| Ukrainian Prime Minister goes on vacation and joins the opposition Leonid Kuchma yesterday failed to obtain guarantees of personal security in the event of the end of his term, and the opposition failed to obtain guarantees for holding “fair presidential elections” on December 26. A mutually beneficial “exchange” - support for amendments to the constitution and the law on presidential elections - was thwarted by the Rada. The reason was the president’s refusal to sign a decree on the resignation of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who is the only candidate from the “party in power.” The most the president agreed to was to send Yanukovych on leave during the elections. First Deputy Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, who is in charge of financial issues, has been temporarily appointed acting prime minister.
But even this slight concession by Leonid Kuchma to the demands of the opposition allowed Taras Chornovil, the new head of Viktor Yanukovych’s election headquarters, to declare that the President of Ukraine “is ready to support opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko.” Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, Mr. Chornovil said on Ekho Moskvy radio, is no longer a candidate from the government, and Mr. Kuchma is ready to support Viktor Yushchenko. “In reality, the local administrative resource worked for Yushchenko in most regions of Ukraine, elections were absolutely openly rigged for him,” said Taras Chornovil
Yanukovych himself does not believe that the president’s decision to sacrifice him is correct. “What is happening now will certainly remain on his conscience,” the prime minister said in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corierra della Sera. “Now it is necessary to fight the remnants of the old government, which is represented by the opposition, as well as their allies in the current government. After the second round of elections, this shameful axis became obvious,” the prime minister said. “I’m going on vacation so that after December 26 I can return as president,” Yanukovych said. “I am not withdrawing my candidacy today, and I will not withdraw it in the coming days. Such a hypothesis has been launched, but there is no truth in it.”
The prime minister, who has been sent on vacation, is apparently being disingenuous. He cannot help but know that Leonid Kuchma was ready to “surrender” him immediately after the first round of elections on October 31. According to information from the Vremya Novostei newspaper, obtained from informed Kremlin sources, the Russian leadership was already informed of such sentiments of the Ukrainian president. However, such a bias of Mr. Kuchma did not find support from Moscow in those days.
Yanukovych's resignation "could only happen with the good will of Viktor Fedorovich." However, “due to the attacks” of the opposition, he stated that he “has the right to resist” - this is how Kuchma explained his motives to the ex-President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk and Rada Speaker Vladimir Lytvyn. Both yesterday hastily arrived at Kuchma’s country residence in Koncha-Zaspa to find out why the agreements reached on December 6 were breaking down. Then the president, at a conciliation council with the factions of the Rada, promised on December 7 to sign decrees to dismiss the government and replace the composition of the Central Executive Committee. In exchange, the Rada, with one vote - in a “package” - promised to support changes to the constitution and election legislation, the essence of the agreements was explained yesterday by former Kuchma adviser, Rada deputy Alexander Volkov.
Kuchma’s sudden refusal to dismiss the prime minister also became a “stumbling block” in the six-hour negotiations between the government and the opposition in the presence of international representatives on the night of December 6-7, Roman Zvarich, a Rada deputy from Our Ukraine, said yesterday. Negotiations in the presence of Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus, Polish Alexander Kwasniewski, OSCE head Jan Kubis, EU High Representative Javier Solana and Russian State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov yielded results close to zero. The three-point statement, which was released after the negotiations, was purely declarative: the parties agreed that the president and the Rada should update the composition of the Central Election Commission and amend the election law in time for the “presidential” vote on December 26. However, it was not possible to discuss the issue of voting for constitutional reform. “There are no results of negotiations either in the Rada or in the Mariinsky Palace (negotiations with the participation of international mediators took place there - Ed.) because no one trusts the president. Tomorrow will show whether it will be possible to reach an agreement on a “package” vote,” said Yuriy Orobets, an opposition Rada deputy, in a commentary to Vremya Novostey.
Socialist leader Alexander Moroz, who is part of the Power of the People coalition in support of Yushchenko, yesterday expressed suspicion that Yushchenko's supporters, in principle, do not want reform in order to retain a large amount of power for their leader if he wins the vote on December 26. Moroz considers the talk about Yanukovych’s resignation frivolous, since “the bulk of the falsifications took place at the level of local authorities.” Yushchenko’s closest ally, Yulia Tymoshenko, unlike Mr. Moroz, frankly explained the reasons for her leader’s refusal to undertake political reform before the re-vote: in this case, “the president will be deprived of the opportunity to restore order in the country, and to demand Yushchenko’s consent to reform is blackmail".
Yulia Tymoshenko herself turned out to be the person of the day yesterday. Information appeared on the Interpol website that she was put on the international wanted list because she was accused of fraud. The electronic dossier of the international police organization indicates that a warrant for her arrest was issued in Moscow. An hour later, comments from Ukrainian politicians appeared, according to which Tymoshenko cannot be arrested on the territory of Ukraine, since she enjoys parliamentary immunity. And an hour later, information about the search for one of the leaders of the Ukrainian opposition inexplicably disappeared from the Interpol website.
Meanwhile, the possibility of a compromise between the main participants in the Ukrainian drama is assessed differently. If the influential mayor of Kyiv, Alexander Omelchenko, assures that the government and the opposition will agree “in the next 2-3 days,” when “Kuchma and Lytvyn sign a package of stabilizing documents,” then Ukrainian political scientists are not optimistic.
“I don’t think that a compromise will be reached in the coming days,” Vadim Karasev, head of the Ukrainian Institute of Global Strategies, said in a commentary to Vremya Novostey. - The game that is now going on between Kuchma, Yanukovych, Yushchenko and Litvin has become too complicated, around whom the elite has gathered, concerned about their future if any of the candidates wins. Kuchma benefits from prolonging the crisis. Even if the elections on December 26 do not look legitimate, and their results are considered questionable due to the fact that the Rada does not provide for them legislatively, the president will not lose anything from this. New elections without the participation of Yushchenko and Yanukovych can be called in 2005. At the same time, both candidates have limited opportunities. Yushchenko does not have a majority in the Rada to push through the rotation of regional governors and the resignation of Yanukovych. The Donetsk elite with its candidate (Yanukovych - Ed .) is going all-in, realizing that the current government is not a reliable partner. In the near future, events will develop “under the carpet” - Kuchma will maneuver, both candidates will press for the decisions they need at the level of the corridors of power. The winner of the Ukrainian drama will be the one who quickly picks up and manages to retain the “shaky power.”
Meanwhile, the Russian theme is still present in Ukrainian events. Yesterday, supporters of Viktor Yushchenko tried to deliver an open letter to President Putin to the Russian Embassy in Kyiv. The message looks extraordinary - it is a piece of orange fabric about 60 meters long and is called “a letter from Ukraine.” “Love Ukraine as a mother, and not as a delicacy,” the authors suggest to Vladimir Putin. Russian diplomats offered to send the letter by mail. Svetlana STEPANENKO, Kyiv, Arkady DUBNOV |
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