Yushchenko Threatens To Prompt Elections By Parliament Pullout

ZAGREB, Croatia -- Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko Thursday threatened to end a political standoff with Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych by pulling out of parliament with his allies and prompting early elections.

Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko (R) and Croatia's President Stjepan Mesic (L) pose for photographers in Zagreb May 31, 2007.
Yushchenko and Yanukovych had agreed in principle to hold early polls on Sept. 30, but both factions in parliament have been obstructing a string of bills necessary to call elections.

Yushchenko gave the legislature until midnight Thursday to pass the laws.

"If a solution is not reached, my party and [Yulia] Tymoshenko's party will meet and formalize our withdrawal from parliament," Yushchenko said in Zagreb, where he came for a two-day visit.

"Then elections will take place automatically in 60 days," he added.

In Kiev, allies of Yanukovych have already criticized Yushchenko's intentions, saying they were illegal and that he did not have the 151 resignations necessary to dissolve parliament and force elections.

"It is impossible to hold any early elections without the package of bills adopted by the parliament," said lawmaker Taras Chronovil.

Ukraine has been embroiled in a political crisis stemming for constant disputes between the two leaders since Yanukovych's coalition won elections in 2006.

Last week, President Yushchenko fired the country's prosecutor-general and the Interior Ministry sent police to surround the prosecutor's office to prevent his eviction.

The pro-Western Yushchenko then seized control of the ministry's forces and deployed units to the capital, Kiev - but Interior Minister Vasyl Tsushko refused to recognize the order.

The moves raised fears that weeks of arguments between Yushchenko and Yanukovych could trigger violence.

Tensions partially eased Sunday after the president and premier agreed to hold early elections.

"Ukraine is carrying out a plan to get out of the political crisis. It is up to parliament to implement the plan," Yushchenko said.

"Elections on Sept. 30 will be key to exiting the crisis and it will help Ukraine emerge stronger," he added.

Lawmakers were to vote Wednesday on the last in a series of bills necessary to call the early elections but the proceedings were interrupted by a bomb threat and mutual recriminations and disorder, with each side accusing the other of trying to sabotage the agreement.

Croatian President Stipe Mesic said that "instability in Ukraine would be damaging not only for Ukraine ... but for Europe as a whole."

Yushchenko later called on the Croatian parliament to declare the Soviet-era forced famine an act of genocide - a move already made by numerous countries, including the United States.

Sparked by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and the collectivization of private farms and agricultural land, the 1932-33 famine killed 10 million Ukrainians.

Those who resisted the campaign were shot or sent to Siberian prison camps.

Source: AP

U.S. Has Lost Interest In Ukraine's Struggle

WASHINGTON, DC -- Amid the foreign policy wreckage of the George W. Bush administration it's easily forgotten that the export of democracy to formerly unfree societies has not always been a failing policy.

President George W. Bush and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko meet in the Oval Office prior to participating in a joint press availability at the White House April 4, 2005.
For a decade after the end of the Cold War, the United States and its European allies worked through NATO and the European Union to convert 10 post-Communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

At the time it wasn't clear that all or even any of them would embrace free elections and free markets.

That they did was due in large part to the abundant tutelage, training, aid and tough love provided by the Western alliance.

Lots of people are pointing to Iraq as an example of what happens when attempts at nation-building go wrong.

But what happens when it isn't tried -- when the West sees a country struggling to find a new political order after decades of repression and simply decides to back off?

In effect, a test of that option is underway far from Iraq, in the biggest country between Western Europe and Russia -- Ukraine.

Three years ago, when the Bush "freedom agenda'' was still gaining momentum, Ukraine was a focal point. U.S. funds poured into nongovernmental organizations that were agitating for a free presidential election.

When a Russian-sponsored candidate tried to steal the election through blatant fraud, the Bush administration strongly backed the popular protest movement, the Orange Revolution, that eventually forced a new vote.

The pro-Western winner of that ballot, Viktor Yushchenko, was for a while a favourite in Washington.

There was even a push to put Ukraine on a fast track for NATO membership.

The change from then to now is one measure of how far a demoralized Bush administration has retreated from its ambitions, and from the world outside the Middle East.

Last week Ukraine was again in political crisis; the protagonists once again were the pro-Western president, Yushchenko, and his pro-Russian rival, Viktor Yanukovych, who is now the prime minister.

Once again crowds gathered in the center of Kiev.

There were struggles for control over government buildings, and each side accused the other of plotting a coup.

The country seemed to teeter between a compromise agreement on new parliamentary elections -- which was announced Sunday -- and an attempt by one side or both to seize power by force.

The Bush administration and its NATO allies, meanwhile, were nearly invisible.

Contact between U.S. officials and the feuding Ukrainians was limited mostly to the U.S. ambassador in Kiev and European affairs officials at the U.S. State Department.

A senior adviser to Yanukovych who came to Washington last week to lobby for more involvement, former foreign minister Konstantyn Gryshenko, found it hard to get a meeting at the National Security Council or the vice-president's office.

"What's needed from the United States, and what has been lacking, is a strong message to all sides that it is in their interest to abide by democratic principles,'' Gryshenko, a former ambassador to Washington, told me. "The message we're getting is that the United States really doesn't care.''

It's not just the lack of phone calls or visits that conveys that disengagement.

As the human rights group Freedom House points out in a new report, the administration's foreign aid budget proposal for next year contains big cuts in democracy funding for Europe and Eurasia.

In Ukraine, the administration would slash funding for civil society organizations -- that is, the groups that led the democratic revolution of 2004 -- to $6.4 million, reflecting a 40 per cent reduction from last year.

In Russia, where pro-democracy and human rights organizations are under enormous pressure from an increasingly autocratic Vladimir Putin, a cut of more than 50 per cent is planned.

The retreat is largely a function of the Bush administration's ever-deeper absorption in the Middle East -- a lot of the democracy funding is being shifted there -- and simple demoralization.

There's a reluctance to do anything that might help Russia's perceived ally, Yanukovych, who believes he would win any free and fair election.

It doesn't help that European governments have lost their willingness to offer more memberships in Western clubs.

Both NATO and the European Union have made it clear that Ukraine won't be admitted anytime soon, regardless of how its politicians behave.

What will happen in the absence of Western influence? Maybe Ukraine will muddle through; most of its leaders seem more interested in the model of democratic Poland than of Putin's Russia.

Maybe Russia, which will never lose interest in its neighbour, will succeed in converting it into a political satellite, as it tried to do in 2004.

Or maybe the chaos in Kiev will deepen, violence will erupt and the country will start to splinter, like Yugoslavia in the 1990s -- or Iraq.

If so, it won't be because the United States tried to impose democracy; but it might be because it didn't.

Source: The Record

Regime Restoration And Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- In his study, “The Problem of Restoration”, Robert Kann concluded that regime restoration is unlikely unless it is done in the lifespan of a political generation by people active in the old regime and able to take effective part in the restored regime.

Leonyd Kuchma (L) and Viktor Yanukovych (R)
This condition was met in Russia where Putin successfully controls a neo-Soviet style resource-based autocracy.

In Ukraine, the neo-Soviet Party of Regions/Communist Bloc lost the 2004 elections despite widespread fraud, bribery and blackmail.

Had Viktor Yushchenko been more resolute at the time, he would have arrested and tried the convicted felon Viktor Yanukovych and all his top associates for what they did.

Consequently, within the year the discredited Kuchma elite had returned from self-imposed exile or retirement.

A man who because of his criminal record could not by law hold any government job became prime minister and by May 2006, the Party of Regions/Communist coalition was able to take power again in what amounted to a coup d’etat.

Within the year, resorting to dubious methods and bribery, this coalition was on the way to creating a majority in parliament.

In the summer of 2007 Yushchenko reacted and called for new elections.

He realized at last that neo-Soviet forces had no intention of compromising with his national democrats.

They were not interested in bringing Ukraine into the English language communications sphere, democratizing the country, or preparing it for entry into the EU.

But because he foolishly failed to exploit his popular support in 2004-05, the old neo-Soviet elite had entrenched itself and the national democratic Orange Coalition still faces the threat of restoration.

The neo-Soviet Regions leaders also understand that if they fail to restore the old regime again, they are unlikely to get a third chance.

