ANALYSIS: Crimea facing another political crisis? (06/11/00)

ANALYSIS

Crimea facing another political crisis?

by Jan Maksymiuk
RFE/RL Poland, Belarus and Ukraine Report

PRAGUE - The 100-seat legislature of the Crimean Autonomous Republic on May 24 voted 68 to 20 to dismiss the peninsula's government led by Prime Minister Serhii Kunitsyn. An adopted resolution says the performance of the Crimean cabinet and its head has been unsatisfactory this year.

Ukraine's First Vice Prime Minister Yurii Yekhanurov commented the next day that the ouster of the Crimean Cabinet will destabilize the situation on the peninsula. "The economy is improving and positive trends are increasing, so the tension that took place [in Crimea] is quite absurd," Interfax quoted Mr. Yekhanurov as saying.

More harsh were comments by the chief of the presidential administration staff, Volodymyr Lytvyn, who said that President Leonid Kuchma has every reason "to cancel" the ouster of Mr. Kunitsyn's Cabinet. According to Mr. Lytvyn, the best solution would be for the Crimean Parliament to revoke its resolution on the Cabinet's ouster because of alleged violations of parliamentary procedures during the vote.

Mr. Lytvyn said: "[If the Crimean Parliament] fails to demonstrate its good will and understanding of the situation, Ukraine's president, within the framework of his powers, will do everything to ensure political stability in Crimea [and] to direct the work of the autonomous republic's authority bodies toward resolving economic problems, not political quarrels."

"The president has already acquired unpleasant experience in resolving such problems," Mr. Lytvyn added, in an apparent allusion to the abolition of the Crimean Constitution and the introduction of direct presidential rule in Crimea at the beginning of President Kuchma's first term in office.

It seems, however, that it will not be easy for Mr. Kuchma "to cancel" the Crimean Parliament's decision on Mr. Kunitsyn's dismissal. According to the Crimean constitution, the head of the Crimean government is appointed and dismissed with approval of the Ukrainian president. But if the Crimean prime minister is dismissed by a two-thirds majority (at least 67 votes), the president is obliged to approve such a dismissal unconditionally.

Mr. Lytvyn argued that the Constitution of Ukraine - which in his opinion is superior to all Crimean laws - does not include any provision on the unconditional dismissal of the Crimean prime minister. Mr. Lytvyn, however, had to admit that Ukrainian legislation is "contradictory and imperfect" in this particular case, adding that President Kuchma's possible cancellation of Mr. Kunitsyn's ouster should be submitted to the Constitutional Court for expertise.

Mr. Kunitsyn commented that the legislature dismissed him to protect patrons in the peninsula's energy sector from an anti-corruption drive he had launched. However, he mentioned no names. He also noted that there "were no economic arguments" against his government, stressing that his Cabinet had spurred industrial growth early this year and halved its debt to public sector workers.

The recent Cabinet dismissal is seen by some commentators as the culmination of the protracted standoff between Parliament Chairman Leonid Hrach, leader of the Crimean branch of the Communist Party of Ukraine, and Prime Minister Kunitsyn, who is supported by Kyiv and generally regarded as a reformer, even if a half-hearted one. President Kuchma's mediation will surely aim at retaining the uneasy balance of power between Mr. Hrach's pro-Moscow Communists and those in both the Parliament and the government who remain more or less loyal to Kyiv.

It has not been clear yet whether President Kuchma will surrender Mr. Kunitsyn and look for another man to head the Crimean Cabinet or seek Mr. Kunitsyn's reinstatement.

Jan Maksymiuk is the Belarus, Ukraine and Poland specialist on the staff of RFE/RL Newsline.

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