Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Everything 'noromalno' i.e. messy

It's just a few days after last Friday's agreement and squabbling has already broken out.

Yushchenko, at a press conference in Vinnitsa today, admitted there is a possibility that the political agreements made by him and Yanukovych could be broken.

He considers that the early elections to the VR will take place, but any dragging out matters would mean the political understandings already achieved will be lost. He emphasized that decision on the early elections are made by the President, not members of parliament.

Yanukovych admitted that setting the date for the elections, "was the most complex question."

The opposition are not happy with the format of the working group discussions.

Lutsenko's 'Narodna Samooborona' are demanding a public guarantee from NU on non-entry into PR-SPU coalition.

Narodna Samooborona wants to sign public a document with the democratic forces on the non-creation of coalition with the Party of Regions and Socialist Party of Ukraine, adding that at the moment these parties are not ready to give it such guarantees. They obviously think that the PoR/NU coalition is a possibility.

But NU leader Vyacheslav Kirilenko declared that after the parliamentary elections, the only coalition for them would be a coalition of democratic forces, and there would be no place for PoR amonst participants in such a coalition.

Only PoR VR fraction leader Raisa Bohatyryova sounded optimistic: "We made this step together with the president so that the opposition no longer dictate to him; [and in order to] tear away the president, as leader of the whole country, from the opposition. So that the president understands that the partnership with one of the powerful and strategic Ukrainian political parties, the one party of industrial Ukraine, the party of the industrial East, is predestined to be successful."

Leading PoR mouthpiece Taras Chornovil considers that most of the problems will be solved when the president and PM get together again in 2 or 3 days.

Everything 'noromalno' then.

Elections before, or after the summer holidays? - a tricky question. Yush has dug in for June or July, and PoR have already made concessions by putting simultaneous Presidential elections on the 'back-burner', so are unlikely to make more..Will the 'wheels drop off' this attempt to solve the crisis? [sorry for the bad attack of mixed metaphors]

p.s. Yesterday former president Kuchma made a rare public appearance together with former president Kravchuk and other 'prominenti', and took part in a public discussion: "Achieving stable development for Ukraine by overcoming the political crisis"

Coincidentally, I stumbled on this well-researched blog posting on Kuchma's corrupt involvement in one of Ukraine's most successful and profitable businesses - Kyivstar..

Makes you think...

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