Having again taken over the government, the Regions stopped the few changes begun by the Orange national-democratic government and re-established Kuchma’s “blackmail state.”

A state in which officials apply the full force of the law to those who do not do what they are told or don’t pay up on time.

More aware than before of the importance of democratic patina to their activities, Regions’ leaders fired their old Russian campaign advisors and now listen to new American ones like Paul Manafort, who are not known to have supported democratic leaders in the past and are close to the US Republican Party.

Old time Communists, new neo-Soviet capitalists and American neo-conservatives may seem a strange mix, and it is rumoured that one of Manafort’s suggestions that the Regions’ ignore is his advice to join the EU.

In any case, in the neo-liberal global world where politicians in country after country have been selling off the public-sphere to private corporations and lining their pockets with the profits, this ostensibly strange association in Ukraine is not abnormal.

So, no one should be surprised when a majority Regions’ government begins selling off what is left of Ukraine’s public sphere to its biggest supporters.

On May 25, for instance, we learned that Kyiv Region will sell all of the region’s museums.

Those interested in the upcoming Ukrainian election, therefore, should note that Yanukovych’s fraudulent and manipulative electoral practices were similar not only to Putin’s.

US Republicans also used dubious and outright illegal methods to bring George W. Bush into power.

And since they worked in the US, observers must realize that American advisors in Kyiv will want to add some of their inventions to the Regions’ bag of tricks.

Thanks to this kind of “American know-how” the Regions’ now not only pay “political tourists” and ‘rent-a-crowds” but also wear the “right” shoes and sport new hairstyles.

The tricks, sadly, work.

Naive journalists look at this and then run articles in newspapers like the Telegraph and the Observer explaining how Yanukovych has become a “new man.”

Perhaps his Americans have told Yanukovych that time is on his side.

People cannot remain indefinitely mobilized. And, as disinterest and indifference set in they will withdraw from politics, which for most means not voting.

From this perspective, we can understand why for the last two months the Regions ignored presidential decrees. They were delaying.

Convoluted events, accusations and counter accusations can make voters cynical enough not to bother to vote.

Also, perhaps, the intention was to discredit Yushchenko by obliging him to use force, a move they hoped would discredit Ukrainian national independence in moderate world opinion, which has difficulties in accepting the use of force to protect or establish democracy.

All sides compromised by the end of May 2007, but the likelihood of planned Regions’ brinkmanship must not be overlooked.

Robert Kann’s book reminds us that regime restoration is rare but not unprecedented. It also reminds us that the conditions for restoration still exist in Ukraine.

A new Ukrainian election that still includes a restorationist party, therefore, obliges observers to remember that the top and middle-level people in that party responsible for the dirty tricks in 2004, and on a smaller scale in 2006, are still in their offices and will do the same again.

Only this time they will probably do it better, which means observers must watch even closer. Observers must observe behind the scenes, in the provinces, and what goes on at places of work before polling time.

They must not be distracted or confused by smoke, lights, hairstyles and outright lies.

The Party of Regions is a neo-Soviet party and should it come to power in Ukraine only Russia and a small minority will benefit.

While Russian-speakers may be relieved of the need to learn Ukrainian, they might also find themselves relieved of their jobs, pensions, government-funded services, medical care and education.

Source: Kyiv Post

Affluent Parliamentarians Exploit Housing Privileges To Earn Lumps Of Free Cash

KIEV, Ukraine -- For years Ukrainian members of parliament have solved their housing problems at the state’s expense. A parliament member’s right to free housing is guaranteed by law.

Artem Shcherban an afluent businessman and parliament deputy who applied for free housing to be paid by the state
Although public funds are used for this purpose, information about elected officials who receive housing or equivalent compensation is strictly kept secret.

The system of providing housing for parliament deputies has been in place for years. Parliamentarians can either take an apartment from the state or the equivalent in monetary compensation.

They may also use government-owned housing, which they return after their terms in parliament are complete. This latter option is rarely chosen.

Most legislators prefer housing to compensation.

Twenty-one parliamentarians elected in 2006 opted to take money allocated for housing and spend it themselves.

Compensation for these 21 amounted to around Hr 7.6 million, or approximately $1.5 million.

But now Parliament’s Administrative Department plans to spend about $30 million on housing.

The last address where deputies were given apartments was 24 Sribnokilska Street.

Today only a handful of parliamentarians still reside there.

Most of them sold their apartments and moved to the suburbs.

The actual market prices of the properties were much higher than the official prices set by parliament, and the sales of those apartments generated nice profits for certain legislators.

The housing ‘freeloaders’ include business-partners of billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, the brother of President Viktor Yushchenko, Petro, widely regarded as an affluent businessman, and a number of former top governmental officials.

Few have managed to say no to a free apartment.

Learning the names of those deputies that are in queue for free housing was not an easy task.

After Korrespondent on April 21 published the list of parliamentarians who already received housing, Oleksandr Yefremov, head of the Rada committee responsible for doling out the apartments, was upset that information had been leaked and refused to share information that he deemed confidential.

The reasons for the increased secrecy are obvious.

The list of 77 deputies in need of housing, according to the committee’s protocols provided by Deputy Oleh Lyashko of Yulia Tymoshenko’s Byut bloc, includes many successful businessmen from all factions.

The ruling coalition is represented in the commission by Yefremov, former governor of Luhansk Region.

Vitaliy Bort, a representative of the Donbas ‘iron’ lobby and a former commercial director of Yasynuvata machine-building plant, is also on the committee, as is socialist Oleksiy Kunchenko, honorary president of Ukraine’s largest chemical enterprise, Severodonetsk Union Azot.

Opposition members are not far behind their counterparts in the ruling coalition.

Stepan Glus of Byut, and formerly head of Ukraine’s most profitable alcohol producer, Nemiroff, is also a candidate for receiving free housing in Kyiv.

Valeriy Kalchenko of Byut, a former emergencies minister and mayor of Kirovohrad, is also on the list.

The list contains names of individuals whose claims for free housing seem outrageous and serve as a sign of their greed.

For example, documents for a one-room apartment were submitted by Deputy Artem Shcherban (Party of Regions), son of Volodymyr Shcherban, the former governor of Sumy Region.

Artem Shcherban ran the Gefest oil company before winning a seat in parliament.

In 2005 his company operated 70 gas stations and the younger Shcherban was rated to be one of the 10 most successful managers in the domestic petroleum business.

In addition to his own assets, Shcherban also has access to his father’s bank accounts.

Former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko said that Artem withdrew millions of dollars from his father’s accounts in the spring of 2005.

Shcherban can hardly be considered homeless.

According to information obtained by Korrespondent, he often stays at his father’s large mansion located 30 kilometers from Sumy.

By the end of 2005, the younger Shcherban was already an owner of a dacha in Boryspil district of Kyiv Region and a luxurious mansion on the banks of the Dnipro River in Kyiv.

Businessmen are not alone in the lineup for free apartments.

There are famous public personalities as well.

For example, Byut’s Andriy Shevchenko, previously a popular TV journalist, signed up for the housing because he wants his own place of residence, allowing him to leave his wife’s apartment where he now lives.

Shevchenko reluctantly spoke about his plans, which contradict the words of his bloc’s leader, Yulia Tymoshenko, who appealed to deputies to refuse all perks and privileges.

Of 450 parliament members, 227 have already used their privileges to acquire housing at the expense of the state.

The others received housing or compensation when they were elected to parliament in the past, while some are still waiting for their turn in the free housing queue.

Source: Kyiv Post

Ukraine: For Reunited Parliament, Even Two Days Together Is Too Much

KIEV, Ukraine -- The political standoff between Ukraine's president and parliament appears to be subsiding -- but not without problems.

Ukraine Parliament
Ukrainian lawmakers from the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and Our Ukraine returned May 19 to the Verkhovna Rada after a nearly two-month hiatus to vote on legislation needed to hold early parliamentary elections.

The lawmakers had avoided the Rada since President Viktor Yushchenko's April 2 decree dissolving parliament.

But a May 27 deal between Yushchenko, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, and parliamentary speaker Oleksandr Moroz paved the way for their return.

The political crisis apparently reached its peak on May 26.

That was when President Yushchenko reportedly summoned to Kyiv some units of the Interior Ministry riot police, after issuing a decree the previous day placing them under his control.

