Ukraine in Focus, April 7 - 13
2008
The Democratic Initiatives Foundation is closely following the
political events in Ukraine in order to monitor the pre-election
promises of the country’s most powerful political forces that won
seats in parliament in the snap elections on September 30, 2007.
The monitoring is being conducted within the framework of the
“Where are politicians leading us?”
Monday, April 7
The 5th Assembly of the World Democratic Movement opened in Kyiv
and will last until Wednesday. Its participants will
attend seminars in which a report on the state of democracy in
different countries around the world will be presented. This is the
first time the Assembly has convened in Eastern Europe. The World
Democratic Movement was founded in 1999.
The signing of the political part of the new Enhanced
Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union, in which the
associated membership of Ukraine in the EU will be registered for
the first time, is planned for this September.
President Viktor Yushchenko announced this during his speech at the
5th Assembly of the World Democracy Movement. He pointed out that
France drafted such a proposal and submitted it to the head office
of the European Commission, which sent this draft to members of the
EU.
Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a threat that if
Ukraine becomes a member of NATO it could lose its status as a
unified state. The Russian newspaper Kommersant published
this statement that Putin made at a closed meeting of the
Russia-NATO Council with a reference to its inside source.
According to the newspaper’s information, Russia’s president hinted
that if NATO grants Georgia the right to join the Membership Action
Plan, Russia will recognize Abkhazia and Southern Ossetia bearing
on the Kosovo precedent, thereby creating a buffer zone between
NATO forces and Russia’s borders.
When the topic of discussion was Ukraine, Putin told U.S. President
George W. Bush: “Ukraine is not even a state! A part of its
territory is Eastern Europe, while a significant part of it was
donated by us.”
In short, Putin threatened that Russia could seize Crimea and
Eastern Ukraine, the newspaper wrote.
Tuesday, April 8
Today the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine’s parliament) reconvened after a
protracted hiatus. Recall that on April 1 the
parliamentarians postponed the work week due to VR Speaker Arseniy
Yatsenyuk’s visit to Russia as they failed to elect a vice speaker
to conduct a session of the parliament during the speaker’s
absence. The first order of the day in the VR is the socio-economic
issue and issues regulating Ukraine’s membership in the World Trade
Organization.
The Our Ukraine – People’s Self-defense faction requested
confirmation of information that Russian President Vladimir Putin
cast doubt on Ukraine’s territorial integrity. The leader
of the OUPSD faction Vyacheslav Kyrylenko addressed the parliament
with such a request. The OUPSD faction insists that the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of Ukraine appeal to Russia with a similar
inquiry.
Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov
confirmed information in an interview on the Russian radio station
Echo of Moscow that President Vladimir Putin spoke with U.S.
President George W. Bush about the territory of
Ukraine.
Lavrov explained that everything that is being done to force
Ukraine being pulled into NATO will not foster the achievement of
goals Russia has set for itself. Lavrov said that one of these
goals is helping Ukraine “to preserve its unity and become a stable
and strong state that lives in peace with all its neighbors.”
Wednesday, April 9
EU Commissioner of Foreign Policy and Security Javier Solana said
Ukraine is not sufficiently unified to become a part of the
West. Radio Svoboda reported that in Solana’s opinion this
is precisely the reason that the consideration of Ukraine’s joining
the EU Membership Action Plan was postponed. Solana said that the
reason for the adjustment of policy towards Ukraine at the
Bucharest summit was that its leaders must “be much more
constructive in their actions within the country”. Solana also
stressed that Ukraine’s economic growth, no matter how significant
it is, does not correspond to the country’s potential.
Thursday, April 10
The Verkhovna Rada ratified the protocol on Ukraine’s accession to
the WTO. This means that in 30 days Ukraine will become the 152nd
member of the World Trade Organization. A total of 411 of
450 deputies voted in favor of this decision. The only deputies
that voted against represent the Communist Party. Now the
government must draft a plan of adapting the national economy to
world market conditions within a month and appropriate money from
the national budget for membership dues. This will cost Ukraine
nearly UAH 2 million.
Chair of the Russian State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs
Aleksei Ostrovsky announced that Russia may reconsider the
ownership status of Crimea if Ukraine joins NATO. The
deputy feels that Russia has sufficient legal grounds to do so.
Ostrovsky is convinced that Ukraine and Georgia will not become
NATO members in the foreseeable future as they are not welcome in
the organization. Moreover, this issue will directly depend on
Russia’s position.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent its Russian
counterpart a communiqué in which it requested that it urgently
clarify Russia’s position on Crimea recently expressed by its
leaders. This is in response to the declaration of the
Russian president that “Ukraine is not even a state” and Russia’s
Ministry of Foreign Affairs that it is doing everything to prevent
Ukraine from joining NATO.
According to the data of the Territorial Election
Commission, 110 individuals have submitted their documents for
registration as contenders for Kyiv mayor. The Vitaliy
Klitschko Bloc was one of the first to announce its intentions of
its leader running for mayor. The current mayor Leonid
Chernovetskiy also submitted his ballot. According to sociological
data, these two candidates have the best chances of winning the
election.
Meanwhile, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc proposed its member Oleksandr
Turchynov for the mayor’s seat. The leaders of YTB say that
Turchynov will be the only candidate representing the country
democratic forces. Furthermore, Tymoshenko is not alarmed by the
forecasts of public opinion pollsters that Turchynov will come in
third behind Chernovetskiy and Klitschko. The former mayor of Kyiv
Oleksandr Omelchenko also put forth his candidacy. It is also
common knowledge that Tymoshenko and Yuriy Lutsenko of OU-PSD are
leaders of their blocs on the election lists to the Kyiv City
Council. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says he is not
running in the elections for mayor of Kyiv.
Friday, April 11
According to the general of the headquarters of Russia’s Armed
Forces Yuri Baluyevsky, Russia once again threatened Ukraine with
military actions should the latter be granted NATO
membership. Baluyevsky said: “These will not only be
military actions, but actions of a different nature.”
President Viktor Yushchenko called the leaders of
parliamentary factions to finish working on the concept of the
newly revised Constitution of the National Constitutional Council
by the end of April. Once this happens, Constitutional
changes must be processed in a draft law that to be considered by
the procedure stipulated in the Constitution: through the Verkhovna
Rada with the ruling of the Constitutional Court and via a
nationwide referendum for a final decision. The president insists
that such a scheme of Constitutional reform is the most democratic
and appealed to the leaders of political factions to take joint
actions on this matter.
Saturday, April 12
The Party of Regions nominated Vasyl Horbal as its candidate for
the mayor of Kyiv. This decision was made at a convention of the
Kyiv local organization of the Party of Regions.
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