[Ohio UZO News] Ukraine: AP; FT; WP; EDM

[Deychak, Orest]

Yet again, internal political rivalries and animosities take precedence
over the common good. The timing is especially unfortunate given
Russia's invasion of Georgia. The vodka must be flowing in Moscow... OD


AP

 

Ukrainian president accuses opponents of coup try, govt on verge of
collapse 

By MARIA DANILOVA 

Associated Press Writer

3 September 2008

06:52

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukraine's president ordered the creation of a new
governing coalition Wednesday and threatened fresh elections, accusing
his rival prime minister and opposition parties of attempting a
"constitutional coup."

Viktor Yushchenko's statement, broadcast live on national television,
came shortly after his allies in parliament pulled out of the governing
coalition, putting it in the brink of collapse.

Ukraine's Western-leaning government has long been marked by bitter
feuding between rivals and even allies. But this latest crisis comes as
the country faces growing uncertainty in its ties with Moscow, after
Ukraine condemned Russia's war with Georgia last month.

The Tuesday night walkout came after lawmakers loyal to Prime Minister
Yulia Tymoshenko sided with opposition parties to pass a law weakening
presidential powers and boosting those of the prime minister.

"Yesterday, a political and constitutional coup began in parliament,"
Yushchenko said in his speech. "I consider the events in the Ukrainian
parliament a formal beginning of the formation of a new parliamentary
coalition."

He ordered lawmakers to form a new coalition and threatened to call
early elections if no coalition is formed on time.

The Cabinet will continue working up to 60 days until a new coalition is
formed.

Yushchenko and Tymoshenko, possible rivals in Ukraine's 2010
presidential elections, have been engaged in a tug-of-war ever since
Tymoshenko returned as prime minister late last year

Financial Times

www.ft.com

Ukraine's coalition turns on itself

By Roman Olearchyk in Kiev

Published: September 3 2008 10:04 | Last updated: September 3 2008 10:59

Ukraine's pro-western coalition descended into chaos on Wednesday as
western leaders seek to demonstrate their support for Kiev following
Russia's intervention in Georgia.

Ministers backing President Victor Yushchenko walked out of a cabinet
meeting on Wednesday after their Our Ukraine party threatened to quit a
coalition with the bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko, the prime minister. 

Addressing the nation, President Yushchenko accused Ms Tymoshenko's bloc
of plotting an "anti-constitutional coup" by voting in tandem with
communists and the Moscow-leaning Regions party in favour of legislation
to cut the president's authority. "Without a doubt, the collapse of the
coalition was a well-planned action," he said. He threatened to dissolve
parliament unless politicians agreed a new coalition. The partners still
have up to 40 days to try to reconcile their differences.

The west has been paying heightened attention to Ukraine because like
Georgia it is a former Soviet republic keen to join both the Nato
alliance and the European Union.

Russia's military incursion in defence of the breakaway region of South
Ossetia and occupation of large buffer zones in Georgia proper has
raised fears that Moscow could next target Ukraine, a much larger
country of 46 million where Russia and the West have also jostled for
influence. 

Moscow has denied suggestions it could challenge Ukraine's territorial
integrity, but has openly protested against the speedy westward
integration drive adopted by Mr Yushchenko, including plans to join the
Nato military alliance.

Ukraine's latest bout of internecine political warfare comes ahead of a
visit to Kiev this week by US Vice President Dick Cheney. Mr. Cheney is
to stop off in Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Italy to rally
pro-western support against Moscow.

Fresh political turmoil is unlikely to help Kiev's bid for speedy
integration with the EU and Nato. Kiev hopes to conclude an agreement on
closer integration with the EU at a summit in Evian, France, on
September 9. Ukraine's president also hopes Nato will grant his country
a Membership Action Plan in December, a move that would kick start
membership preparations.

Olexiy Haran, a political science professor in Kiev, said the political
standoff in Kiev was more rooted in the ambitions of Ukraine's political
elite, than in any plot by Russia to undercut Kiev's pro-west path. But
he warned that "Moscow would try to capitalise on it".

"If the coalition collapses, Ukraine's pro-western drive will not change
in the long term, but it will suffer short term setbacks. This scenario
would complicate Ukraine's efforts to integrate closer with Nato and the
European Union in the near term," he added.

The latest twist in Ukraine's complicated and cut-throat politics, is
the culmination of an escalating rivalry between Ms Tymoshenko and Mr
Yushchenko, both of whom are expected to spar for the presidential post
in a contest that kicks off in 2009.

Mr Yushchenko's camp has accused Ms Tymoshenko of siding with the
Kremlin by refusing to adopt a resolution sharply condemning Moscow for
its actions in Georgia. The president's party issued an ultimatum to Ms
Tymoshenko warning it would quit the coalition if her bloc refused to
support the Georgia resolution. Mr Yushchenko's party also wants the
premier's bloc to drop legislation that would cut presidential
authority.

Ms Tymoshenko has expressed solidarity with Georgia and claims the
accusations from the president's camp merely aim to discredit her.

Collapse of the coalition would set the stage for either snap elections,
or a new coalition that would include opposition parties that lean
towards Moscow.