Police troops loyal to Interior Minister Vasyl Tsushko then blocked local highways to prevent the Yushchenko-led riot units from entering the capital.

With bloodshed a possible outcome of the standoff, Yushchenko called for urgent talks with not only Prime Minister Yanukovych -- with whom he has met regularly during the troubled past two months -- but also parliamentary speaker Moroz, whom he had publicly ignored since the impasse began.

In the early hours of May 27, Ukrainian television showed Yushchenko shaking hands with Yanukovych and Moroz and announcing that "the crisis is over."

September Polls

The three officials signed a deal setting preterm polls for September 30. This means that Yushchenko will have to issue a third decree on early elections, thus nullifying his April 27 decree that scheduled them for June 24.

According to the May 27 deal, parliament will be legally dissolved after the voluntary resignation of the pro-Yushchenko Our Ukraine and Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (YTB).

The two groups jointly control some 170 seats in the 450-seat Rada; their withdrawal would take parliament below the 300-seat minimum it needs to legally function.

This is different than Yushchenko's two April decrees, which based the disbanding of parliament on accusations the ruling coalition (the Party of Regions, the Socialists, and the Communists) had illegally poached opposition deputies to expand the ruling majority to 300 votes.

The coalition does not want to take the blame for the dissolution of the Verkhovna Rada. Asking the opposition to resign instead seems to be the most significant concession Yushchenko had to make in order to strike a deal on new elections.

It remains to be seen, however, if Our Ukraine and YTB leaders can persuade their lawmakers to give up their parliamentary mandates -- something that is meant to happen as soon as the Verkhovna Rada adopts all the legislation necessary to hold the September 30 snap elections.

On the morning of May 29, Yushchenko suspended his April 26 decree dissolving parliament. The suspension was for two days -- just long enough to give legislators time to vote on early-election legislation.

Promising Steps

Deputies -- including those from the opposition who have steadfastly avoided parliamentary debates during the past two months -- gathered for a session that afternoon.

They made some swift and promising steps toward fulfilling the election deal between Yushchenko, Yanukovych, and Moroz.

First, in a conciliatory move, the Verkhovna Rada rescinded previous resolutions by the ruling coalition lambasting Yushchenko for his dissolution decrees.

Second, lawmakers held fresh votes on the more than 50 bills the Rada had passed during the oppositions' two-month absence.

In the third and most important move of the day, lawmakers adopted a bill on reforming the Central Election Commission.

This was a major concern for politicians on both sides of the conflict.

The bill allows the Verkhovna Rada to change the composition of the election commission following a formal request by the president.

Yushchenko, Yanukovych, and Moroz reportedly agreed that the commission will comprise 15 members. Seven will be proposed by the ruling coalition, seven by the opposition, and one -- most likely, the head of the commission, will be proposed jointly by the president and the prime minister.

It was a constructive day's work -- but one that appeared to exhaust the goodwill and readiness of both sides to continue moving forward.

Opposition lawmakers failed to gather for the morning parliamentary session today, presumably because points of agreement between the coalition and the opposition on any further legislation were in short supply.

This legislation was prepared by the anticrisis working group that Yushchenko and Yanukovych set up in early May in an attempt to defuse the crisis.

The anticrisis group has reportedly coordinated "90 percent" of the legal foundation for the new polls, but has bogged down in arguments over several important issues.

In particular, the sides reportedly disagree on introducing the so-called "imperative mandate" provision into the law on people's deputies.

This would prevent lawmakers from defecting from their caucuses in the Verkhovna Rada, precluding a repeat of the apparent poaching that sparked the crisis two months ago.

There is also no agreement on how to compile a voter registry that could be independent from the voter lists held by regional administrations.

Voter Lists

The May 27 deal stipulates that the Cabinet of Ministers and the Central Election Commission are obliged to produce such a list before the September 30 polls, but lawmakers reportedly differ on ways of identifying eligible Ukrainian voters.

Yanukovych's Party of Regions is afraid that regional governors -- all of whom were appointed by Yushchenko -- may manipulate the voter lists to the party's disadvantage.

Yushchenko's Our Ukraine had similar apprehensions during the 2004 presidential ballot, when the regional governors controlling the voter rolls were allied with Yanukovych.

Another possible stumbling block to reaching a final agreement on the early polls is the fate of Svyatoslav Piskun, whom Yushchenko fired from the post of prosecutor-general last week (May 24).

The ruling coalition wants Piskun reinstated, while Yushchenko, who simultaneously appointed a replacement for him, is not inclined to back off.

For these reasons, it is not clear whether the Verkhovna Rada will manage to settle its disagreements over the September 30 polls today, as expected by Yushchenko.

To make these elections happen, Yushchenko will need to issue a relevant decree no later than August 2. So there are still two months for Ukrainian politicians to solve the current conflict without setting yet another election date.

If Yushchenko succeeds in having early elections in the fall, some in Ukraine will surely see this development as his victory.

But this victory will hardly give him additional political profits.

The problem is that, according to sociological surveys, the future arrangement of forces in the Verkhovna Rada may be very much like the current one.

Indeed, given the fully proportional party-list electoral system in Ukraine, it is very likely that the legislature will be predominantly filled with exactly the same faces as now.

For that reason, one should expect not so much a shift in Ukrainian politics in the fall as a continuation of the current state of affairs.

And the current state of affairs resembles a permanent institutional crisis, rather than the way to the prosperous and democratic Ukraine that Yushchenko promised during his inauguration in January 2005.

Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Ukraine Pulls Back From The Brink

KIEV, Ukraine -- The political peace deal struck in Ukraine in last-minute talks between Viktor Yushchenko, the president, and his bitter rival Viktor Yanukovich, the prime minister, comes as a welcome relief.

(L-R) Speaker of the Parliament Olexander Moroz, President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich answer questions during a press-conference in Kiev.
Their long-running conflict last week reached the point of violence, with officials loyal to Mr Yushchenko occupying the public prosecutor’s office and Mr Yanukovich’s men breaking windows and doors to retake the building.

It seemed only a matter of time before somebody was killed.

However, the agreement to settle the dispute by holding parliamentary elections in late September will not, on its own, resolve Ukraine’s deep-rooted divisions.

The country is doomed to further instability, unless its leaders work much harder at developing a genuine national consensus.

It will be difficult.

When Mr Yushchenko triumphed in the Orange Revolution in 2004 he appeared to have won broad support for a pro-European Union democracy, with an open economy and pragmatic ties with Russia.

But the settlement that ended the Orange Revolution involved transferring power from the presidency to parliament.

When Mr Yanukovich bounced back in the 2006 election, thanks to his Russian-speaking support in the east, Mr Yushchenko was wrong-footed.

Until this year, the conciliatory president was on the defensive, to the despair of his supporters.

But in April he finally put his foot down, and ordered new elections.

Mr Yanukovich resisted, precipitating last week’s confrontation.

The trouble is that elections will do little to change the power balance between the two sides.

Mr Yanukovich will almost certainly return as head of the largest party, followed by the fiery Yulia Tymoshenko, Mr Yushchenko’s erstwhile Orange Revolution ally.

The president may well end up holding the balance of power, and they will be forced to sit down and negotiate.

The outlines of a compromise exist.

Most Ukrainians back closer ties with the EU, but they also have doubts about joining Nato.

Almost all agree Russia will continue to play a big role in Ukraine, above all in energy, although they are divided about the merits of Moscow’s influence.

As a buffer zone, the country cannot afford to tip too far towards Russia or the west.

One thing must be clear, however: all parties must respect the legacy of the Orange Revolution, which has created a more democratic political world.

Any attempt to resolve political conflicts through non-democratic, let alone violent, means would split the country irrevocably

Source: Financial Times

US Welcomes Deal For September Elections In Ukraine

WASHINGTON, DC -- The United States welcomed on Tuesday an agreement reached during the weekend by Ukraine's rival leaders to hold elections on Sept. 30.

Tom Casey - Deputy Spokesman, Bureau of Public Affairs
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych made the agreement as a way out of a standoff that had paralyzed the ex-Soviet republic and threatened to escalate into violence after Yushchenko sent several thousand troops to the capital in defiance of the Cabinet.

"We look forward to fair, transparent and democratic elections and continued progress on Ukraine's ambitious agenda of political and economic reform," said Tom Casey, a U.S. State Department spokesman. "We urge Ukraine's leaders to take advantage of this opportunity to strengthen democratic institutions to the lasting benefit of the people of Ukraine and their goal of a more united, more prosperous nation."

