[Ohio UZO News] Ukraine: NYT, AP, EDM

[Deychak, Orest]

The New York Times

www.nyt.com

Ukraine's Political Paralysis Gives Black Eyes to Orange Revolution
Heroes 

By CLIFFORD J. LEVY 

23 June 2009

Late Edition - Final

4

 

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine, which has suffered a roundhouse blow from the
economic crisis, has had no finance minister since February. It also has
no foreign minister or defense minister. The transportation minister
just stepped down. The interior minister has offered to resign as well,
after being accused of drunken behavior.

The president and the prime minister are no longer speaking, though they
were once allies and heroes of the Orange Revolution, which brought a
pro-Western government to power in 2005. The spirit of that uprising has
apparently been squandered in a country that seems permanently gripped
by political paralysis.

The public appears so frustrated that the leader of the opposition, who
has close ties to the Kremlin and is often portrayed as the villain of
the Orange Revolution, is the early favorite to win the presidential
election next January.

The mood here is reflected in the popularity of a video clip that has
been viewed hundreds of thousands of times in recent days. It shows the
prime minister, Yulia V. Tymoshenko, who once enthralled Ukraine with
her rousing slogans and peasant-braid-as-tiara hairstyle, just before
she was to give a televised speech this month.

Her teleprompter suddenly malfunctions, and she snaps, ''It's all
gone.''

Ms. Tymoshenko was referring to her text, but her words -- which can
also be translated as, ''Everything's fallen apart'' -- have been viewed
as something of an epitaph for her political movement.

The deadlock has led the major European nations to voice growing alarm
that Ukraine is incapable of dealing with its disintegrating economy.

They fear that an economic collapse here could reverberate throughout
the former Soviet bloc and beyond.

On Wednesday, the foreign ministers of Germany and Poland made an
unusual joint visit to the capital, Kiev. The German, Frank-Walter
Steinmeier, declared that he was ''extremely worried'' about Ukraine,
suggesting that its politicians must stop feuding if they wanted more
assistance.

European officials also warned that Ukraine had fallen drastically
behind on its preparations for serving as a host of the European soccer
championship in 2012, and risked losing the event.

The major cabinet posts are unfilled in part because Ms. Tymoshenko and
the president, Viktor A. Yushchenko, cannot agree on replacements. Ms.
Tymoshenko used Parliament to dismiss the defense and foreign ministers,
who are nominated by the president.

Behind the scenes, the president's associates have contended that Ms.
Tymoshenko is untrustworthy and has Machiavellian designs on power. Her
side has responded that the president is a bumbling politician who is
jealous of her charisma and public support.

Optimists in Kiev said the situation had worsened largely because the
political class was jockeying before the presidential election, and they
pointed out that the country's leaders had always found a way to pull
back from the brink. For example, they agreed on budget measures to
comply with a $16.4 billion bailout from the International Monetary
Fund.

Whatever the discord, Ukraine is more free than most former Soviet
republics, with a relatively uncontrolled news media and a far less
repressive security apparatus.

Still, things have unquestionably soured. The popularity of President
Yushchenko, who achieved worldwide attention during the Orange
Revolution when his face was scarred in an attempted poisoning that
remains unsolved, has sunk into the low single digits, and he is given
little chance of winning re-election.

Mr. Yushchenko has been chided by even his own advisers for a lackluster
bearing that has turned off the public, and it was in evidence this
month at a nationally televised news conference.

He began with a statement that ground on for half an hour and was spoken
without notable intensity, even when he attacked Ms. Tymoshenko.

Relations between the two have so deteriorated that Ms. Tymoshenko even
tried this month to build a coalition with an Orange Revolution foe,
Viktor F. Yanukovich, a former prime minister who leads the opposition
in Parliament. That effort imploded in a cacophony of charges and
countercharges.

Ukraine's last finance minister, Viktor M. Pynzenyk, who is widely
respected, acknowledged in an interview that the government had become
hopelessly dysfunctional.

