a goal four years ago.

Striker Thierry Henry's frustration goes back even further as he seeks to banish the bitter-sweet memories of 1998, when he watched the final from the bench as France triumphed 3-0 over Brazil.

And there is Zinedine Zidane, who retires after the match with his reputation as one of the game's greats long-assured but who craves the ultimate leaving gift.

Italy goes into the game under the cloud of the domestic match-fixing scandal that might yet see half the squad playing second division football next month but has also helped mold it into a formidably spirited unit.

The Italians are also seeking revenge for the agony of the 2000 European Championship, when the title seemed in its hands before France snatched an injury-time equalizer and then won it with David Trezeguet's golden goal.

While Zidane's departure seems to demand victory, Italy can point to a similarly neat and equally deserved last-page scenario that would see its captain, Fabio Cannavaro, lifting the trophy on the occasion of his 100th international appearance.

However, all the historical twists will be forgotten tonight when the destination of the trophy will be decided not according to some grand design but more likely by a moment of inspiration or a fatal loss of concentration.

It seems certain that the match will be in keeping with the rest of the tournament - a cagey affair with little likelihood of a feast of goals.

This was certainly the case in their last World Cup meeting in the 1998 quarterfinals, when France advanced on penalties after a goalless draw.

Five of the side who played in that game and went on to win the trophy and then beat the Italians again in the Euro 2000 final are in the squad - Fabien Barthez, Lilian Thuram, Trezeguet, Henry and Zidane, but only Cannavaro and Alessandro Del Piero survive for Italy.

The gray edge to the French side was one of the reasons so few people gave Raymond Domenech's team a chance in this competition, but France has countered the critics with performances of increasing confidence, as it dispatched Spain, Brazil and Portugal.

Italy, too, has every reason to be confident. Superb defense, fighting spirit and a coolness in front of goal that has produced 10 different scorers of 11 goals, took the Italians deservedly past Australia, Ukraine and Germany. Both sides are littered with potential match-winners and both have experienced players highly qualified in the art of stopping such performers.

Can Zidane possibly match his two-goal heroics of the 1998 final? Can Henry deliver one of his special moments? Or can new-boy Franck Ribery complete a dream tournament by scoring in the final?

Conversely, can Luca Toni follow in the footsteps of 1982 hero Paolo Rossi? Will Andrea Pirlo net one his sumptuous free kicks? Or could the rampaging Gianluca Zambrotta charge his way into the history books?

If not, there are always penalties.

Editor's Note: The game can be seen in Kiev, Sunday 9th July, on Inter TV starting at 20:50 local time.

Source: Reuters

Football Fans Bilked In Ticket Agency Scam

KIEV, Ukraine -- For the last month the World Cup has gripped independent Ukraine, whose national team debuted in Germany. But for some Ukrainian fans who wanted to cheer on their compatriots from the stadium and not the armchair, the price of national pride and sports fervor may have proven to be too high.


The office of the Kyiv-based Brama travel agency was shut down by the police in early June, about six months after it began offering combined train and bus tours to see the boys in blue and yellow take part in the prestigious soccer tournament.

According to Oleksandr Radkevych, deputy spokesman for the Kyiv City Police Department, the agency’s director was detained following a complaint by three Brama customers. The agency was accused of failing to arrange tours which had been paid for in advance and refusing to refund the tickets. The director’s name has still not been disclosed.

Following a police search of the agency’s office, which is located in a prestigious district of the city center, the director was charged with large-scale fraud and is now awaiting trial.

Police have since called on Brama customers to come forward and register complaints. However, law-enforcement officials acknowledge that the prospects of the customers getting refunds depend on the courts.

“The court will decide a mechanism for compensating the customers if he [Brama’s director] is found guilty,” Radkeyvych said.

Ukrainian TV channel Noviy Kanal reported that the number of football fans allegedly bilked by the agency could be in excess of 200, totaling around 300,000 euros in losses. Radkevych has put forward more modest figures. “At the moment we have confirmed 13 individuals and 14 firms,” he said.

