Translated material
Rada in the darkness
Yulia Tymoshenko is preparing an algorithm for changing power
Yesterday, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (BYuT) and the presidential bloc “Our Ukraine” blocked a meeting of the Rada . The pretext for the political rebellion was the refusal of the ruling Anti-Crisis Coalition to consider Mrs. Tymoshenko's bill on limiting utility tariffs , as well as to introduce amendments to the 2007 state budget by President Viktor Yushchenko to increase minimum wages and pensions from April 1.The fighting in parliament was serious. Yesterday, deputies of the Anti-Crisis Coalition arrived in the Rada two hours earlier than the opposition in order to prevent the disruption of the meetings, as had happened the day before. However, the well-slept Tymoshenkoites seized the electrical switchboard, leaving the Rada without electricity and a voting system. The demoralized ruling coalition, crowded in the semi-darkness at the podium, approved the laws “manually.” Tymoshenko regarded the vice speaker's threats to bring BYuT deputies to criminal liability as repression. The current government - “outright criminals and mafia” - adopted such habits “from the Kuchma regime,” Tymoshenko said. If the coalition does not make concessions, the opposition promises to maintain a 24-hour siege of the electrical switchboard, and then block the approaches to toilets and cafeterias.
Yesterday, Yulia Tymoshenko said that by the end of the week she would agree with the president and his Our Ukraine bloc on “a serious algorithm on how to remove from power the people who daily destroy the country,” and that by the end of the week this plan would be made public. The president became a forced ally of Tymoshenko in the fight against the government, since a quarrel with the head of the BYuT is tantamount to a loss of power. In this case, “Miss Revolution” will join the ruling coalition, supporting “anti-presidential” laws in the Rada.
Taras Chornovil, a member of the Party of Regions, called the opposition actions “petty hooliganism” and an attempt to “appropriate the government’s achievements.” Back in December 2006, when approving the budget, the government planned to gradually increase salaries and pensions from April 1 to May 1. According to Chornovil, the opposition timed “openly tabloid actions” to coincide with the revision of social payments in order to appropriate the laurels of “fighters for the welfare of the people.” As for the regulation of tariff policy in the regions, in accordance with the decision of the constitutional court, this should be dealt with by local governments, and not by the Rada.
The Prime Minister yesterday scolded the ministers for the fact that Ukrainian citizens do not know about the planned increase in social payments. At his request, Deputy Prime Minister for Finance Mykola Azarov said at a briefing that the government would increase minimum wages and pensions from April 1. The prime minister also scolded Economy Minister Vladimir Makukha for the lack of control over the growth of utility tariffs in the regions. Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych demanded “not to follow on his heels” during trips to the regions, but to “work with subordinates” throughout the “vertical of executive power - up to the district level.”
Yanukovych's Party of Regions regarded Yushchenko's alliance with Tymoshenko as "disregard for the constitution." The Presidential Secretariat is preparing a “constitutional coup,” Vasily Kiselyov, deputy head of the “Regionals” faction, said yesterday in the Rada. “Our Ukrainian” Anatoly Lutsenko called this statement a “provocation” and “an adventure to destabilize the situation in the country.” With the help of such a trick, the “regionals” divert attention from the “creeping coup d’etat”, the organizers of which are themselves, “seizing more powers each time” than allowed by the constitution.
“Tymoshenko is hardly joking when she talks about the algorithm for removing the government from power,” Vadim Karasev, head of the Ukrainian Institute of Global Strategies, told Vremya Novostey. “There are probably such scenarios.” According to the expert, these scenarios consist of three acts: an escalation of the conflict with a demand for early parliamentary elections, the subsequent achievement of political superiority by the “orange” forces, as well as a decision by the constitutional court, which will be an unexpected surprise for the government and the ruling coalition. The political scientist believes that the court may invalidate the constitutional reform or the recently adopted law on the Cabinet of Ministers, returning the lost powers to the president. “For now, Yushchenko remains aloof from the unification of Our Ukraine and BYuT, but he is not a mere observer,” notes Mr. Karasev.