Mr. Pynzenyk said the politicians' refusal to face up to the financial
crisis with proper austerity measures had clearly worsened matters, and
said they were running enormous deficits to pander to voters. He said he
resigned because it was impossible to conduct the country's fiscal
affairs.

''People are disillusioned not with the Orange Revolution, but with the
politicians,'' Mr. Pynzenyk said.

He assailed the recent attempt by Ms. Tymoshenko to ally with Mr.
Yanukovich. She had sought to amend the Constitution so that the
president would be chosen by Parliament, not popularly elected.

Under their deal, Mr. Yanukovich would have been president and Ms.
Tymoshenko would have occupied a strengthened post of prime minister. At
the last moment, Mr. Yanukovich backed out.

''In my opinion, what happened in the last month represented a threat to
establish an authoritarian regime,'' Mr. Pynzenyk said. ''Power has
become the goal, and this is a very dangerous path.''

Ukraine has earned so much attention because it is one of the largest
countries in Europe, with 46 million people, and serves as a vital
transportation point for natural gas from Russia. Ukraine's fractious
politics have helped to strain relations with Russia, which has shut the
flow of gas in payment disputes twice in recent years.

After the Orange Revolution, Ukraine was held up as an example of how
countries, whether post-Soviet or elsewhere, could move past
authoritarianism. But the problems here are now cited by Russian
officials as evidence of what awaits countries that embrace a Western
democratic model.

While Ms. Tymoshenko's standing may have been damaged in recent weeks,
she is considered a highly skillful politician who has mounted comebacks
before, and polls indicate that she would be competitive with Mr.
Yanukovich in the next presidential election.

Hryhoriy M. Nemyria, a deputy prime minister and Tymoshenko adviser,
said Ms. Tymoshenko's plan to change the Constitution was needed because
lines of authority between the president and the prime minister were
vague and bred conflict. Ukraine would be better off with a
parliamentary system like Germany's, he said.

He said Ms. Tymoshenko would be a formidable force in the election.
''The thing she is definitely not lacking is leadership skills,'' he
said. ''That is something that might be in great deficit in some of the
other candidates.''

Oles Doniy, a young member of Parliament who was active in the Orange
Revolution and supported the president, said he believed that Ukrainians
would not shy away from taking part in the presidential campaign,
despite recent events.

''People are tired, not of politics, but of all these characters and
their style of behavior,'' he said. ''But they are not tired of
democracy.'' 

 

Associated Press

Ukraine presidential vote set for Jan. 17 

23 June 2009

08:13

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukraine's parliament has set Jan. 17 as the date
for the politically turbulent nation's next presidential election.

The legislators did that Tuesday, ending a dispute among rival
politicians over the timing of what's likely to be a hard-fought
contest.

Parliament initially scheduled the vote for Oct. 25, but President
Viktor Yushchenko challenged that date. The Constitutional Court agreed
and ordered the election be held in January.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and other Yushchenko rivals wanted an
earlier vote.

Analysts say Tymoshenko fears the economic crisis is eroding her
popularity; opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych wants to capitalize on
public resentment. Meanwhile, parliament Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn says
he'll also bid for the presidency.

Eurasia Daily Monitor 

http://www.jamestown.org/programs/edm/

June 23, 2009-Volume 6, Issue 120

U.S. led "Sea Breeze" Combined Exercise Canceled in Ukraine

On June 22 Ukrainian Naval Headquarters confirmed unofficially that the
country's political deadlock has doomed the multinational military
exercise Sea Breeze-2009. According to the Ukrainian headquarters
sources, the U.S. Armed Forces European Command (EUCOM) and the U.S.
Sixth Fleet notified Ukraine's defense ministry on June 17 officially
that foreign military units had to cancel their participation because
the Ukrainian parliament failed to authorize the entry of such units on
the national territory for Sea Breeze-2009 (UNIAN, Ukrayinska Pravda,
June 22).