Politics in the country of 47 million has been fraught with disputes between Yushchenko, who wants to lead Ukraine into Western organizations such as NATO and the European Union, and Yanukovych, seen as more friendly to Ukraine's eastern neighbor, Russia.

Source: International Herald Tribune

Crisis Over, But Rule Of Law Undermined In Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- The Ukrainian political crisis triggered by President Viktor Yushchenko’s April 2 decision to disband a hostile parliament appears to be over.

Yushchenko (L) and Yanukovych (R) hold press conference after their meeting.
On May 27, Yushchenko and his opponents, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and parliamentary speaker Oleksandr Moroz, scheduled an early parliamentary election for September 30 and agreed on terms for the campaign.

Yushchenko de facto recognized that his game had not been legally sound. He agreed with his opponents that parliament’s self-dissolution, rather than Yushchenko’s accusations of illegally forming the parliamentary majority, will serve as the legal basis for the early election.

Yushchenko, Yanukovych, and Moroz also agreed that the Constitutional Court (CC) would have no influence on the election process.

This decision followed a difficult week. Fearing that the CC’s verdict on dissolution would not be in his favor, Yushchenko had tried to prevent the CC from delivering it.

On May 21, he filed a lawsuit with a district court in Kyiv demanding that the CC be banned from carrying out any proceedings.

On May 22, the court threw out his case.

Also on May 22, Hryhory Omelchenko from the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, which is allied with Yushchenko, accused CC acting chief judge Valery Pshenychny of bribery (earlier, CC judge Syuzanna Stanik was accused of bribery, see EDM, May 22).

Over the next three days, several courts across the country in turn invalidated and upheld Yushchenko’s earlier decrees to sack three CC judges including Pshenychny and Stanik.

On May 23, the CC ruled that the president could not dismiss or appoint chief judges to courts.

The CC was also reportedly close to ruling on Yushchenko’s decree dissolving parliament.

This prompted Yushchenko to act even more resolutely.

On May 23, he addressed the nation on TV, saying, “the Constitutional Court is paralyzed,” and “some judges have been suspected of large-scale corruption.”

This, Yushchenko said, prompted him to instruct the Prosecutor-General’s Office (PGO) to probe CC judges.

Yushchenko’s appeal, however, had no effect on Prosecutor-General Svyatoslav Piskun, who insisted that Stanik and Pshenychny occupied their posts legally.

On May 24 Yushchenko issued a decree dismissing Piskun – ironically just a month after he had reinstated him as prosecutor-general.

Piskun’s dismissal triggered two days of brinkmanship.

Piskun did not recognize his firing, as Yushchenko’s formal explanation had been that Piskun was illegally combining his job with work in parliament.

Piskun insisted that he had renounced his parliamentary seat on time. When policemen from the State Guard Service, loyal to Yushchenko, came to the PGO to ask Piskun to go, he called Interior Minister Vasyl Tsushko, a Yanukovych ally, for help.

Tsushko overreacted, instructing riot police to storm the PGO and announcing, “A coup is taking place.” Viktor Shemchuk, whom Yushchenko had appointed as caretaker prosecutor-general, opened a criminal case against Tsushko, suspecting him of organizing a coup.

On May 25, Yushchenko issued a decree re-subordinating the combat force of the Interior Ministry – the Interior Troops – to himself.

On May 26, Tsushko told journalists in Kyiv that he had lost control of the Interior Troops, and that they were moving toward Kyiv on orders from Yushchenko.

The troops, however, did not reach Kyiv, as pro-Yanukovych parliamentarians reportedly promptly moved to stop them on the highways, aided by police units loyal to Tsushko.

Later in the day, Yushchenko admitted that he had ordered 2,000 Interior Troops to arrive in Kyiv, but he said that they were supposed to maintain public order during a soccer match.

In order to prevent further muscle flexing, Yushchenko invited Yanukovych and Moroz for urgent talks. In the early hours of May 27, the threesome announced that a compromise had been reached and shook hands before TV cameras.

The deal provides for holding a parliamentary poll on September 30, rather than in June or July, as Yushchenko had earlier insisted.

Yushchenko agreed that parliament should resume work on May 29-30 in order to prepare a legal foundation for the election.

After that, parliament should disband itself.

For that, Yushchenko’s and Tymoshenko’s parties are expected to give up their seats, so parliament will number less than 300, making it illegitimate.

Yushchenko agreed to the Yanukovych coalition’s demand to update the register of voters – Yanukovych and his allies had complained that they scored less than expected in the 2006 election because of irregularities in the voter rolls.

Yushchenko also announced that the parties had agreed that the CC would not be involved in the process.

Yushchenko said that Ukraine had emerged from the crisis stronger and more democratic.

This is arguable, as one of the foundations of democracy – the rule of law – was seriously undermined.
Courts were helpless, producing contradictory rulings during the two months when the political rivals were issuing legally doubtful orders and decrees.

The CC has been demoralized, and it should not be an easy task to revive popular trust in the court.

Source: Eurasia Daily Monitor

Ukraine Braces For Euro 2012

KIEV, Ukraine -- Winning the right to co-host the Euro 2012 football championship with Poland is providing Ukraine with the impetus to think big in its plans to upgrade and modernize its dilapidated leisure infrastructure.


On the drawing table is an ambitious project to build chains of top- and medium-range hotels for the lucrative sporting event, which market watchers say could net an estimated $3 billion in tourism and construction value.

But Ukraine, still mired in the political fallout of its Orange Revolution, may well find a revolution in the real estate sector no less of a challenge.

In a recent real estate survey, Colliers International classified Kiev's hotel market as "one of the least developed hospitality markets among the capitals of Central and Eastern Europe."

But Victor Korzh, Ukraine's minister of sports and youth and the vice president of the Euro 2012 planning committee, said last month that investors have been lining up to develop the necessary infrastructure for the event.

"There are serious investors ready to invest up to $7.7 billion in the construction of airports, roads, hotels and sporting infrastructure." Korzh said.

Korzh said construction work on hotels and other infrastructure would take place in Euro 2012 host cities of Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Lviv, Kiev and Odessa.

The country will need a lot of outside investment to bring its real estate sector up to West European standards, especially as the government cannot afford to take part in the construction of new hotels, experts said.

"The sources of financing will purely be private, with the state only helping to upgrade some transport infrastructure," said Roman Ponomarenko, vice president of Ukraine's Youth Hostel Association.

There are other obstacles to contend with if Ukraine is to make the most of the opportunity to host one of the world's most high-profile sporting events.

"The main challenge is restricted land space for the development of European-standard hotels," said Natalya Pryaschazhnuk, director of Kiev-based Grand Rating real estate firm.

"Downtown Kiev, usually the preferred spot for real estate developers, is cluttered with office buildings, trading centers and apartments," she said. "There is a shortage of everything in the city centers – shortage of land, good roads and modern infrastructure."

A requirement set out by UEFA, the European football association, obliging host cities to provide four-star and five-star hotels to accommodate participating athletes and referees, could also make this a serious headache for competition organizers.

According to UEFA stipulations, visiting fans must be provided with European-standard accommodation within a 50-kilometer radius of sporting venues.

And foreign investors will need some convincing before sinking their money into realty development outside city centers.

"When you factor in the poor investment climate, there's a big question mark on the success of this enterprise," Pryaschazhnuk said.

Ukraine may need to spend a minimum of around $200 million to construct the hotels required to accommodate participants in the 2012 European championship, industry insiders say.

Recent data indicate that even Kiev, with 13 hotels in the four-star and five-star category and 30 three-star hotels, is still in woefully short supply of accommodation. The situation is replicated in all the other host cities of Euro 2012.

If it is going to host the football championship successfully, Ukraine will have to build 22,000 more rooms in Kiev, 14,000 in Dnipropetrovsk, 17,500 in Donetsk and 12,000 in Lviv, according to Ukraine's Euro 2012 organizing committee.

One way to avoid the pressure of having to meet the financial burden of creating so much hotel space may be to place more emphasis on the construction of low-cost hotels, which would also meet the favor of fans seeking to economize, experts said.

Providing that planning for the competition goes as scheduled, the country will still be left with the problem of how best to utilize its stock of hotel space once the competition is over and trade dries up.