Speculation has abounded that either Tymoshenko's or Yushchenko's party
could join forces with the Regions party of former prime minister Viktor
Yanukovich. All three are almost certain to run in the presidential
election in about 16 months, and analysts have seen the arguments
between Tymoshenko and Yushchenko as political manoeuvring ahead of the
poll.

Several Our Ukraine members told radio stations they had agreed that the
party would leave the coalition, but the party itself has made no
official announcement. The two parties have 10 days to sort out their
differences and revive the coalition.

If they do not, the constitution gives parliament 30 days to create a
new coalition. If that does not happen, the president has the right to
call a new election. Analysts have said, and polls have shown, that in
the event of an election now, Our Ukraine would lose seats, while both
Tymoshenko's Bloc and the Regions party would gain.

The Washington Post

Editorial

Understanding Russia; Moscow's aggression is aimed not at Georgia's
territory but at Europe's new democracies. 

2 September 2008

FINAL

A14

 

THERE WAS a telling juxtaposition of headlines from Russia yesterday. On
one side you had President Dmitry Medvedev claiming a "sphere of
influence" outside Russian borders and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
warning the West not to arm Georgia. On the other side, you had the
murder of Magomed Yevloyev, a journalist whose independence had angered
the government. He was arrested, shot in the head by police while riding
in the back of a police car, and dumped by the side of the road.

This is a moment for clarity in thinking about Russia, which is forcibly
occupying sizable chunks of a neighboring country and claiming it has
every right to do so. Some in the West are tempted to agree. After all,
the United States and its allies invaded Iraq and attacked Serbia; why
can't Russia do the same to Georgia? Why can't it have a NAFTA of its
own?

Here's why. The United States, Britain and other nations deposed the
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein because he repeatedly violated his
promises to the United Nations, after his earlier invasion of Kuwait, to
rid himself of weapons of mass destruction and prove that he had done
so. They invaded Serbia to protect the people of Kosovo from mass ethnic
cleansing and destruction. In both cases, reasonable people can argue
that it was wrong to act without U.N. authorization; they can make a
case that the campaigns were unwise on many other grounds.

What they can't argue is that the allies were motivated by a desire for
conquest or occupation; as the presidential campaign has shown, the
American people can hardly wait to pull their troops out and leave
Iraqis to manage their own affairs. NAFTA, meanwhile, was freely entered
into by three democratically elected governments. If Canada wants out,
the United States will not seize Ottawa.

Russia, on the other hand, is seeking to overthrow a democratically
elected government precisely because that government does not want to be
subjugated to Moscow. Mr. Medvedev's claim of a Georgian genocide, after
his own government published casualty figures of 200 or so, is
deliberately preposterous; he is mocking the very idea of humanitarian
intervention. As Russia under president-turned-prime-minister Vladimir
Putin has become less and less democratic, it has become increasingly
aggressive toward neighboring democracies. The more democratic those
neighbors become -- see Ukraine, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia --
the more hostile Russia becomes.

The brave Mr. Yevloyev, who returned to his hometown in the province of
Ingushetia despite ample warning that Mr. Putin's thugs were waiting for
him, may seem like a footnote to all this. But his death -- like the
deaths of Anna Politkovskaya and so many other journalists and liberal
politicians before him, like the death of the free press and open debate
-- is at the heart of the story. Mr. Putin is turning Russia into
something very like a fascist state, and its natural inclination will be
to replicate itself abroad. "The Cold War was clearly about ideologies,"
Russia's ambassador to the European Union, Vladimir Chizhov, noted
yesterday, and then claimed: "We are living in a different world today.
There is no ground for talk about a second Cold War."

Judging by the E.U.'s feckless response yesterday to Russia's
aggression, many European leaders still want to believe Mr. Chizhov. But
what is happening in Georgia is very much about ideology, and the longer
the Europeans pretend otherwise, the greater the damage they will have
to contain.

http://www.washingtonpost.com <javascript:void(0)> 

Eurasia Daily Monitor

September 2, 2008

PARTY OF REGIONS SPLITS OVER GEORGIA AND NATO

The Party of Regions expelled National Security and Defense Council
(NRBO) Secretary Raisa Bohatyryova from the party's senior
decision-making body, the Political Council, and from the party itself
on September 1. Until being appointed NRBO secretary in December 2007,
Bohatyryova had been the leader of the Regions parliamentary faction.

The surprise decision quickly followed Bohatyryova's support for
Georgian territorial integrity and NATO membership during a luncheon
held three days before at Washington's Metropolitan Club by the
U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC). Bohatyryova was on an official
visit to the United States from August 24 to 30.

Bohatyryova's remarks were in response to two questions posed by
Jamestown and by Arieh Cohen of the Heritage Foundation. Asked whether
she supported President Viktor Yushchenko's support for Georgia's
territorial integrity or that of Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych in
support of South Ossetian and Abkhaz independence, she answered that
Yanukovych's position did not reflect the party's position and gave her
strong support to Yushchenko.