Games larger than life

According to the press service of the Football Federation of Ukraine (FFU), it received nearly 14,000 tickets from the Federation of International Football Associations, or FIFA, the game’s world ruling body, for the five games which Ukraine played in Germany. All of the tickets were either used for FFU’s own purposes or sold.

The tickets were sold either by Ukraina Football International, the FFU’s agent, or Hamaliya, the exclusive World Cup travel agency in Ukraine. Hamaliya also had agreements on selling tickets through other agencies in Ukraine.

Serhiy, a Kyiv auto dealer who declined to disclose his last name, said that almost half a year ago he and five friends paid 1,200 euros each for a combined train and bus tour to Germany to see the matches, after learning about Brama “through friends.”

However, with the start of the tournament approaching and the tickets for Ukraine’s games still not delivered, they began to sense something was wrong.

So in late May, about a week and a half before the World Cup started, Serhiy managed to get his money back, though “not without some difficulty.”

Moreover, more than three weeks after Brama’s director was detained, agency ads offering World Cup tours were still up on the Internet.

According to one such ad posted on Tourua.com, Brama offered an eight-day airline tour to Munich, including two soccer matches, for 2,095 euros.

Five-star “deluxe” accommodations ran for as high as 2,700 euros, with the price of the tickets mentioned in the advert costing from 90 to 400 euros.

Serhiy, who ended up buying tickets from another travel agency, paying more than double their nominal price, believes that Brama was also the victim of a scam.

“They were just newcomers to these kinds of tours, so they didn’t know what to expect,” he said.

According to Serhiy, when he went to get his money back from Brama, he was told by Brama employees that Hamaliya, the official distributor of World Cup tickets in Ukraine, had originally promised to sell Brama the tickets at the price prescribed by FIFA – 110 Euros. However, Sergey said, Hamaliya ended up demanding up to four times more as the soccer tournament approached.

“Brama’s problem,” said Serhiy, “was that the tour price of 1,200 euros was calculated on the basis of a price of 110 euros for the best tickets. Given that the price turned out to be much higher, after booking the train and hotels far in advance, there was no money left for the tickets themselves.”

However, Hamaliya’s website gave the prices of the World Cup tickets ranging from 35.5 to 110 euros for the first three games that Ukraine played at the group stage. An airline tour to see three soccer games through Hamaliya sells from 2,160 euros.

An owner of a large Kyiv-based travel agency who also spoke on condition of anonymity said that buying tickets from Hamaliya, his agency had to pay up to 300 euros in extra fees “for the development of Ukrainian soccer” which was charged by the Ukrayina Football International.

The UFI did not return the Post’s requests to comment.

Yet, Hamaliya president Ihor Holubakha categorically denied that his agency sold tickets at a price higher than those stated on their website, which he said already included a 10 percent commission fee imposed by FIFA.

He described as “disinformation” claims that Hamaliya sold the tickets charging hundreds of Euros more than the nominal price. Holubakha also denied the existence of any fee to support soccer.

Yet, Holubakha did confirm that Brama had an agent’s agreement with his agency, and that it did, in fact, pay Hamaliya for 40 tickets. Holubakha says that Brama ended up canceling its request later on, and asked Hamaliya to refund the tickets.

According to Yevhen Malatsay, head of the regulatory department of the State Administration of Tourism and Resorts, Brama’s license was cancelled shortly after the case against it was opened.

Officials at Brama-Consulting, a company with foreign investments, which a source within the Tourism Administration referred to as a co-founder of Brama, refused to comment on the situation. It cited the ongoing investigation by the police as the reason.

Source: Kyiv Post

Ukraine's Honchar Wins Tour De France Time Trial, Takes Race Lead

RENNES, France -- Sergiy Honchar became the first Ukrainian to take the Tour de France leader's yellow jersey Saturday, dominating the field in the first long time trial of this year's race.

New overall leader Sergiy Honchar of Ukraine puts on the yellow jersey on the podium after winning the 7th stage of the 93rd Tour de France cycling race, a 52-kilometer (32.3-mile) individual time trial between Saint-Gregoire and Rennes, western France, Saturday, July 8, 2006. Honchar takes the overall lead of the race.
The T-Mobile rider, a former world time trial champion, was by far the strongest in the race against the clock, beating American Floyd Landis in the seventh stage by more than a minute. Sebastian Lang from Germany was third.

