NEWSBRIEFS

Lutsenko launches public movement

KYIV - Yurii Lutsenko, who was dismissed from the post of internal affairs minister earlier this month, announced the creation of a new public movement called the People's Self-Defense in Kyiv on December 20, Ukrainian media reported. Mr. Lutsenko said the basic goal of the movement will be to counter a comeback of "Kuchmism" in Ukraine, that is, the authoritarian system of power that was characteristic of the era of President Leonid Kuchma (1994-2004). "[We see] a massive comeback of the [power] system and comrades-in-arms of Mr. Kuchma," Mr. Lutsenko said, accusing the ruling coalition and the Cabinet of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych of the "usurpation of power." He added, "The usurper is not an individual, as Kuchma was, but a collective - the Anti-Crisis Coalition." Mr. Lutsenko, who was an iconic leader of the 2004 Orange Revolution, is widely seen as a staunch supporter of President Viktor Yushchenko. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Rada amends 2007 budget

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada on December 19 amended the 2007 budget bill that was vetoed by President Viktor Yushchenko last week, Ukrainian media reported. Mr. Yushchenko refused to sign the budget bill, demanding increases in minimum monthly wages and pensions. The amended bill reportedly does not take into account most suggestions made by Mr. Yushchenko. Arsenii Yatseniuk, first deputy head of the Presidential Secretariat and the presidential representative in the government, said the president could veto the amended budget again. "If the budget today exceeds 160 billion hrv ($32 billion) and we cannot find 800 million [hrv] by redistributing expenditures from other programs that are not socially oriented at all, then the question is, what does the country work for and what does the economy work for? The president's proposals to help the least protected strata of the population were not considered. This budget should not be signed," Mr. Yatseniuk told journalists. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Tarasyuk kept out of Cabinet meeting

KYIV - A scuffle occurred on December 20 between the Party of the Regions and Our Ukraine deputies, when Regions deputies prevented Foreign Affairs Minister Borys Tarasyuk from entering the session hall of the Cabinet of Ministers. Deputies from the Regions Party barred entrance to the foreign minister, demanding that he follow them for a "talk." Mr. Tarasyuk argued that he should be allowed at the meeting because a court ruling had suspended the Verkhovna Rada resolution on his dismissal, and the president had decreed that he remains in his post. Nevertheless, the minister was not admitted to the session hall. Mr. Tarasyuk told journalists that would challenge these moves via the Procurator General's Office and added that he will come to the next session in the company of officers of the court. (Ukrinform)

Yatseniuk walks out in protest

KYIV - The first deputy head of the Presidential Secretariat, Arsenii Yatseniuk, left a Cabinet of Ministers meeting in protest to the barring of Foreign Affairs Minister Borys Tarasyuk. "I tried to persuade the government to admit Tarasyuk to the Cabinet session, but I failed," Mr. Yatseniuk said. He emphasized that the government is obliged to adhere to court rulings. (Ukrinform)

PM says regions will adopt budget

KYIV - "If President Viktor Yushchenko does not sign the state budget for 2007 that the Parliament approved on Tuesday, the budgetary document will be initiated by regions," Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych said in Chernivtsi on December 19. "The process of adopting the budget will most likely start in the regions, and a full stop can be put to it," he added, stressing that certain regions even dreamt of the budget first being adopted on the local level and then consolidated in the center. He said the state budget that the Parliament adopted on December 19 is a compromise budget. "It is the latest step by the government and the Parliament to reach a compromise. If we again fail to receive a positive response, we will think of what to do next," Mr. Yanukovych said. He added that local and regional authorities are satisfied with the latest version of the state budget for 2007. "If it suits the regions and suits the government, I believe there are no grounds not to sign it," Mr. Yanukovych said. He noted that Mr. Yushchenko vetoed the state budget for 2007 on December 11 and returned it to the Parliament with his own proposed changes. The Parliament failed in an attempt to override the veto on December 15 and decided to redraft it. (Ukrinform)

PM accuses president of not cooperating

KYIV - Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych said on December 18 that the Presidential Secretariat is avoiding working with the government on the state budget for 2007, Interfax reported. President Viktor Yushchenko recently vetoed the 2007 budget bill and proposed that the Verkhovna Rada amend it to incorporate suggestions from the Presidential Secretariat. "Regretfully, over the past weekend the Finance Ministry was working without the participation of the Presidential Secretariat," Mr. Yanukovych said. "I don't want us to build policy [based] on speculation about who loves the people the most - I would rather that we did proper work and then the citizens appreciated it," he added. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Yulia offers help in resolving crisis