This exercise has been held annually since 1997 (except 2006) on
Ukraine's Black Sea coast and at sea as well as at the Shirokyi Lan base
in Mykolayiv oblast. Sea Breeze is a joint and combined naval, ground,
and air exercise, U.S.-led and mainly U.S.-financed, lasting two weeks
in July. It normally involves more than 2,000 military personnel from
about fifteen NATO members and partner countries by invitation. The
exercise is designed to enhance multinational interoperability
-particularly with Ukrainian forces- by practicing operational
information sharing, maritime interdiction, boarding and seizure of
suspect ships, anti-submarine operations, mine countermeasures, diving
missions, amphibious landings, urban warfare,
improvised-explosive-device detection and disposal, paratroops'
landings, air warfare, and peacekeeping elements. Some of the combat
training phases include live-fire practice. Naval, air, and ground force
elements from the participant countries perform tasks together as part
of Sea Breeze, using each other's equipment in some cases.

Sea Breeze-2009 had been envisioned as the largest exercise ever in this
series, according to Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Navy
Vice-Admiral Ihor Tenyukh. It was planned to include practice of
anti-piracy operations as a major new element in this year's Sea Breeze.
The Ukrainian navy was looking forward to the anti-piracy phase of the
exercise, preparatory to Ukrainian participation in NATO-led missions
against Somali pirates (UNIAN, June 22).

Under Ukraine's constitution and legislation, the entry of foreign
military units on the national territory requires legislative approval
in each case. Traditionally, the government prepares and the president
submits annually to the Verkhovna Rada a list of international military
exercises to be held in the given year in Ukraine, requesting
parliamentary approval in the form of a special law. President Viktor
Yushchenko duly submitted the draft law to enable the holding of Sea
Breeze-2009 and other exercises on April 24. The Verkhovna Rada,
however, stalled and ultimately declined to consider the draft law as
late as June 12 (Interfax-Ukraine, June 12, 13). Five days later, with
time running out for holding Sea Breeze in July, its cancellation became
inevitable.

Sea Breeze was aborted also in 2006 for lack of parliamentary approval.
In that year, Yushchenko failed to request parliamentary approval for
the holding of Sea Breeze. The president apparently did not want this
issue to spoil the political coalition he was negotiating with Party of
Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych at that time, nominating Yanukovych as
prime minister. Seemingly unsuspecting U.S. troops landed in the Crimea
without the necessary parliamentary authorization, sparking vociferous
protests by local Russian nationalist and leftist groups (with
significant reinforcements from outside the Crimea). These exploited to
the hilt the opportunity to pose as defenders of the Ukrainian
constitution and laws. U.S. troops were blocked inside hostels by
protesters while the U.S. military cargoes were sequestered on arrival
by local port authorities. Local police in the Crimea and central
authorities in Kyiv were powerless to change the situation. Then U.S.
President George W. Bush was also forced to abort his scheduled visit to
Ukraine at the same time. Russian television channels propagandized the
protests, so as to encourage participation in them.

The center of gravity of Sea Breeze was moved to the Odessa region in
2007 and 2008 to avoid another outbreak of anti-NATO sentiment among
Crimean Russians. The protests were manageable in these cases. Although
originating in the overall framework of NATO's Partnership for Peace
program, Sea Breeze is not a NATO exercise. It is, rather, a joint
Ukraine-U.S. exercise, to which other countries are invited to
participate. Oblivious to such distinctions, local protesters and their
handlers use the opportunity to demonize NATO.

The Verkhovna Rada's failure to approve the entry of troops for this
year's exercise reflects a deepening crisis of institutions in Ukraine.
The posts of defense minister (and one deputy minister), foreign affairs
minister, finance minister, and other government posts are vacant due to
infighting among political forces. Ukraine's financial crisis threatens
the funding of the country's international military cooperation programs
with a near-freeze. Inaction pending yet another round of elections is
impairing Ukraine's capacity at this time to advance however
incrementally toward ultimate NATO membership.

 

--Vladimir Socor





 

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