Honchar was timed at one hour one minute 43 seconds over 52 kilometres, an average speed of 50.55 kilometres per hour.

The stage win was Honchar's first in three Tours. He has won five time trials at the Tour of Italy.

Landis was 1:01 behind Gonchar, and moved up to second in the overall standings. Lang was a further three seconds back.

Honchar, who turned 36 last week, grabbed the front of the yellow jersey in delight after it was slipped onto his shoulders on the podium. He said it was the best day of his career since he won the world time trial title in 2000.

"It was totally unexpected," he said through a translator on French television. "I did my maximum."

Honchar is listed as Honchar by Tour organizers and in cycling books because his name is misspelled in his passport, Gonchar said at the winner's press conference.

His win was the second at this Tour for the T-Mobile squad, which lost its leader Jan Ullrich and another rider to a doping scandal on the eve of the race start on July 1.

Honchar said he and the other T-Mobile riders had prepared "100 per cent" to support Ullrich.

"The results are arriving," he said. Four of the seven T-Mobile riders left in the race placed in the top eight.

Landis suffered a handlebar problem, forcing him to change bikes while out on the course. But he said he was pleased with his ride.

"I got beat fair and square," he said. "It looks good for the rest of the race, but there's a long way to go. We'll take it one day at a time."

Aside from Landis, a former teammate of seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong, other top Americans were not as strong as expected.

Levi Leipheimer placed 96th, despite being among those expected to shine at the Tour blown wide open by Armstrong's retirement and the doping allegations that took out Ullrich and Tour of Italy champion Ivan Basso.

The 6:06 that the Gerolsteiner rider lost to Gonchar could end his hopes of winning this Tour. Leipheimer did not talk to reporters immediately after the race, but Landis said, "I wouldn't write him off yet."

Another former Armstrong teammate, George Hincapie, fared better, placing 24th. But he still trailed Gonchar by 2:42.

Asked how his ride went, Hincapie replied: "Not good."

Honchar, a time trial specialist, refused to predict how he might perform later in the three-week race, which heads to the Pyrenees next week and then goes to the Alps. Before the Tour, he had not been considered among the favourites to win the overall title.

"I just want to enjoy this victory and the yellow jersey," said Honchar, who did not finish the 2005 Tour and placed 64th in 2002. "I don't want to think about anything else."

Source: Canadian Press

Defeated Candidate Reemerges In Ukraine

MOSCOW, Russia -- Ukraine's new coalition government of pro-Western democratic parties was predicted to be fragile. It proved so weak that it collapsed on Friday before it even got started.

Viktor Yanukovich - Putin's man in Ukraine
And out of the rubble emerged the man who was cast as the villain in Ukraine's democratic triumph known as the Orange Revolution.

In a remarkable turnaround, Viktor Yanukovich, the losing, pro-Moscow candidate in the disputed presidential elections that led to massive street protests in 2004, appears set to become prime minister.

This week was supposed to bring the formal reconstruction of the unstable alliance that led the Orange Revolution, so-named for the color worn by the protesters. Instead, the bloc dissolved into familiar back-stabbing after its smallest member, the Socialists, broke ranks to get its own man elected to a parliamentary post.

The Socialists then signed onto what they called a new "anti-crisis" coalition with the Communists and Yanukovich's Party of Regions. The agreement was signed Friday evening in front of journalists in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital.

The recent political turmoil and indecision in Ukraine have frustrated the European Union and the United States. They had hoped to see the country well along in restructuring necessary to open it to Western institutions and greater foreign investment.

The White House had considered a plan for President Bush to travel to Ukraine to hail it as a new outpost of openness and free enterprise, but it put off the idea because of continuing uncertainty after the election. Instead he went to Hungary last month.

With Yanukovich as prime minister, Bush can write off such a trip. The pro-Moscow politician opposes or questions many of the goals of President Viktor Yushchenko, notably membership in the NATO alliance and the European Union.