Bohatyryova praised Yushchenko for attempting to unite politicians and
Ukraine and criticized other political leaders for putting their
personal interests above national ones. She added, "they frequently use
foreign challenges for their party and electoral plans despite the risks
of a threat to national security," an oblique reference to Yanukovych
and his stance on NATO (Ukrainian News Agency, August 31).

Bohatyryova ridiculed Regions' official view on NATO as one that was in
favor of NATO membership when the party was in power and against it when
it was in opposition. She never raised the question of a referendum on
NATO, a persistent Regions demand.

Citing the Kosovo precedent, Yanukovych has supported the independence
of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Two days after Bohatyryova's remarks the
Crimean branch of Regions appealed to the parliamentary faction to do
the same (www.partyofregions.org.ua, August 26; www.prava.com.ua, August
28). The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MZS) described
Yanukovych's call as "harming the national interests of Ukraine,"
"provocative," "irresponsible," and "unpleasant" (www.mfa.gov.ua, August
29).

In a statement issued by the Regions faction, it did not support
Yanukovych and the Crimean branch's call for Ukraine to recognize the
independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Instead, the statement
blamed the authorities for not staying neutral and dragging Ukraine into
the conflict by supporting Georgia and unleashing a "massive
anti-Russian propaganda campaign" (www.rada.kiev.ua, August 26).

The Regions faction demanded a return to good relations with Russia,
constitutional changes that would transform Ukraine into a non-bloc
(neutral) country, and a referendum on NATO membership. Regions' call
for the creation of a temporary parliamentary commission to
investigative the delivery of weapons to Georgia and the participation
of Ukrainians on the Georgian side echoed claims made by Russia about
Ukraine's alleged involvement in the conflict.

Ukrainian politicians and the media have pointed out that arms
deliveries to Georgia began under Presidents Leonid Kuchma and Eduard
Shevardnadze, not under Yushchenko and Mikheil Saakashvili. Ukraine also
supplied arms to Georgia during Yanukovych's government from 2002 to
2004.

Bohatyryova's expulsion from Regions was propelled by Yanukovych's anger
that she had belittled his position as leader. Bohatyryova cited senior
Regions leaders who condemned Russia's occupation of Georgian territory
and said that Yanukovych's call for recognizing the independence of
South Ossetia and Abkhazia was a "personal viewpoint" that did not
reflect the collective leadership of the party.

Deputy Regions faction leader Oleksandr Yefremov disagreed, claiming
that Yanukovych's position was the outcome of a "consolidated point of
view of the Political Council of Regions. It was not the viewpoint of
one person" (www.pravda.com.ua, September 1).

Asked during the USUBC luncheon whether she would be advising her U.S.
contacts of Ukraine's support for a NATO MAP, she said, "There is a need
to state loudly not only [its] importance but a rise of a threatening
situation if a Membership Action Plan is not given to Ukraine"
(www.pravda.com.ua, September 1). Bohatyryova's backing for Yushchenko's
strong support for a NATO MAP is at odds with Yanukovych's opposition to
a MAP.

Since the crisis Ukrainian polls have shown a reversal of the downward
trend in support for NATO membership that arose following the invasion
of Iraq and anti-NATO media campaigns during Yanukovych's 2002-2004
government and the 2004 elections (www.pravda.com.ua, September 1).
Support for NATO membership has risen back to a pre-Iraqi invasion level
of one third, while opposition to it has declined.

Bohatyryova stated unequivocally that the Black Sea Fleet would have to
withdraw by 2017 and that the constitution forbade foreign bases,
whether Russian or otherwise (a pointed reference to NATO or American
bases). Supporting Russia's stance, Regions has raised the question of
extending the lease beyond 2017, even though this flatly contradicts
Regions' support for Ukraine's neutrality, a status that rules out
foreign bases.

Regions has split over the Georgian crisis and indirectly over NATO.
Crimean Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU) leader Leonid Grach, an ally of
the pro-Yanukovych faction in the Crimean parliament, has criticized
Regions for its lack of a consolidated position on Georgia (Ukrainian
News Agency, September 1).

Yanukovych's support for the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia
is unpopular as support for the country's territorial integrity is as
high in eastern as it is in western Ukraine. With many Ukrainians and
Western observers looking to the Crimea as Russia's possible next
target, the pro-independence stance of Yanukovych and Regions will be
unpopular and will be used, as it already has been by the MZS, to
question their patriotism (see EDM, August 12).

The Georgian conflict has exposed long simmering divisions in Regions
between its virulent anti-orange ideological wing headed by Yanukovych,
to which many former KPU voters defected, and a pragmatic wing dominated
by big business with which Bohatyryova is aligned. The split may
significantly harm Yanukovych's chances ahead of the January 2010
presidential elections and open up eastern Ukraine to further advances
by the Yulia Tymoshenko bloc in the 2007 pre-term elections.
Bohatyryova's expulsion from Regions could be followed by Regions
defectors to the president's newly created United Center party (see EDM,
July 28).

--Taras Kuzio

 

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/ms-tnef
Size: 19985 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://clevelanduzo.org/pipermail/uzonews_clevelanduzo.org/attachments/20080903/a3ddff99/attachment.bin