Quotable notes (07/23/06)

Quotable notes

"More than 50 days have passed since the Verkhovna Rada convened for its first session. There has been no significant progress in forming a government and a coalition since then. For 50 days Ukrainian citizens have been watching leaders of factions fighting for portfolios and blackmailing one another. ...

"The president's right to disband Parliament is his last argument, which he will not hesitate to use if Parliament, leaders of political forces or every member of Parliament fail to wake up to their responsibility before Ukraine. But, as a head of state who realizes the price of the step, I hope that politicians will have enough wisdom to find a compromise by July 25 - the day when, according to the Constitution, the president will have the right to disband a paralyzed Parliament, which has failed to form a new government.

"I will not allow anarchy or chaos. I will not allow actions that would benefit forces working against Ukraine. I will not allow this country to be artificially torn in half by politicians. Neither the president nor the Ukrainian people will allow this to happen. Wisdom to us all."

- President Viktor Yushchenko in his weekly radio address to the people of Ukraine, July 15, as reported by the BBC Monitoring Service and published in Action Ukraine Report (July 16).

"... the 'broad coalition' is a broad grave of democracy, a broad grave of Ukrainian independence. That is why our political faction will not support any 'broad coalitions.' We will either become the coalition, or, if the law, the Constitution, allow it, we will definitely be in favor of holding an early election.

"... we are either in the opposition, and, importantly, an honest opposition that does not hedge, or we will fight honestly in new elections to make people understand that new elections will offer a new chance to purge based on the existing knowledge of politicians' true faces. ...

"I only want us to understand the following: either we throw Ukraine into the whirlpool of all that was happening 10 years ago under Kuchma, or we pool our strength and confidence and fight for Ukraine as everybody's heritage and life.

"And I also want to say the following: we are fighters. We will not leave either Ukraine or those who have supported us in such a peril. ..."

- Yulia Tymoshenko, speaking on the "Svoboda Slova" TV program on July 7 (translated for The Ukraine List by Olga Bogatyrenko).

"At the heart of the matter, a coup d'état occurred in Kyiv last week. Yet to this I immediately add that everything took place in accordance with the law. But the Verkhovna Rada is now controlled by Viktor Yushchenko's opponents, who are attempting to restrict his powers. At the very least, they will impose reforms which could deprive the head of state of influence on the governance of regional territories."

" [The Orangists] have been their own perpetrators at great length. The maidan guild fought each other rabidly from the Orange Revolution onwards. The greatest fault lies with President Viktor Yushchenko himself. He, as the rest of our elites, does not know how to lead politics in a contemporary and European fashion. Like his predecessor, Leonid Kuchma, Yushchenko wishes to be above the parties. Kuchma succeeded because he was a bandit. But since Yushchenko does not engage in ruthless banditry, he gradually lost influence over the course of events.

"Yushchenko essentially governed like a former Ukrainian hetman, i.e., with the assistance of his closest friends, since he trusts only them. And in the crucial moment, it was they who urged him to consent to Yulia Tymoshenko's appointment as prime minister, while the candidacy for the Rada chairman was given to Petro Poroshenko, Yushchenko's sponsor. Politics are always highly controversial. Yushchenko's entourage was counting on ongoing clashes between the erstwhile rivalries of Poroshenko and Tymoshenko in order to bolster the president's authority. And then they pushed the highly ambitious leader of the Socialist Party, Oleksander Moroz, to join the Party of the Regions. Thus, the Socialists broke off from the Orangists, which led to the government's demise. Moroz is the chairman, but as the ally of [Viktor] Yanukovych, who will most likely become prime minister.

- Myroslav Popovych, director of the Institute of Philosophy at the Ukrainian Academy of Science, in an interview with Waclaw Radziwinowicz of Gazeta Wyborcza of Poland on July 9 (translated for The Ukraine List by Jakub Krolczyk).

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