Ukraine Today - An Independent Political Review

Submitted by Matt Jay on 6/13/2006 – 12:44 pm Publihsed by Publius Pundit Think back to March 26 2006. Belarussians were on the street protesting against Lukashenka, an Afghan Christian convert risked the death penalty, London Mayor Ken Livingstone had just called the U.S Ambassador a ‘chiseling little crook’, and the Commonwealth games had just concluded. Whilst some sort of closure has been brought to all of those events, one news story from the week wrangles on . Ukraine went to the ballot box 4 months ago – a government has still yet to be formed. For those of you who have not been following the story, it will not take long to explain the events of March, April, May and June. The results yielded a Parliament, as expected, with ex-Kuchma ally Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions the biggest seat holder (186 MP’s). In Second, Third and Fourth place came Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko, Our Ukraine (President Yushchenko’s party) and the Socialists. The three parties held 129...

Interfax-Ukraine reports Yushchenko as saying there will not be a rerun Parliamentary election. This send the wrong signals given that the President's Our Ukraine Party have just stated that negotiations on the formation of an Orange coalition have failed. Could Ukraine become a dictatorship with Yushchenko at the helm? If there is no working coalition formed before June 25 then Ukraine will enter a catch 22 constitutional Crises leaving Victor Yushchenko and the former Government in control. As previously reported unless this situation is resolved quickly then Ukraine will begin to suffer economically. Ukraine will suffer a loss of confidence, the one thing business does not like is uncertainty. Our Ukraine appear to have been edging or trying to find excuses to not form a government. Their demand first for Yulia Tymoshenko to not be re-appointed Prime-minister failed to attract support, now they are looking to shift responsibility to the third coalition partner, The Socialists, ...

Ukrainian president's party: continuing coalition talks with Socialists is hopeless Jun 12 2006, 17:05 (AP) President Viktor Yushchenko's political party said Monday it saw no point in continuing talks with the Socialists on forming a governing coalition, possibly signaling the imminent collapse of 11 weeks of negotiations to reunite Ukraine's Orange Revolution allies. The sticking point has been the job of parliamentary speaker, which both Our Ukraine and the Socialists have demanded. "In connection with the Socialist Party's ultimatum relating to the post of parliamentary speaker, Our Ukraine considers future talks to form a coalition as pointless," Yushchenko's party said in a statement. The Socialists were "acting irresponsibility before the Ukrainian people," the party said. Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz, who is his party's candidate for the speaker's job, countered that Our Ukraine had constantly shifting conditions that se...

Our Ukraine place Ukrainian democracy in hold as they fail to negoitate a working coalition government.     Ukraine's coalition talks 'fail'   Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's party has said talks to form the so-called Orange Revolution government have "no prospect" of succeeding.   Our Ukraine (NU) party has been trying to form a coalition with the Socialists and the Yulia Tymoshenko bloc since the election in March. But the NU said the Socialists' demand to be given the post of parliamentary speaker caused the talks to break down. The three parties led the revolution in 2004 that swept Mr Yushchenko to power. "In connection with the Socialist Party's ultimatums about the post of speaker... Our Ukraine notes that further talks on the formation of a coalition have no prospect of ...

It is difficult to ascertain exactly what game play Our Ukraine are seeking having failed to secure support for the ousting of Yulia Tymochenko they are now seeking to de-rail the coalition agreement by going after the positions already allocated to the Socialist Party .   Media reports indicate that agreement has been reached which will see Yulia Tymochenko returned as Prime-Minister but ongoing infighting continues with Our Ukraine seeking the right to appoint the position of Speaker, denying the Socialists Party the right of securing this strategic spot.  Previous negotiations and agreements between Yulia Tymochenko bloc and the Socialist Party of Ukraine allocated the position of Speaker to the head of the Socialist Party .   Our Ukraine , which obtained less then 14% of the vote, already hold the influential and powerful position of President with the election of Viktor Yushchenko who was elected with the support of other coalition par...

Our concerns about the pending impact of delays in the formation of a parliamentary coalition government have been echoed in the analysts comments published in Kyiv Post . Overall I have found and consider Kyiv post to be a paper worth reading, their comments have been soundly based with minimal bias.  They seem to best understand Ukraine then the rhetoric that comes out of most western media that have no idea of what is really going on in Ukraine. We have decided to print in full this weeks comments.  past comments are also worth reading.    Stalled Rada talks hit consumer confidence in Ukraine by Roman Olearchyk, Kyiv Post Staff Writer Jun 08 2006, 01:49 Ongoing bickering between Ukraine’s leading political camps and their failure to form a coalition government in a timely fashion has triggered a drop in consumer confidence, according to analysts, who also fear that investor confidence could decrease if a shaky coalition government with poor relati...

Ukraine's Parliament met for 15 minutes yesterday (June 7) only to decide to adjourned for seven days to allow negotiations for the formation of a governing coalition. The cost of holding the 15 minute session must be considerable even in Ukrainian terms.  Accommodation, staff salaries and associated costs must rise into the thousands of dollars.    Last week Yulia Tymoshenko claimed that the coalition would be finalised in time for June 7. The date came and went.  If this situation happened in the west there would be a serious crises of confidence as uncertainty brings instability. In the meantime Ukraine continues on as if nothing really matters or they have learnt to just take what comes.  In the end they fell they have no real say in what happens. It's all in the lap of the gods so to speak.   Ukraine's President, Viktor Yushchenko, continues his ongoing never ending travel abroad visiting the Netherlands.  His advice to the n...

Polygot the way to go   If the ongoing language debate is anything to go by then this will certainly not be as straight forward as many would think.   A number of Eastern states (oblasts) have declared Russian as a second regional language. There is claims and counter claims that the adoption of a second language is contrary to Ukraine's constitution.  Others say it is in accordance with international treaties which protect the right of minority languages.     It is difficult to know which way the debate will turn as Ukraine has not constitutional court or history of such deliberations. Can the constitutional court re-write the constitution or add meaning to a document where there is no clear intention or direction?   Ukraine's constitution states that Ukrainian is the official language but does this prevent additional languages being adopted? Ukrainian can not be struck-out but there is nothing that states no other language...