New government announces measures to improve relations with Russia (08/13/06)

New government announces measures to improve relations with Russia

by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Pro-Russian politicians took control of Ukraine's key government posts and announced measures to improve ties with the Russian Federation after the Verkhovna Rada voted August 4 to affirm Viktor Yanukovych as Ukraine's prime minister.

While Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has portrayed the new government as a diverse body in which political forces made compromises, Party of the Regions leaders made clear that reaffirming Ukraine's relations with the Russian Federation was a priority not up for concession.

Without doubt, Ukrainians can count on a warming of relations with the Russian Federation, said Mykola Azarov, who has returned as Ukraine's first vice prime minister and minister of finance.

"We will have to untangle those knots which were artificially tied in the previous governments, particularly in 2005," Mr. Azarov said in an August 8 statement.

"We will begin to examine all conflicting situations which emerged with Russia in the last year and a half. We will examine to what extent these things are well-grounded and how much they impede our relations in general," he said.

As his symbolic first foreign trip, Mr. Yanukovych announced on August 10 that he will travel to Moscow between August 15 and August 17 to visit Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin.

Mr. Putin called Mr. Yushchenko, and then later Mr. Yanukovych, to congratulate them on their ability to find compromise and end Ukraine's political crisis.

Among Mr. Yanukovych's top priorities in Moscow will be to possibly renegotiate Ukraine's national gas agreements with Russia so that they are transparent and meet international norms, he said.

He was confident that he would obtain the "optimal price" for natural gas on behalf of Ukrainians.

"We won't be working [any]more for any nation, only Ukraine," Mr. Yanukovych said. "Our politics won't be pro-Russian, or pro-Western."

Employing the same refrain just days earlier was Borys Tarasyuk, who has remained Ukraine's minister of foreign affairs in Mr. Yanukovych's government.

During an August 8 press conference, Mr. Tarasyuk was careful to stress that the Ukrainian government would not be favoring Europe or the Russian Federation in its foreign policy.

Reflecting the Universal of National Unity signed on August 3, Mr. Tarasyuk said Ukraine's foreign policy has remain unchanged, and that it will continue to pursue integration with both the Brussels-based European Union and the Moscow-centered Single Economic Space.

Mr. Yanukovych raised eyebrows when mentioning that Ukraine may not achieve World Trade Organization (WTO) membership until 2007, a position contrary to Mr. Tarasyuk's goal of entering the organization this year.

The prime minister's statement may be an attempt to placate the Russian Federation, which has explicitly stated it wants to enter the WTO simultaneously and alongside Ukraine, a position which has recently won the support of the U.S. government.

The emphasis on Ukrainian-Russian relations was inevitable after Donetsk politicians managed to recapture control of the Ukrainian government following their successful formation of the Anti-Crisis Coalition consisting of the Party of the Regions, the Communists and the Socialists.

Mr. Yanukovych officially became prime minister at an August 4 evening vote in the Verkhovna Rada, in which 271 national deputies affirmed his nomination as prime minister.

Among them were 30 national deputies from the Our Ukraine bloc who took Mr. Yushchenko's lead, as well as six from the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, who abandoned their leader's stance.

Party of the Regions, Socialist and Communist national deputies were virtually unanimous in their support of Mr. Yanukovych.

After a standing ovation and receiving a bouquet of roses, Mr. Yanukovych immediately presented a list of the nominations for the 24-member Cabinet of Ministers, which the Parliament approved with 269 national deputies voting in favor.

Among them, at least eight are Party of the Regions members, at least five belong to the Our Ukraine bloc and two represent the Socialist Party of Ukraine.

Among Mr. Yanukovych's circle of Donetsk insiders returning to government were Vice Prime Minister for Fuel and Energy Issues Andrii Kliuyev, Vice Prime Minister for Construction, Architecture and Residential-Communal Management Volodymyr Rybak and Minister of Coal Industry Serhii Tulub.

Another Donetsk native but member of the Ne Tak! Bloc, Yurii Boika, became minister of fuel and energy.

Although Mr. Yushchenko said the National Unity Coalition would end any discussion of federalism in Ukraine, Mr. Rybak began advocating what he called "budgetary federalism" in his first press conference as minister.

Mr. Rybak called for de-centralizing budgetary financing and administration in Ukrainian government, and increasing federal financing of city budgets from 40 percent to 50 percent.

"Above all, I support regional politics," Mr. Rybak said. "And we should understand that Ukraine will improve through its regions. The faster people in regions feel a better life, the wealthier Ukraine will become."

Among the more surprising names to emerge in Mr. Yanukovych's Cabinet of Ministers is Roman Zvarych, who has returned as Ukraine's Minister of Justice a year after an embarrassing scandal that revealed he grossly exaggerated his resume.

Mr. Zvarych was born in Yonkers, N.Y., in 1953 to Ukrainian immigrant parents.

He was active in the Ukrainian-American community before immigrating to Ukraine and successfully running for office in the Ukrainian Parliament.

"I hope that Zvarych, as an expert with definite global experience, will direct the Ministry (of Justice) towards cooperation with the government and other branches of power," Mr. Yanukovych said.

Mr. Zvarych told reporters that the Ministry of Justice's work under his leadership will be irreproachable.

Though Mr. Yushchenko managed to convince 30 National Deputies of his Our Ukraine bloc to vote for Mr. Yanukovych, including Mr. Zvarych, 50 didn't vote in favor, revealing the first cracks in what political observers believe will be the inevitable demise of that political force.

The Christian-Democratic Union, one of six political parties that formed the Our Ukraine bloc, announced on August 8 that it would not join any coalition government that includes Communists and Socialists.

"Christian Democrats can't join with Communists out of principal ideological understandings, and the betraying position of the Socialists, which led to the democratic coalition's collapse, closes the road to cooperation between our political forces," the party's leadership announced in an August 8 statement.

After Mr. Yanukovych's confirmation as prime minister, Ms. Tymoshenko said she was confident the National Unity Coalition wouldn't hold together and Mr. Yushchenko would hold pre-term parliamentary elections.

Yurii Kostenko, leader of the Ukrainian People's Party, declared the formation of a "Patriotic Front" against the Yanukovych government that would unite all political forces in support of a "Ukrainian Ukraine."

Following the new Cabinet's formation, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor visited Makiyivka in the Donetsk Oblast as part of a humanitarian outreach.

"It was very pleasant to follow that process which recently took place in Ukraine, which was achieved by the nation and its people," Mr. Taylor said.

"Of course, these are very interesting and compelling times in Kyiv from a political point of view. And Donetsk now will play a very important role in the politics of the nation and Kyiv."

| Home Page |