"A dazzling display of the Russia-Ukraine friendship" Mr. Tkachenko, Chairman
of Verkhovna Rada, called a speech made by Speaker of the Russian State
Duma Gennady Seleznyov in the Ukrainian Parliament.
The Ukrainian deputies' reaction was expressed by yelling, applauding
and stamping their feet. And Seleznyov did his best.
He said that he welcomes conclusions and evaluations Tkachenko had made
during the August 23 grand meeting, concerning the fact that Russians were
alerted by the Ukrainian politicians' statements on the possibility of
joining NATO, as well as by Ukraine's delay to ratify the treaties on the
Black Sea fleet. These factors were called objective grounds for Russia
to drag out ratification of the Great Interstate Treaty.
The Russian Speaker also interfered a bit in Ukraine's domestic affairs:
"It may not be called a normal practice when parents are denied the right
to teach their children in their native language; the fact that some provisions
of the law on Education discriminating the Russian language had not been
adopted evoked in Russia a positive response; we would welcome Ukraine's
joining the alliance of Russia and Belarus".
As expected, the Leftists and the presidium met these statements on
their feet with applauds and shouts of "Friendship!", while the Rightists
chanted "Provocateurs!" and stamped their feet.
The contemporary history of Ukraine shows that nothing else but the
issues concerning language in particular, and an encroachment on sovereignty
in general can incite such a struggle between political forces in the parliament.
In other words, if Seleznyov had not made his visit it would have been
worth inventing. Or perhaps it was?
When Parliament prepares to discuss very serious issues related to executive
activity and intends to examine the problems related to the two budgets,
decrees and the government, then it is expedient to cause a split in it.
Serhiy Teryokhin said to The Day correspondent that "this visit
is absolutely irrelevant, it does not relate to any interstate events".
People's Deputy Ihor Yukhnovsky said that the Russian Speaker is more
interested in a split Ukrainian Parliament than in a united one because
it will never ratify three treaties on the Black Sea fleet, thus giving
the State Duma the grounds to suspend the ratification of the Great Treaty,
as they have done until now. So, the Russians completed their homework.
It is interesting, but the "Russian homework" may be considered an attempt
to export political crisis with shifting a center from one branch of power
to another. The Duma Chairman knows that such an action would face a cold
reception in Ukraine, as well as in any other country: from the Tahiti
islands to the Papuans. We can only be surprised by the lack of sense in
his attempts to humiliate the Ukrainian Parliament to such an extent.