Ukraine is still not an attractive enough tourist destination for most hotels built for the championship to be fully utilized, said Gennady Gregoryan, general director of Kiev-based Victoria Realty. "Most will be a waste, unless of course prices can be reduced to a minimum to attract low-profile tourists," Gregoryan said.

Despite the difficulties that lie ahead, there remains considerable optimism.

Many believe the championship will attract investment, stimulating the country's leisure industry, as well a range of complementary sectors.

Euro 2012 will generate millions of dollars in investment and change the country's real estate landscape, Gregoryan said.

Source: The Moscow Times

Shortchanging Democracy In Ukraine

WASHINGTON, DC -- Amid the wreckage of the Bush administration it's easily forgotten that the export of democracy to formerly unfree societies has not always been a failing policy.

U.S. President George Bush
For a decade after the end of the Cold War, the United States and its European allies worked through NATO and the European Union to convert 10 post-Communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

At the time it wasn't clear that all or even any of them would embrace free elections and free markets.

That they did was due in large part to the abundant tutelage, training, aid and tough love provided by the Western alliance.

Lots of people are pointing to Iraq as an example of what happens when attempts at nation-building go wrong.

But what happens when it isn't tried -- when the West sees a country struggling to find a new political order after decades of repression and simply decides to back off?

In effect, a test of that option is underway far from Iraq, in the biggest country between Western Europe and Russia -- Ukraine.

Three years ago, when the Bush "freedom agenda" was still gaining momentum, Ukraine was a focal point. U.S. funds poured into nongovernmental organizations that were agitating for a free presidential election.

When a Russian-sponsored candidate tried to steal the election through blatant fraud, the Bush administration strongly backed the popular protest movement, the Orange Revolution, that eventually forced a new vote.

The pro-Western winner of that ballot, Viktor Yushchenko, was for a while a favorite in Washington; there was even a push to put Ukraine on a fast track for NATO membership.

The change from then to now is one measure of how far a demoralized administration has retreated from its ambitions, and from the world outside the Middle East.

Last week Ukraine was again in political crisis; the protagonists once again were the pro-Western president, Yushchenko, and his pro-Russian rival, Viktor Yanukovych, who is now the prime minister.

Once again crowds gathered in the center of Kiev.

There were struggles for control over government buildings, and each side accused the other of plotting a coup.

The country seemed to teeter between a compromise agreement on new parliamentary elections -- which was announced yesterday -- and an attempt by one side or both to seize power by force.

The Bush administration and its NATO allies, meanwhile, were nearly invisible.

Contact between U.S. officials and the feuding Ukrainians was limited mostly to the U.S. ambassador in Kiev and European affairs officials at the State Department.

A senior adviser to Yanukovych who came to Washington last week to lobby for more involvement, former foreign minister Konstantyn Gryshenko, found it hard to get a meeting at the National Security Council or the vice president's office.

"What's needed from the United States, and what has been lacking, is a strong message to all sides that it is in their interest to abide by democratic principles," Gryshenko, a former ambassador to Washington, told me. "The message we're getting is that the United States really doesn't care."

It's not just the lack of phone calls or visits that conveys that disengagement.

As the human rights group Freedom House points out in a new report, the administration's foreign aid budget proposal for next year contains big cuts in democracy funding for Europe and Eurasia.

In Ukraine, the administration would slash funding for civil society organizations -- that is, the groups that led the democratic revolution of 2004 -- to $6.4 million, reflecting a 40 percent reduction from last year.

In Russia, where pro-democracy and human rights NGOs are under enormous pressure from an increasingly autocratic Vladimir Putin, a cut of more than 50 percent is planned.

The retreat is largely a function of the administration's ever-deeper absorption in the Middle East -- a lot of the democracy funding is being shifted there -- and simple demoralization.

There's a reluctance to do anything that might help Russia's perceived ally, Yanukovych, who believes he would win any free and fair election.

It doesn't help that European governments have lost their willingness to offer more memberships in Western clubs.

Both NATO and the European Union have made it clear that Ukraine won't be admitted anytime soon, regardless of how its politicians behave.

What will happen in the absence of Western influence?

Maybe Ukraine will muddle through; most of its leaders seem more interested in the model of democratic Poland than of Putin's Russia.

Maybe Russia, which will never lose interest in its neighbor, will succeed in converting it into a political satellite, as it tried to do in 2004.

Or maybe the chaos in Kiev will deepen, violence will erupt and the country will start to splinter, like Yugoslavia in the 1990s -- or Iraq.

If so, it won't be because the United States tried to impose democracy; but it might be because it didn't.

Source: Washington Post

Software Piracy Level Still High

KIEV, Ukraine -- Computer software piracy levels remain high in Ukraine, which is ranked among the top 20 countries with the largest level of illegal software use, according to a study released this month.

Pirated copy of Microsoft Windows VISTA
Illegal software use in Ukraine remained largely flat last year, inching down year-on-year 1 percentage point to 84 percent. But Ukraine’s software piracy rate still stands at double the average level of abuse worldwide, according to the Global Software Piracy Study.

The study was prepared by the International Data Corporation (IDC), a US-based global IT and telecommunications advisor, and the Business Software Alliance, an international watchdog agency for legal software headquartered in Washington, DC.

Ukraine’s bedfellows in the list of countries with the poorest software piracy records include Armenia, Cameroon, Moldova, Pakistan, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Experts said piracy in Ukraine has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenues for leading computer software producers such as Microsoft Corporation.

The level of software piracy has gradually decreased, falling from the 91 percent recorded by the study organizers in 2003-2004. Yet experts remain upbeat and expect the problem to decrease in response to government efforts to stamp out illegal software use and voluntary compliance by businesses eager to improve the transparency of their operations.

While only a slight improvement, Ukraine is on the right track, according to Oleksandr Kopych, a software market analyst at IDC.

“According to the study, Ukraine managed to continue the trend of reducing the level of software piracy,” he said.

Yevhen Sozansky, manager for software legalization at the Ukraine offices of Microsoft said piracy levels in Ukraine remain very high, but that society is beginning to adopt Western policies and standards for the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR).

“Respect for intellectual property in Ukraine continues to rise,” he said during a May 16 press conference.

Ukraine has made large strides in IPR in recent years.

In January 2006, the US government issued a special report on Ukraine that noted an improvement in the country’s IPR protection and reinstated the Generalized System of Preferences trade benefits for Ukraine.

Five years earlier, Ukraine had the ill fame of being the largest producer and supplier of pirated laser discs in Europe. In response to the brazen piracy, the Office of the US Trade Representative halted Ukraine’s privileges within the framework of the Generalized System of Preferences and later imposed sanctions worth $75 million on Ukrainian imports.

The sanctions were lifted at the end of August 2005, after Ukraine pushed through changes to its law regulating the licensing of laser discs in the country.

“Since the legislation passed, Ukraine has been actively inspecting plants licensed to manufacture optical discs, conducting raids against businesses involved in commercial distribution of IPR-infringing products, and imposing fines against infringers,” according to the US Trade Representative.

Microsoft has in recent years offered companies and the Ukrainian government, itself a large user of pirated software, large discounts on its licensed software in an effort to encourage compliance.

Source: Kyiv Post

EU Welcomes Agreement Between Ukraine's Political Rivals

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The European Union welcomed Sunday's agreement among Ukraine's political leaders to end a crisis that had threatened to spiral into violence.

EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana
«Today I congratulate the leaders of Ukraine, both in government and in the opposition, for their show of commitment to democracy,» said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. «This negotiated compromise makes everyone a winner.»

In a statement, Solana said he looked forward to Ukraine's parliament passing legislation this week to implement the agreement between President Viktor Yushchenko and his rival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, which calls for early parliamentary elections to held in September.

Solana expressed hope that the agreement would allow Ukraine to turn to reforms that would draw it closer to the EU.

«Now is the time for everyone in Ukraine to focus on implementing the necessary reforms,» he said «The European Union is very committed to this partnership, the quality of which depends on the quality of Ukraine's democracy and reforms.»

The German government, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, said it would maintain close ties with all sides in Ukraine in an effort to help implement the agreement.

It urged «all involved to help ensure the success of the compromise now achieved by refraining from unilateral measures.»