Yanukovich is interested in what is called the "single economic space," a concept promoted by the Kremlin to bind Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus together.

Because of constitutional changes that came into force after Yushchenko assumed the presidency, the post of prime minister is more powerful than it has been. The holder of the office is no longer appointed by the president, but is independently elected by parliament.

The president retains the right to propose candidates for three key ministries, including foreign affairs, but his ability to constrain the prime minister is much reduced.

The Orange coalition fell apart for the first time last September. Yushchenko dismissed his prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, the charismatic crowd-pleaser who galvanized the popular revolt that swept Yushchenko into office.

He said corruption was rampant under her stewardship; she accused some of the president's key advisers of corruption.

Elections followed in March. Yanukovich's Party of Regions emerged as the largest single party, but no single party won an overall majority.

The three that had led the Orange Revolution -- Yushchenko's Our Ukraine, Tymoshenko's bloc and the Socialists, led by Oleksander Moroz -- together had enough seats to form a government, but weeks passed with no agreement on how to overcome the bad feelings between them and form a government.

In June, the three parties finally agreed to a new coalition. Tymoshenko would be prime minister, and Petro Poroshenko, a controversial tycoon and member of Yushchenko's party, would be speaker of parliament. The two are fierce rivals.

But on Thursday, Moroz, the Socialist leader, appeared to have had sudden second thoughts about the deal.

"I've got evidence to show, which I am not going to do now, that the election of such charismatic people" as Poroshenko and Tymoshenko to the country's highest offices will inevitably create an explosive mixture," he said. "It would spell the end of the coalition in the course of several months with all the consequences to follow."

The Socialists then nominated Moroz as speaker. Yanukovich's Party of Regions, joined by the Communists, saw an opening and backed him. He was elected on Thursday evening.

His former partners were left to fume. "We consider that the coalition never took place," Tymoshenko said. "Thus, the coalition did not unravel; it never existed in the first place."

"Moroz is a professional betrayer and a greedy, cynical and a mercenary man," David Zhvania, a member of Our Ukraine, told reporters.

Moroz quickly adjourned parliament until Tuesday, when a new coalition led by Yanukovich might be put to a vote.

Source: Washington Post

Yanukovich Is Proposed As Ukraine's Top Minister

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's main opposition party joined together Friday with two other groups in Parliament and the new coalition proposed the pro-Russian party's leader, Viktor Yanukovich, as PM.

Viktor Yanukovich - the Kremlin's favourite son for Ukraine PM
Yanukovich was the Kremlin-backed opponent of President Viktor Yushchenko in the 2004 presidential election that sparked the mass protests dubbed the Orange Revolution. Yanukovich won the election, but it was declared invalid and Yushchenko was elected in a court-ordered repeat vote.

Leaders of the opposition Party of Regions signed the coalition deal Friday with the Socialist and Communist parties. The deal came hours after the collapse of a coalition of liberal parties backing the Orange Revolution consisting of Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party, the Socialists and the party of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Political turmoil that has gripped the country since March parliamentary elections is showing no signs of abating.

The Western-leaning Orange coalition fell apart in acrimony earlier Friday, less than a month after its formation, prolonging the political turmoil that has gripped the former Soviet republic since March parliamentary elections and boosting the fortunes of the pro-Russian opposition.

The split, which occurred after the Socialist Party broke ranks to get its leader elected as Parliament speaker, led to a swift realignment of forces, resulting in the Party of Regions - which won the most seats in the elections but not a majority - joining with the Socialists and Communists.

"The doors are open for everyone," Yanukovich said in Parliament. Later, a senior lawmaker from the Party of Regions, Taras Chornovil, said that his party had proposed Yanukovich for the prime minister's job.

The Socialists earlier said they were ready to join a broad coalition that included Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party. The Socialist leader and the Parliament speaker, Oleksandr Moroz, called for a "wide coalition, as today we cannot continue a policy that divides Ukraine."

Ukraine has been without a new government since the March vote, and Yushchenko warned that he could dissolve Parliament - a move that would lead to new elections - if a government was not formed within a constitutionally mandated period tha