Ukraine's Crisis to End all Crises

(page 2 of 4)

In September 2006 the government launched its program, which included an item regarding elevating the Russian language to the status of a second official language, in addition to Ukrainian, a move fiercely opposed by Yushchenko and his allies, including Tymoshenko.

By the end of the year Yanukovych�s government was pushing to remove two ministers loyal to Yushchenko: the pro-Western foreign minister, Borys Tarasiuk and Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, who was a key leader of the Orange Revolution. Yanukovych�s parliamentary majority voted both Tarasiuk and Lutsenko out of office on 1 December. Tarasiuk refused to recognize the decision, leading to unruly scuffles outside cabinet meetings he was physically prevented from attending. Lutsenko left his post quietly and, after several weeks, so did Tarasiuk.

Yanukovych�s coalition released a real bombshell against Yushchenko in January. With cooperation from Tymoshenko�s parliamentary faction, a draft law on the powers of the cabinet, which Yushchenko had already vetoed, was voted through with the two-thirds majority sufficient to overcome a second veto. Tymoshenko�s calculation in supporting this law, so important to her political opponents in the Party of Regions, was to help deepen the gulf between the president and prime minister, thereby moving Yushchenko ever closer to new elections. Her calculation proved to be correct.

The new law granted Yanukovych�s government sweeping powers of vetting local government officials appointed, according to the constitution, by the President. All presidential decrees issued by Yushchenko are now subject to counter-signing by the prime minister, in effect a veto power over the president�s signature. At the same time the law forbids the president as well as any presidential institution, such as the National Security and Defense Council, from "interfering" in any activities of the cabinet.

Yushchenko has consistently refused to recognize the legitimacy of the new cabinet law, alleging that it is unconstitutional. In addition, he has claimed a technical breach, namely, that the law contains a minor change from the version originally vetoed, which would render the text as passed a new draft and not a piece of legislation subject to a veto override. Formally, the law is in effect, but it is being ignored by the presidential secretariat and its fate awaits a resolution of the current standoff.

Ukraine�s pro-Western vector as set by Yushchenko has also suffered considerably under Yanukovych�s government. When Yanukovych visited Brussels last September, he said Ukraine was "not ready" for a NATO membership action plan, a statement which Yushchenko publicly criticized as "worrisome" and "mistaken."

Ukraine�s entry into the World Trade Organization, slated for late fall in 2006, has already been delayed twice and government officials now talk of late spring or early summer. Some politicians allied to Yushchenko believe that Yanukovych is deliberately delaying Ukraine�s entry in order to let Russia enter the WTO first. Such deference to Russia comes naturally to the pro-Russian Party of Regions, which favors close cooperation between the two governments even, as Yanukovych's opponents such as Tymoshenko claim, at the price of Ukraine�s national interests.

But the most serious initiative by Yanukovych directed against Yushchenko and the one relied on specifically in the presidential decree dissolving parliament, was what appears to be a planned campaign of weaning members of parliament from the opposition factions of Our Ukraine and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc.

According to two journalists from the online news agency Ukrayinska Pravda and Russia's Kommersant newspaper, the Party of Regions has for some time been implementing a deliberate and methodical system of enticing deputies to join the anti-crisis coalition.