Parliamentary committees received new leaders from among the deputies of the Party of Regions

Yesterday, the coalition appointed its representatives to almost all the vacant posts in the Verkhovna Rada committees, agreeing to cede only one committee to the opposition - on freedom of speech and information. The BYuT faction, which promised to block the adoption of this decision and themselves applied for some positions, unexpectedly abandoned their plans.

Yesterday's plenary meeting of the Verkhovna Rada was preceded by a meeting of the conciliation council of leaders of parliamentary factions and heads of parliamentary committees. The main demand of the BYuT faction and the opposition government was the appointment of opposition representatives as heads of several committees. Otherwise, the opposition promised to block the work of parliament. “We will block the work of the Verkhovna Rada until our demands for the redistribution of parliamentary committees between the opposition and the coalition are met,” Andrei Kozhemyakin, first deputy head of the BYuT faction, told reporters last Friday.

However, no one supported the demands of BYuT during the meeting of the conciliation council. “Leave it alone! We need to pass the 2010 budget before May,” Verkhovna Rada Chairman Vladimir Litvin exhorted those present. “Otherwise we won’t be able to respect the veterans. And then what?”

The speaker's question remained unanswered.

“The country is in danger!” the head of the BYuT faction, Ivan Kirilenko, said casually. “We are against considering today the draft resolution on the distribution of committees! We still need to consult - at least before lunch.”

It should be noted that in accordance with draft resolution #6246, which the “regionals” insisted on priority consideration, it was planned to appoint representatives of their faction as heads of a number of parliamentary committees. Thus, the chairman of the parliamentary committee on agrarian policy and land relations was to become people's deputy Grigory Kaletnik, the committee on finance and banking - Alexander Peklushenko, the deputy chairman of the budget committee - Pyotr Melnik, the deputy head of the committee on economic policy - Yuri Voropaev, and the first deputy chairman of the committee on legislative support for law enforcement activities is Vladimir Oliynyk. In addition, the position of first deputy chairman of the committee on science and education was to be taken by Maxim Lutsky, deputy chairman of the committee on fuel and energy complex, nuclear policy and nuclear safety by Alexey Kunchenko, secretary of the committee on legal policy by Vladimir Tolstenko.

In turn, BYuT was confident that representatives of the opposition should have been appointed to vacant positions; in particular, deputy Andrei Shevchenko (BYuT) should have become the head of the committee on freedom of speech and information.

At the meeting of the conciliation council, the faction leaders failed to reach a compromise. In the session hall, the deputies were also far from consensus.

— What’s wrong with this? Is the quota principle of distribution of committee leadership being observed? — the head of the Party of Regions faction, Alexander Efremov, addressed the opposition representatives.

- So this is a boomerang that will hit you! Can't you see this? — Oleg Lyashko, a member of the BYuT faction, answered him. “Give us control functions, have a conscience!”

BYuT's calls were not heeded - 234 people's deputies voted for resolution #6246, while the required 226. The "Regionals" agreed to cede only one committee to the opposition - on freedom of speech and information - but decided to postpone the appointment of its leader. “They probably read Yanukovych’s interview (published in The Washington Post on April 13—Kommersant),” BYuT representatives phlegmatically shared among themselves as they left the hall. “Everything was done correctly, nothing was broken,” the head of the Party of Regions faction, Alexander Efremov, told Kommersant. Nobody blocked the parliamentary rostrum.

Valery Kucheruk

The coalition separated posts