Ukraine's political standoff has provoked mounting concern in the EU over the stability in a neighbor with 47 million people which is an important transit route for western Europe's oil and gas supplies from Russia and the Caspian region.

The EU in March approved a euro494 million (US$660 million) aid package for Ukraine over the next four years, a significant increase in funding.

However, although the EU has started negotiations on a deeper economic and political partnership with Ukraine, it has rebuffed the former Soviet republic's requests to be considered as a candidate for EU membership.

Source: AP

Ukraine's Political Clans Lay Aside Disputes For Key Game

KIEV, Ukraine -- Football is supposed to be apolitical, but it certainly wasn't in Ukraine on Sunday evening, when the leaders of the former Soviet republic's warring political factions watched the national football cup final together.

Ukraine's Yushenko (L) and Yanukovych (R) make strange political bedfellows.
President Viktor Yushchenko, a supporter of free market reforms and Dynamo Kyiv alike, was in a VIP box next to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich who, besides being Yushchenko's political nemesis is a life-long Donetsk Shakhtar fan.

The two men differ on practically every major issue in Ukrainian politics. Yanukovich, for instance, favours closer relations with Russia, while Yushchenko is adamant about Ukraine joining the European Union.

During Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution, Yushchenko defeated Yanukovich in a presidential election, after mass protests cancelled a Yanukovich win due to mass vote-rigging. And even then, football was part of the Ukrainian political game.

At the height of the demonstrations paralysing the Ukrainian capital Kiev, in a driving snowstorm, Dynamo took the field in a Champions' League match AS Roma. Match security was tense, as Dynamo Kyiv's owners are allies of Yanukovich, while the Dynamo fans going to the game were overwhelmingly in favour of Yushchenko.

Gate police forced thousands of ticket holders to remove tonnes of orange tape, ribbon, and banners - the colour of Yushchenko's political party - before being allowed into the stadium. The logic was UEFA-approved: No politics at a Champions' League match.

It didn't work. At fifteen minutes with play at a frigid 0-0, the referee ordered the white game ball replaced by a regulation orange one for better visibility in the heavy snow.

The crowd cheered and Dynamo Kyiv - though the side's players prior to the game were openly split on whether Yanukovich of Yushchenko should be president - eventually defeated the Italians 2-0.

Political passions about football colours were so intense in Ukraine that season that Shakhtar's tycoon owner, metals magnate Rinat Akhmetov, ordered his side to switch to all-black kit, as Shakhtar's traditional orange uniforms were supposedly offensive to Yanukovich and his supporters.

Shakhtar subsequent losing streak convinced Akhmetov the black uniforms were a bad idea, and it was in proper orange kit that Shakhtar defeated Dynamo next season, taking both the cup and the league title.

It is difficult to underestimate the importance of football in Ukrainian politics, where practically all major teams are operated (at a loss) by magnates holding political jobs and often seats in parliament.

Ukraine, set to co-host the 2012 European football championships, is a country where the entire ruling class, no matter their current political leanings, grew up in the waning days of Soviet Ukraine - a time when Ukrainian nationalism was punishable by law, except when cheering Dynamo Kyiv in matches against foreign clubs.

(Or, as veteran Ukrainian fans point out to this day, when the Soviet national side played, as nine or ten of the eleven players on the field were, inevitably, Dynamo members dressed in Soviet red and gold.)

Which brings us to Ukraine's national cup match this Sunday, set against a background of just possibly an end to the year-long constitutional battle between the Yanukovich and Yushchenko, and at the very least a return to base of combat units dispatched to the capital, as the dispute threatened to bubble out of control.

No matter the final score, Yanukovich will win from the game, as television cameras will show him supporting Ukraine's team of the working class and ethnic Russians: Shakhtar. Part of the deal ending the crisis, after all, was to hold parliamentary elections in September, and Yanukovich's party must stand for seats, depending on an base electorate that, by and large, supports Shakhtar.

The game likewise will strengthen Yushchenko's political position, as the same television cameras will display the president to the nation as a normal chap who is happy to take in a match, and at the end of the game Yushchenko and no one else will hand over the trophy.

Ukrainian political analysts, and sports commentators alike were predicting a close match, and no magic resolution of the differences between Ukraine's president and prime minister. Ukraine's off-field battles will continue for years, observers said.

Source: Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Ukraine's Acting Prosecutor Opens Criminal Case Against Interior Minister

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine’s Acting Prosecutor General Viktor Shemchuk said Saturday a criminal case had been instituted against Interior Minister Vassily Tsushko and the investigation has been delegated to the National Security Service.

Interior Minister Vassily Tsushko
Shemchuk said he heard a report on pre-trial investigation of the clashes that occurred Friday inside the building of the Prosecutor General’ s Office between servicemen of two opposing agencies of state power – the police crack unit Berkut and the State Guard Service.

“In the format of that investigation, 50 eyewitnesses have been questioned and video materials confiscated from TV channels have been studied,” Shemchuk said. “A minute-by-minute stopwatch account of the events has been compiled.”

In the meantime, Vassily Tsushko believes that someone is trying to make him a scapegoat of this crisis.

“The goal is clear, and it’s to destabilize the activity of the police that has been ensuring stable observance of law and order for more than 50 days, since the very outbreak of this crisis,” he said.

“A more distant goal is to open struggle for the Interior Ministry,” Tsushko added.

He said in parliament Friday he had never exceeded his occupational powers.

“I told them openly that anyone who dares use force gets his mouth smashed, just like it should be,” Tsushko said. “They did get it yesterday because political banditry is unacceptable.”

Source: ITAR-Tass

Ukraine's Leaders Resolve Crisis

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's feuding president and prime minister agreed early Sunday to hold an early parliamentary election on Sept. 30, diffusing a months-long political crisis that had threatened to escalate into violence.

Special police force officers and supporters of Ukraine's Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych secure the prosecutor's building in Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday early morning, May 26, 2007.
"We found a decision, which is a compromise," President Viktor Yushchenko was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency after emerging from eight hours of tense talks. "Now we can say that the political crisis in Ukraine is over."

Tensions had been growing since April, when Yushchenko ordered the dissolution of parliament , where Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych leads the majority coalition. The president claimed the premier and his supporters were trying to usurp presidential power. Parliament defied the order, calling it unconstitutional

The president summoned thousands of troops to Ukraine's capital Saturday, but forces loyal to the nation's prime minister stopped them outside Kiev.

Analysts said Yushchenko's move was an attempt to pressure Yanukovych to agree on an early date for new parliamentary elections, rather than a sign he was preparing for violent confrontation.

In the hours-long talks, Yushchenko had sought new elections as early as possible, demanding them held first in May, then in June. Yanukovych wanted them no earlier than the fall.

Yushchenko took control earlier in the week of the 32,000 troops who answer to the interior minister, a Yanukovych loyalist. A statement on the presidential Web site said that Yushchenko ordered the troops to Kiev in a move "necessary to guarantee a calm life for the city, to prevent provocations."

The statement did not specify how many troops were sent. Nikolai Mishakin, their deputy commander, said on Ukrainian television that nearly 3,500 were prevented from entering Kiev. He promised his troops would not turn back, but vowed they would not resort to violence since none had firearms.

Yushchenko, however, denied that he had sent additional interior troops to the capital, calling such reports "great stupidity" and "misinformation." Yushchenko said he had only ordered 2,000 troops to Kiev to maintain order during weekend festivities, a move he described as routine.

Kiev residents are celebrating the capital's anniversary this weekend and a major soccer game is planned for Sunday.

Several hundred flag-waving supporters of both leaders held competing rallies in front of the presidential office where Yushchenko and Yanukovych were meeting. A thin line of police separated the two camps of protesters.

Yanukovych said he, Yushchenko and other senior officials and politicians who took part in the negotiations agreed that the country cannot be allowed to slide into violence.

"We will do everything so that this doesn't happen again," Yanukovych said.

Yushchenko came to office in 2005 after the popular uprising known as the Orange Revolution broke out in reaction to Yanukovych being counted as winner of a fraud-plagued presidential ballot. The Supreme Court annulled that vote and Yushchenko won a rerun.

Yushchenko was poisoned with dioxin, which badly scarred his face, in the course of the race, and the mystery of who might have done it, and why, has never been solved.