KYIV - Yulia Tymoshenko, the head of the eponymous opposition bloc in the Verkhovna Rada, offered on December 18 to help resolve what she described as the "full-scale political crisis" in Ukraine, Interfax reported the same day. "The opposition wants to take a specific role - to be the initiator of the settlement of the crisis," Ms. Tymoshenko said. She cited the absence of a 2007 budget and "complete chaos in the law enforcement bodies" as signs of a crisis, adding that the Internal Affairs Ministry is "at war with the Presidential Secretariat" over the positions of vice ministers. Ms. Tymoshenko urged Verkhovna Rada Chairman Oleksander Moroz to call a meeting of caucus leaders where the opposition could suggest ways to resolve the crisis. She also urged Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and President Viktor Yushchenko to join the talks. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Crimea holds 'referendum' on NATO

SYMFEROPOL - The Ukrainian Communist Party on December 16 organized in Crimea a "public referendum" asking respondents "whether you agree with the political course of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko on joining NATO," Interfax reported. According to Ukrayinska Pravda, around 900,000 Crimean voters took part in the referendum, and 98 percent of them answered "no" to that question. According to organizers, voters were able to cast their ballots at 1,200 polling stations in Crimea. The ballot papers were reportedly handed out without conducting identity checks, and it is also unclear how voters were registered. "Communists are alarmed at what is going on in Ukraine," said Leonid Hrach, the leader of the Crimean Communist Party. "Neither the president, the defense minister nor the foreign minister have powers to set the course of foreign policy, especially concerning NATO." Yaroslav Davydovych, head of the Central Election Commission, said the same day that conducting a "public referendum" constituted a political move without legal grounds. The previous day, the office of the Ukrainian president in Crimea asked the Justice Ministry to provide a legal assessment of the action. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Zvarych: NATO action plan comes first

KYIV - Roman Zvarych, the Ukrainian president's representative in the Verkhovna Rada, has said that any referendum on Ukraine joining NATO should be held after an Membership Action Plan for joining NATO is signed, Interfax reported on December 15. "Until the agreement is signed, it's impossible to determine what requirements NATO will ask of us," Mr. Zvarych said, adding that Ukrainian voters should understand what conditions NATO is offering Ukraine. According to Mr. Zvarych, there are as yet no procedures in place for holding such a referendum in Ukraine. (RFE/RL Newsline)

President insists on retaining Tarasyuk

KYIV - President Viktor Yushchenko told a news conference with foreign correspondents in Kyiv on December 14 that he does not recognize the dismissal of Foreign Affairs Minister Borys Tarasyuk by Parliament on December 1, the Ukrayinska Pravda website reported. "Any legal expert will tell you that if the president submits a candidate for foreign minister to Parliament for approval, it is also the president who initiates the discharge of this minister," Mr. Yushchenko said. The Constitution of Ukraine, while giving the president the right to nominate the foreign affairs minister, does not specify who should propose a motion to dismiss him/her from the post. "Borys Ivanovych Tarasyuk is performing his duties as foreign minister. I have rejected an initiative from Prime Minister [Viktor Yanukovych] to change [Tarasyuk]," President Yushchenko stressed. (RFE/RL Newsline)

President accuses PM of provoking conflict

KYIV - President Viktor Yushchenko also admitted to foreign correspondents in Kyiv on December 14 that his relations with Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych are bad, Reuters reported. "I agree that relations between the president and the prime minister are becoming more of a conflict. But I want to stress that I was not an author of this conflict," Mr. Yushchenko said. The president also charged that his rivals in the government are trying to seize all executive power. "A new team has come. The feeling is that the entire world is under their feet, that they can do whatever they want from morning until night. There is a desire for revenge, to see everybody defeated," Mr. Yushchenko noted. "[But] they will not make the president change his position," he added. (RFE/RL Newsline)

President visits South Korea

SEOUL - President Viktor Yushchenko arrived on December 18 on a state visit to the Republic of Korea. An official meeting between President Yushchenko and his wife, Kateryna, with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and First Lady Kwon Yang-sook was held at Seoul's Presidential Palace. Following the official ceremony, the two leaders opened Ukraine-South Korea talks, involving Foreign Affairs Minister Borys Tarasyuk, Defense Minister Anatolii Hrytsenko, Economy Minister Volodymyr Makukha, Ukraine's Ambassador to South Korea Yurii Mushka, UkrSpetsExport Director General Serhii Bondarchuk, National Space Agency First Deputy Director General Valerii Komarov and the head of the Verkhovna Rada Group for Parliamentary Relations with South Korea, National Deputy Serhii Larin. Two bipartite agreements were signed: one on defense cooperation and another on peaceful exploration of space. The two presidents presided over talks focusing on trade, investment, military, scientific, space, transport, humanitarian, educational and cultural issues. Both praised economic cooperation between Ukraine and South Korea, noting that the turnover reached $851 million (U.S.) in 2005. The parties agreed that a Korean delegation will soon visit Ukraine to reinforce military ties between the two countries. The two leaders also agreed to start operating regularly scheduled flights between Kyiv and Seoul. They also discussed ways to liberalize visa rules and recognize educational diplomas and scientific ranks, and spoke about ethnic Koreans living in Ukraine, especially on how to regulate their social status and improve their living standards. (Ukrinform)

Chicago exhibition 'reopens' Ukraine

KYIV - According to Vice Prime Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk, who led an official delegation to the Ukrainian national exhibition in Chicago on December 14 -16, the exhibition has re-opened Ukraine to American partners. In a December 18 interview with Ukrinform's correspondent in Washington, Mr. Tabachnyk noted that he connects rising interest by investors toward the Ukrainian economy with the perspective of ending the moratorium on agricultural land sales in 2008. Mr. Tabachnyk stressed that the private sector dominated at the exhibition's computer and hi-tech areas, while engineering was represented by such powerful corporations as public joint-stock companies Motor-Sich, Kyiv Radar Works, Burevestnik Works, KievPribor and the holding company Artem. These companies brought several interesting projects, in particular a meteorological radar, which is far better than British and American samples, the Ukrainian delegation head said. (Ukrinform)

Yushchenko seeks resolution of his case

KYIV - President Viktor Yuschenko has called on the Procurator General's Office to conclude its investigation of the case surrounding his poisoning in 2004, when he was a presidential candidate. Mr. Yushchenko told a press conference in Kyiv on December 14 that there was sufficient evidence to detain the suspects in the case. He promised to act "very correctly" in "forcing this institution to do what it should do by law." He expressed his personal desire to see the people responsible punished. According to him, expert examinations have concluded that the dioxin that was used to poison him could only have been brought to Ukraine because only three laboratories in the world are capable of producing it. As Ukrinform earlier reported, international experts have established that the dioxin that was used to poison Mr. Yuschenko could have been produced only in the United States, Russia or Great Britain. (Ukrinform)

Yanukovych visits Kazakhstan

ASTANA, Kazakhstan - Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine visited Kazakhstan on December 14 and met with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev and Prime Minister Daniyal Akhmetov in Astana for talks focused on joint projects, news agencies reported. Messrs. Akhmetov and Yanukovych said the two countries will "study Ukrainian companies' possibilities that may help implement Kazakhstan's plans to build nuclear power plants and electricity-generating and transport infrastructure facilities on its territory," Interfax-Kazakhstan reported. After their meeting, Mr. Nazarbaev announced that Ukraine will supply Kazakhstan with two AN-148s, a new regional jet, in 2007, Interfax-AVN reported. Finally, Mr. Akhmetov said that bilateral trade volume is set to total $1.5 billion in 2006, after reaching just over $1 billion in 2005, ITAR-TASS reported. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Yushchenko seeks dialogue on Constitution

KYIV - President Viktor Yushchenko has suggested to the Parliament and the Cabinet to start an open constructive dialogue on improving the Constitution of Ukraine. Otherwise, he said he could not rule out revocation of the constitutional reform adopted on January 1 of this year. Mr. Yushchenko, speaking at a press conference on December 14, said the constitutional amendments, which were passed in December 2004 and took effect at the start of this year, were not constructive and aggravated relations among the power branches, making them inefficient. "The situation needs immediate rectification. I stand for nationwide, open and public initiative," the president said. Mr. Yushchenko said the current situation runs the risk of Ukraine returning to an authoritarian regime. The president also did not rule out holding a referendum on the political reform. (Ukrinform)

Rada rejects SBU chief's dismissal

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada on December 13 failed to approve the dismissal of Ihor Drizhchanyi from the post of chief of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Interfax-Ukraine reported. The motion was supported by 184 deputies, with at least 226 votes necessary for its approval. Raisa Bohatyriova, head of the parliamentary caucus of the ruling Party of the Regions, denied the allegation from a journalist that the vote on Mr. Drizhchanyi was the ruling coalition's "revenge" on President Viktor Yushchenko for his recent veto of the 2007 budget bill. President Yushchenko dismissed Mr. Drizhchanyi last month and earlier this month appointed him deputy secretary of the National Defense and Security Council. Under the Constitution of Ukraine, the nomination and discharge of the SBU chief by the president must be approved by the Verkhovna Rada. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Socialists elect new faction leader

KYIV - At a December 12 session of the parliamentary faction of the Socialist Party of Ukraine, National Deputy Ivan Bokyi was elected the faction's chairman. As reported on December 1 the Verkhovna Rada appointed Vasyl Tsushko, former chief of the SPU faction, as internal affairs minister. (Ukrinform)

Yushchenko honors Canadians

OTTAWA - The Embassy of Ukraine in Canada has announced that on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of Canada's recognition of the independence of Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko, by Decree No. 1027/2006 dated December 4, awarded the former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney the Order Yaroslav the Wise "for his defining personal role in Canada's recognition of the independence of Ukraine and considerable contribution in the development of Ukrainian-Canadian relations." In addition, by Decree No. 1028/2006 dated December 4, the president awarded the first vice-president of the Ukrainian World Congress, Eugene Czolij, the Order of Merit "for his considerable personal contribution to the development of Ukrainian-Canadian relations." (Embassy of Ukraine in Canada)

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, December 24, 2006, No. 52, Vol. LXXIV

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