He has sought to lead Ukraine into the European Union and NATO but his agenda has since been complicated by chronic political turmoil, including fighting among his supporters and the ongoing disputes with Yanukovych, who wants to preserve the country's close ties with Moscow.

Yanukovych staged a remarkable political comeback. In last year's parliamentary elections, his party won the largest share of seats, apparently benefiting from wide voter dissatisfaction with the country's stalled reforms and internecine political sparring.

On Thursday, Yushchenko fired longtime foe Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun , a Yanukovych ally , saying Piskun could not serve as the country's chief prosecutor while acting as a member of parliament.

Security officers were sent to oust Piskun, but riot police loyal to Yanukovych immediately moved to protect him, standing guard outside his office.

"I think these maneuvers with security forces are meant to give the president a chance to maneuver at talks," said Vadim Karasyov, head of the Kiev-based Institute on Global Strategies.

Source: AP

Troop Columns En Route To Ukraine Capital

KIEV, Ukraine -- More than two thousand troops were en route to the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Saturday, as fears of a military intevention rose in the former Soviet republic.

Riot police stand guard at public prosecutor's office
Combat formations containing a total 2,050 soldiers were travelling by lorry from several bases in the country, and could arrive in Kiev as early Saturday evening or during Sunday, said general Oleksander Kikhtenko, Ukraine Interior Ministry troop commander.

All the lorry columns were halted, pending further instructions, he said. Columns were reported idling on the side of the road in rural districts of the Odessa, Poltava, and Zaporizhia provinces.

News of the troop movements came one day after President Viktor Yushchenko threatened to send troops to 'restore order' to the capital Kiev.

The pro-Europe Yushchenko has been locked in a long-running battle with his political nemesis, pro-Russia Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, over the legality of early parliamentary elections called by Yushchenko, and move's by Yanukovich's coalition to dominate parliament.

The conflict came to a head earlier this week when pro-Yanukovich police led by Interior Ministry head broke into the Prosecutor General's office in Kiev, to bring back to his desk a pro-Yanukovich Prosecutor General Yushchenko had sacked.

The troop movements, carried out in broad daylight and easily halted by pro-Yanukovich MPs flagging the columns down, appeared to be a pressure tactic by Yushchenko to force the pro-Yanukovich police to evacuate the Prosecutor General's office, in order to avoid a confrontation with combat troops.

'God forbid that it should come to bloodshed,' Kikhtenko said.

Police in combat armour and wearing maroon berets of the Berkut anti-riot force were visible in and around the Prosecutor General's office building, but aside from a few hundred demonstrators from either side in the conflict the city district was quiet.

Vasyl Tsushko, Ukraine's Interior Minister and leader of the Thursday assault on Prosecutor General's office, took a hard line, telling reporters 'we have sufficient means and people, to hold the building.'

But at the same time Tsushko made clear he preferred to resolve the conflict in courts rather than by shooting, saying 'I am fully prepared to answer before the law for my actions.'

Though theoretically subordinate to Tsushko, combat units within Ukraine's Interior Ministry traditionally take orders directly from the President.

Yushchenko in another overt raising of the stakes on Saturday signed a Presidential decree placing the Berkut police unit directly under Presidential control - placing the Berkut troopers in the difficult situation of defying an order by the commander-in-chief to evacuate the building.

Yushchenko also enjoys the loyalty of most of the army leadership, and that of the secret police the SBU. Yanukovich and his allies for months had claimed openly that Yushchenko was a lame duck President too weak to stand up to them.

A new round of talks between Yushchenko and Yanukovich began shortly after midday.

The European Union has called on both sides in the dispute to gather round the negotiating table.

In a statement issued in Berlin Friday, the EU's German presidency said all efforts should be focused on a peaceful settlement.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk met several foreign ambassadors in Kiev Friday evening.

Yatsenyuk said that he was confident the crisis in Ukraine would be resolved without bloodshed.

Source: Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Ukraine Leaders Meet Amid Crisis

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's president said he took command of 32,000 Interior Ministry troops Friday, and a ministry official rejected the order -- deepening the country's political crisis, as police guarded the office of the fired prosecutor general.

In this image from TV Ukrainian interior ministry police officers break the doors of the top prosecutor's building to let Ukraine's Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun get into the office after he was fired by President Viktor Yushchenko.
The former Soviet republic edged closer toward potential violence as lawmakers and officials allied with Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych called President Viktor Yushchenko's order a "putsch," and hundreds of supporters of each of the rival politicians staged competing rallies in Kiev.

Yanukovych and Yushchenko, along with other top political leaders, met late Friday for the first time since the president fired the prosecutor general a day earlier.

The meeting lasted more than three hours and stretched into early Saturday.

Yanukovych left without speaking to reporters and a Yushchenko spokeswoman said the group would resume talks on Saturday.

Tensions between the pair have been building for weeks, and the president's move to take control over the troops, reflecting doubt on the loyalty of servicemen under the ministry's command, suggested rising concern over possible clashes.

Analysts blamed both men for the impasse and warned that international mediators may have to intervene to prevent further disorder or bloodshed.

"If before, people felt apathy and irritation for authorities, now they hate it, now the government has lost all authority," political analyst Kost Bondarenko said. "Now everybody thinks that any sergeant can stage a coup."

In a statement on the presidential Web site, Yushchenko said the order was necessary "to prevent using Interior Ministry troops in the interest of some political forces that cause a threat for Ukraine's national security."

But ministry spokesman Konstantin Stogniy said the order was illegal, and "fulfilling illegal orders is a crime."

Dismissal sends tensions soaring

Yushchenko fired Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun on Thursday, saying he could not serve as a member of parliament and chief prosecutor simultaneously.

Yushchenko ordered state security officers and the head of the national security council, Ivan Plyushch, to Piskun's office to fulfill the order.

The Interior Ministry, which is led by a Yanukovych ally, responded by sending riot police to Piskun's office.

The Interior Ministry has about 32,000 troops and 220,000 regular policemen under its control; Yushchenko's order calls for his taking control only of the troops.

The Interior Ministry troops are led by Gen. Oleksandr Kihtenko, who is seen as a Yushchenko ally. Yushchenko aide Viktor Bondar said the command had confirmed its readiness to follow Yushchenko's order.

The dismissal of Piskun, a member of Yanukovych's party, severely aggravated tensions that have been running high since Yushchenko's April 2 order dissolving parliament and calling early elections.

Yushchenko said parliament's dissolution was necessary because Yanukovych and his coalition were trying to usurp presidential power.

But parliament, where Yanukovych leads the majority coalition, has defied the order, calling it unconstitutional.

Yushchenko came to office in 2005 after the Orange Revolution -- massive protests that broke out after Yanukovych was counted as winner of a fraud-plagued presidential ballot.

The Supreme Court annulled that vote and Yushchenko won a rerun.

But Yushchenko's goal of instituting political and economic reforms in the former Soviet republic have run aground over factional fighting among his supporters.

In last year's parliamentary elections, Yanukovych's party won the largest share of seats, apparently benefiting from wide voter dissatisfaction.

Yushchenko repeatedly has declared his aim of bringing Ukraine closer to the West, including eventual membership in NATO and the European Union.

Chronic political turmoil has hampered those aims and fed criticism of him for actions that are either ineffectual or unilateral.

Source: CNN

Tensions Soar In Ukraine As President Claims Command Of Interior Ministry Troops

KIEV, Ukraine -- President Viktor Yushchenko on Friday claimed command of Ukraine's 32,000 Interior Ministry troops, but a ministry official ejected the order amid a continuing standoff outside the prosecutors general's office that has dramatically escalated the country's political crisis.

Riot police guard Ukraine's public prosecutor's office in Kiev May 25, 2007. Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich placed himself on a direct collision course with Ukraine's president on Friday by denouncing his move to assume direct control of Interior Ministry troops.
Renewed tensions between the president and archrival Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych have been building for weeks, and the president's move to take control over the troops, reflecting doubt on the loyalty of servicemen under the ministry's command, appeared to suggest rising concern over possible clashes.

A statement on the presidential Web site said Yushchenko's order for the troops to come under his command was necessary «to prevent using Interior Ministry troops in the interest of some political forces that cause a threat for Ukraine's national security.

But ministry spokesman Konstantin Stogniy said Yushchenko's order was illegal, and «fulfilling illegal orders is a crime.»

The country's crisis intensified Thursday when Yushchenko fired Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun, saying Piskun, as a member of parliament, could serve simultaneously as chief prosecutor.

The Interior Ministry, which is led by a Yanukovych ally, responded by sending riot police to Piskun's office.

The Interior Ministry has about 32,000 troops and 220,000 regular policemen under its control; Yushchenko's order calls for his taking control only of the troops.

The Interior Ministry troops are led by Gen. Oleksandr Kihtenko, who is seen as a Yushchenko ally. The Interfax news agency cited Yushchenko aide Viktor Bondar as saying that the command had confirmed its readiness to follow Yushchenko's order, but the information could not immediately be confirmed.

The dismissal of Piskun, a member of Yanukovych's party, severely aggravated tensions that have been high since Yushchenko's April 2 order dissolving parliament and calling early elections.

«It is again a violation of the Constitution and making such a decision is unacceptable. ... We need to immediately stop legal nihilism,» Yanukovych said during an urgent meeting of his government.

Yushchenko said parliament's dissolution was necessary because Yanukovych and his coalition were trying to usurp presidential power.

But parliament, where Yanukovych leads the majority coalition, has defied the order, calling it unconstitutional.

Yushchenko's dissolution order led to weeks of argument and competing demonstrations between backers of the president and those of the premier, but no disorder has broken out.

The dispute complicated Thursday's dismissal of Piskun, since it was unclear whether parliament still legally exists.

Piskun on Thursday was initially defiant after Yushchenko announced the dismissal, but then said he would step aside once the order was officialy published in the presidential register - which occurred Friday.

It was not immediately clear, however, whether Piskun had received or acknowledged the order.

Both Yushchenko and Yanukovych had agreed to respect the Constitutional Court's decision on the dissolution order. But the court has been deliberating on the matter for weeks, and the discussions were complicated by Yushchenko's orders to fire several of its judges, including the chief judge.

Yushchenko came to office in 2005 after the bitter Orange Revolution, massive protests that broke out after Yanukovych was counted as winner of a fraud-plagued presidential ballot.

The Supreme Court annulled that vote and Yushchenko won a rerun.

But Yushchenko's goal of instituting political and economic reforms in the ex-Soviet nation have run aground over factional fighting among his supporters.

In last year's parliamentary elections, Yanukovych's party won the largest share of seats, apparently benefiting from wide voter dissatisfaction with the country's stalled reforms and internecine political sparring.

Yushchenko repeatedly has declared his aim of bringing Ukraine closer to the West, including eventual membership in NATO and the European Union.

But the chronic political turmoil has hampered those aims and fed criticism of him for actions that are either ineffectual or unilateral.

The European Union's external affairs commissioner, meanwhile, voiced concern about the ongoing events in Ukraine.

«I call upon all political forces in Ukraine to do their utmost, on the basis of a constructive attitude and in a peaceful and lawful manner, to find a viable political compromise to solve the current political impasse and to refrain from any action which would further exacerbate the situation, especially by involving the security forces,» Benita Ferrero-Waldner said in a statement from Brussels.

Source: AP

Yushchenko Puts Ukrainian Troops Under His Control (Update1)

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko took the country's interior ministry troops under presidential control, a day after the interior minister accused him of fomenting a coup, as a months-long political crisis deepened.

Viktor Yushchenko is taking charge
``The order was signed to prevent possible threats to the nation's interests and ensure that the interior troops, which had been until recently a part of the Interior Ministry, are not used to benefit political forces,'' read a statement posted on Yushchenko's Web site today.

Ukraine's political standoff worsened yesterday when Yushchenko fired Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun a month after hiring him.

Piskun is a member of parliament for the Party of the Regions, headed by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, Yushchenko's bitter rival.

After the dismissal, Interior Minster Vasyl Tsushko called it ``a coup d'etat,'' Interfax reported.

Power in Ukraine has been divided for months between Yushchenko, who became president in 2004 after a peaceful ``Orange Revolution'' and favors joining the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the premier, who seeks closer ties with Russia.

Yushchenko dissolved parliament on April 2 and called early elections, saying Yanukovych was trying to oust him.

Street Protests

Armed troops loyal to both sides scuffled in several public buildings in Kiev yesterday, pictures broadcast on Russian state television channels showed, as crowds of Yushchenko and Yanukovych supporters took to the streets.

The troops which Yushchenko has now brought under his direct control must ``guard and patrol Ukraine's state institutions, particularly the Prosecutor General's office and the Constitutional Court,'' the statement said.

Yushchenko and Yanukovych, 56, are due to meet for talks today, Yushchenko's office said earlier.

``There is a quiet coup d'etat going on,'' Yushchenko told a press conference yesterday, accusing his political opponents of trying to gain power by illegal means.

``There is only one solution to this -- political agreement. People with guns won't help to solve the conflict.''

Yushchenko, 53, and Yanukovych have failed to agree when or whether the early elections should go ahead.

The Constitutional Court has been debating the issue for weeks, with no result.

Trips Canceled

Yushchenko canceled a trip to a summit in the Czech Republic because of the crisis, his press service said. Yanukovych returned to Kiev yesterday, cutting short a meeting of prime ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose grouping of 12 former Soviet republics.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, attending the CIS meeting in Yalta, expressed ``some concern'' over the mounting political crisis, Interfax reported. He urged adherence to the law and to the constitution, the agency said.

Yushchenko and Yanukovych have battled each other for control of the country's future since Yushchenko became president following the Orange Revolution in late 2004 that overturned the results of a fraud-ridden election.

Yanukovych was initially declared the winner of the presidential ballot but a court later ordered a new vote in the wake of widespread voting irregularities, a ballot that was won by Yushchenko.

Yanukovych's party finished first in parliamentary elections in 2006 and later formed a coalition government.

Source: Bloomberg

Ukraine PM's Allies Control Key Building, Plan Rally

KIEV, Ukraine -- Allies of Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich took control of a key building in the capital on Friday and promised a mass rally, deepening a power struggle with the country's pro-Western president.

Special police force officers secure the prosecutor's building as supporters of Ukraine's Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych protest against the dismissal of top prosecutor by the president
Yanukovich and President Viktor Yushchenko, who hold different visions of Ukraine's future, have been unable for weeks to agree on a date for an early parliamentary election nearly two months after the president dissolved parliament.

Tensions boiled over on Thursday when Yushchenko dismissed Ukraine's prosecutor general and accused riot police who rushed to defend him of breaking the law.

Police loyal to the interior minister and prime minister, who is closer to Moscow in outlook, maintained an uneasy standoff through the night with a separate security unit charged with guarding government buildings.

Periodic scuffles broke out and as dawn approached, members of parliament allied with Yanukovich, backed up by riot police, evicted the other unit from the prosecutor general's office. Thousands of the prime minister's supporters gathered outside.

Kiev streets bustled in normal fashion as residents headed to work. Interior Minister Vasyl Tsushko said tens of thousands of the prime minister's supporters would mass later in the day.

Yushchenko, who cancelled a trip to a meeting of central European leaders in the Czech Republic, summoned security officials to a night-time meeting, but no statement was issued.

His office said he had offered to hold new talks with Yanukovich on Friday morning.

Television showed riot police, accompanied by Tsushko, clambering over a fence on Thursday and smashing their way into the building to enable sacked prosecutor general Svyatoslav Piskun to enter his office.

"What minister Tsushko has done is a crime. I am saying plainly that this is a simple fact -- the use of force in solving a political conflict," Yushchenko told a news conference.

Yanukovich said Piskun's dismissal was groundless and "could have led to catastrophic consequences.

"Let me assure you, my fellow countrymen, the government will allow no anarchy in Ukraine, it will allow no civil war," he said in a television address.

Piskun, an ally of the prime minister, was dismissed a month after being reinstated by the president.

Both Yushchenko and Yanukovich called this week for quick action to break the deadlock over the election date.

The president, who wants a poll as quickly as possible, said a deal to stage the vote had collapsed at the last minute. The prime minister says no election can be held before October.

Analyst Oleksander Dergachyov said it was vital to restore dialogue to shore up Ukraine's post-Soviet institutions.

"When laws no longer work, political decisions are required. The first step in this direction is to hold an election to parliament," Dergachyov told Radio Era.

"We have to turn this page in our history and set about creating a new political culture."

Source: Reuters